Polybolos

, Germany; left: polybolos reconstruction by the German engineer Erwin Schramm (1856–1935) , Athens, Greece. The polybolos (the name means "multi-thrower" in Greek ) was an ancient Greek repeating ballista, reputedly invented by Dionysius of Alexandria (a 3rd-century BC Greek engineer at the Rhodes arsenal, ) and used in antiquity. The polybolos was not a crossbow since it used a torsion mechanism, drawing its power from twisted sinew-bundles. However the earlier and similar oxybeles employed a tension crossbow mechanism, before it was abandoned in favor of torsion. Philo of Byzantium ( 280 BC – 220 BC) encountered and described a weapon similar to the polybolos, a catapult that could fire again and again without a need for manual reloading. Philo left a detailed description of the gears that powered its chain drive (the oldest known application of such a mechanism ) and that placed bolt after bolt into its firing slot.

, Germany; left: polybolos reconstruction by the German engineer Erwin Schramm (1856–1935)]] , Athens, Greece.]] The polybolos (the name means "multi-thrower" in Greek ) was an ancient Greek repeating ballista, reputedly invented by Dionysius of Alexandria (a 3rd-century BC Greek engineer at the Rhodes arsenal, ) and used in antiquity. The polybolos was not a crossbow since it used a torsion mechanism, drawing its power from twisted sinew-bundles. However the earlier and similar oxybeles employed a tension crossbow mechanism, before it was abandoned in favor of torsion. Philo of Byzantium ( 280 BC – 220 BC) encountered and described a weapon similar to the polybolos, a catapult that could fire again and again without a need for manual reloading. Philo left a detailed description of the gears that powered its chain drive (the oldest known application of such a mechanism ) and that placed bolt after bolt into its firing slot. == Popular culture== In 2010, a MythBusters episode was dedicated to building and testing a replica, and concluded that its existence as a historical weapon was plausible. However, the machine MythBusters built was prone to breakdowns that had to be fixed multiple times. ==Bibliography== Duncan B. Campbell and Brian Delf, Greek and Roman Artillery 399 BC–AD 363, New Vanguard series 89, Osprey Publishing Ltd., Oxford 2003. Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology; Part 6, Military Technology: Missiles and Sieges, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1995. , 052132727X

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