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Ancient Engineering SeriesMANGONEL.com
Ballistic Technologies of Antiquity

Monster Garage Video


Watch Ron Toms and a team of expert welders build a "special"
Delivery truck, with Jesse James and the Monster Garage!
The Challenge: Build a delivery van that can't be stopped!
The Rules: It must be built within 5 days, under a budget of $3000, and the finished machine must look stock.
The Plan: Equip the vehicle with a variety of catapults to hurl packages to their destinations.

In this video you will see Jesse James, motorcycle maniac and descendant of the famous outlaw of the old west, and a crew of welders and mechanics, including catapult expert Ron Toms, build a special delivery van equipped with air cannons, a ballista and a powerful trebuchet.

The show starts as Ron, Jesse and the design team come up with the plan. An air cannon will shoot newspapers, tubes and other small packages, while a ballista will shoot the medium sized packages. For the large heavy ones, a mighty trebuchet is selected for the task. But this is no ordinary trebuchet, this one is powered by a bank of huge springs!

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    Price: $19.95
    Our Price: $12.95
    Minimum age: 3
    Availability: In stock.

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    Item code: 93003


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Interesting Notes

What is a Mangonel?


The term "mangonel" literlally means "engine of war." It is a ballistic device, usually some type of artillery. In other words, a catapult. But "catapult" is a more general word that includes a broad range of things that use mechanical means to shoot a projectile, including slingshots and aircraft carrier launch systems. So a mangonel is a unique type of catapult.

The word Mangonel derives from the ancient Greek word "Manganon", literally meaning "engine of war". The Romans called it a Manganum. In pre-medieval French the word Manganum was changed to Manganeau, and the English changed that to Mangonel in the 1300s.

The history gets a little sketchy in the middle ages, but some historians believe that "mangonel" was shortened to the word "gonnel" about the same time that cannons were being developed, and later still, "gonnel" was shortened to "gun." And to this day, in the military a gun is strictly big artillery. (Rifles and pistols are referred to as "weapons", NOT "guns".)

The three most common types of ancient mangonels are the Greek Ballista, The Roman Onager, and the Trebuchet.

In France, the word Mangonel is used for a Trebuchet that uses a fixed counterweight for power. (The other kind of trebuchet, the hanging counterweight type, is called a "Trebuchet". Go figure!)

The English use the term Mangonel and Onager interchangeably for the Roman single-arm torsion machine.

The Greek catapult, probably the first machine to be called a mangonel, was also known as the Ballista and is where we get the word "ballistic".