Actually, we don't have a lot to go on. At the end of the 19th century, the nobleman and amateur historian Ralph Payne Gallwey wrote a book about the crossbow, and in it he describes the "catapult", what modern historians call a mangonel or onager.
I always thought that an onager was a particularly large type of catapult
There are more but these are just a few: Aircraft Catapult, Slingshot Catapult, and an Onager Catapult.
It relied on a torsion (twisting) to provide the energy for the throw, as opposed to a counterweight.
A large machine made of many tree trunks and large branches. It was capable of flinging stones weighing a hundred or so pounds.
The Romans did need machines. They did not invent the two most important ones, the ballista (a crossbow -like catapult) and the crane because they adopted them from the Greeks. They developed them further, massively improving them. They invented the onager, a one armed torsion catapult which could fire bigger round projectiles
I always thought that an onager was a particularly large type of catapult
You turn orange. You get an onager. (catapult)
During the Middle Ages (around 1200)
no, it is from a different country (rome) but it is a versian of a catapult
There are more but these are just a few: Aircraft Catapult, Slingshot Catapult, and an Onager Catapult.
As long as you're talking about the Roman catapult it would be around 50-60BC!
It relied on a torsion (twisting) to provide the energy for the throw, as opposed to a counterweight.
If you mean the ancient catapult, used as a stone-throwing war machine, nobody knows, but you can bet it was a soldier or military engineer.
Compound, many different things combine to create a catapult. lever arm, torque battery (twisted rope) winding mechanism firing control (ratchet system with trigger)
The catapult was invented in the Middle Age.
A large machine made of many tree trunks and large branches. It was capable of flinging stones weighing a hundred or so pounds.
The onager was a form of military catapult, and typically used stones as ammunition. It could also throw incendiary devices (intended to start fires). In some cases, dead animals were thrown in cities under siege, to damage morale, and to increase the chance of an outbreak of disease.