Читать книгу The Dangerous Book for Boys - Conn Iggulden - Страница 15

CATAPULTS HAVE INTRIGUED boys for as long as they have had access to strips of rubber. Before then, slingshots of leather were used right back to Biblical times, as when David slew Goliath by hitting him in the forehead with a stone. They do have a serious use in hunting, of course, or for launching bait into a river whilst fishing. However, the classic images are more to do with Dennis the Menace and Bart Simpson. They can be astonishingly powerful and accurate, though this is not something to demonstrate by telling a younger brother ‘Run,’ and laughing in an unpleasant fashion. Never aim or fire a catapult at someone else.

You will need

 A forked stick.

 A piece of rubber – 2 ft (60 cm) long.

 Twine to tie the ends.

 A piece of leather, such as the tongue from an old shoe.

1. Find and cut a forked stick. We found our example in a large holly bush, but the ‘Y’ shape can come from almost anywhere.

A Swiss army knife has a saw attachment that makes short work of small branches. You don’t want the diameter of the wood to be any thicker than your thumb. If you are not confident in your ‘eye’, cut a little more than you think you will need. A good top to bottom height is six or seven inches (15–17 cm).

2. Cut rings from the bark at the top of the ‘Y’ to anchor the rubber – a Swiss army knife is perfect for this, too.

3. Finding the rubber is the hardest part. After a fruitless search in hardware and toy shops, we found that a strip cut from a bicycle inner tube works very well. Cut a two-foot length of tube and then make two cuts lengthways to remove a long strip. Some experimentation will be necessary to get the right pull tension and power.

Note that we have used two pieces of rubber. It was tempting to use one long piece, with the central pouch threaded through. In practice, we found that the pouch piece moved after one or two shots and suddenly we had a catapult that could fire almost anywhere without warning. It is far better to tie two pieces securely.

4. The central pouch piece is easy enough if you have an old shoe. Either the tongue of the shoe or some part of the body can be cut to produce a rectangle of material around 4 × 2 inches (10 × 5 cm). Leather is best for this as it can be holed without splitting. Make two holes with a sharp point and attach the ends of the rubber. You now have a catapult.