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21st-century hunting compound crossbow. A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a prod, mounted horizontally on a main frame called a tiller, which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long gun. Crossbows shoot arrow-like projectiles called bolts or quarrels.
The crossbow as a weapon had been around long before Leonardo's designs. However, his designs made the weapon more advanced and why Leonardo's crossbows stands out. If a crossbow is designed with a narrower shaft and a tapered bolt, which adjusts the nocking of arrows, it greatly improves the airflow of the bow and the drag on arrows.
According to Japanese records, the Oyumi was different from the hand held crossbow also in use during the same time period. A quote from a seventh-century source seems to suggest that the Oyumi may have able to fire multiple arrows at once: "the Oyumi were lined up and fired at random, the arrows fell like rain". [1]
A bullet-shooting crossbow, also known as prodd, [1] pelletbow, ballester, stone bow, or rock-throwing crossbow, is a modified version of the classic crossbow. The bow was usually constructed with wood or steel, depending on the preference.
Arabic illustration showing a gunpowder arrow on the left, fireworks in the middle, and a midfa (fire lance or hand cannon) on the right, from Rzevuski MS, c. 1320-1350 [6] Two fire arrows (crossbow bolts). Southern Germany, ca. 15th century, with preserved incendiary mixture of charcoal, sulphur, saltpeter and textile on the shaft.
Large mounted crossbows known as "bed crossbows" were used as early as the Warring States period. Mozi described them as defensive weapons placed on top the battlements. The Mohist siege crossbow was described as humongous device with frameworks taller than a man and shooting arrows with cords attached so that they could be pulled back.
Arsenal of ancient mechanical artillery in the Saalburg, Germany; left: polybolos reconstruction by the German engineer Erwin Schramm (1856–1935). The polybolos (the name means "multi-thrower" in Greek [1]) was an ancient Greek repeating ballista, reputedly invented by Dionysius of Alexandria (a 3rd-century BC Greek engineer at the Rhodes arsenal, [2] [3]) and used in antiquity.
The 'flying crow with magic fire' winged rocket bomb from the Huolongjing, mid 14th century, compiled by Liu Bowen and Jiao Yu Depiction of rocket arrows, from the Huolongjing. The right arrow reads 'fire arrow' (huo jian), the middle is an 'dragon shaped arrow frame' (long xing jian jia), and the left is a 'complete fire arrow' (huo jian quan ...