This 485 x 480 pixel image depicts the launch of a small car by a reconstructed medieval engine of war. Successor to the catapult, the trebuchet could hurl missiles weighing a ton or more over castle walls. It was sometimes used to loft the bundled corpses of diseased animals and humans into besieged cities, an early form of biological warfare. This modern reconstruction in a Shropshire pasture tossed a 476-kilogram Austin Mini 80 meters (see "The Trebuchet," by Paul E. Chevedden, Les Eigenbrod, Vernard Foley and Werner Soedel, in this issue). Painting by George Retseck.
