CATAPULTA for Arrows, Spears or Darts. Some of the spears, &c. thrown by these engines, are said to have been 18 feet long, and to have been thrown with such velocity as to take fire in their course.
Plate lxxii. fig. 2. A B C D is the frame that holds the darts or arrows, which may be of different numbers, and placed in different directions. E F is a large and strong iron spring, which is bent by a rope that goes over three pulleys, I, K, L; and is drawn by one or several men; this rope may be fastened to a pin at M. The rope, therefore, being set at liberty, the spring must strike the darts with great violence, and send them, with surprising velocity, to a great distance. This instrument differs in some particulars from the description we have of that of the ancients; principally in the throwing of several darts at the same time, one only being thrown by theirs.