Archimedes grabbing ships

R

Roger Johansson

Guest
Archimedes invented a device which could roll the roman war ships over
in the water.

A Discovery program tries to find out how to build such a device.

They try to build a crane. 17 meter long boom with a truss support.

I have a better idea.
Take a very strong rope, attach a metal hook, with 4 hooks.
(Like a giant 4-pronged fishing hook.)
Throw the hook out over the ship, let 300 men hold the other
end of the rope.
When the hook has landed in the water on the far side of the boat the
300 men start running and pulling the rope.

The hook grabs the ship's side and the power in the rope rolls the boat
over, drowning soldiers and destroying equipment.

Keep pulling until the hook loses its grip, or the hook is lost and we
need to replace it at the end of the rope.

The throwing mechanism can be a catapult.

This weapon can be fired once every 2 minutes, and can roll any boat
which comes within range, and that range should be something like a
hundred meters.

The stone wall against the sea has to be fitted with a low friction
crest, wet and greasy timber, for example. So the rope glides against
it without getting caught of damaged.

If all of the seafront of the city is fitted like this we can have many
teams guarding their sections of the seafront and they can quickly move
sideways to cover more of the beach.

The ancient texts tell us that Archimedes built a weapon, a giant
"claw" which was swung out over the stone wall, and others think it
must be a crane with some kind of claw in a rope at the end of the
crane beam. I think my idea is a good alternative.


I watch the program as I write, and right now I saw them use this rope
method to try to lift a small boat. Rows of men tugging at a rope. But
only as an experiment to find out how much their crane will have to
lift. Even that event does not wake the idea in their minds that they
could use this method as the very weapon they are trying to reconstruct.



--
Roger J.
 
On 11 May 2005 20:56:31 GMT, in sci.electronics.design "Roger
Johansson" <no-email@no.invalid> wrote:

Archimedes invented a device which could roll the roman war ships over
in the water.

a nice OT subject, but who was the guy that sang/mimed the words in
the Paul Simon video "You can call me Al" 1986 maybe

I know his face, dunno where from though


martin

After the first death, there is no other.
(Dylan Thomas)
 
On Wed, 11 May 2005 23:54:07 +0200, martin griffith
<martingriffith@XXyahoo.co.uk> wrote:

On 11 May 2005 20:56:31 GMT, in sci.electronics.design "Roger
Johansson" <no-email@no.invalid> wrote:

Archimedes invented a device which could roll the roman war ships over
in the water.

a nice OT subject, but who was the guy that sang/mimed the words in
the Paul Simon video "You can call me Al" 1986 maybe

I know his face, dunno where from though


It was Chevy Chase, the actor. (I think)

d
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com
 
On Wed, 11 May 2005 22:44:43 +0000, Don Pearce wrote:

On Wed, 11 May 2005 23:54:07 +0200, martin griffith
martingriffith@XXyahoo.co.uk> wrote:

On 11 May 2005 20:56:31 GMT, in sci.electronics.design "Roger
Johansson" <no-email@no.invalid> wrote:

Archimedes invented a device which could roll the roman war ships over
in the water.

a nice OT subject, but who was the guy that sang/mimed the words in
the Paul Simon video "You can call me Al" 1986 maybe

I know his face, dunno where from though


It was Chevy Chase, the actor. (I think)
Actor and comedian. That matches my recollection, too.

d
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com
--Mac
 

Welcome to EDABoard.com

Sponsor

Back
Top