A History of the Onager in Pictures - Page 3

Serious R & D

Here is a sequence of my dad and I cocking the mid-sized Onager. There is a chain attached to the arm with the other end attached to a drum. We are using metal rods to rotate the drum which winds up the chain and pulls the arm down.

Now the Onager is fully cocked and loaded.

I pull on a string which is conected to a release made from a gate latch to fire the Onager.

This model helped me to appreciate the power these machines generate when they are twisted up - I had to heavily reinforce the sides to keep them from being crushed when the torsion spring was cranked up. In the above photos you will note that there are already some cracks in the side pieces - these are form the torsion bundle being twisted, which pulls inward.

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