|
Renaud was left with no alternative but to hope that a couple of planks will be strong enough to splint the weakened throwing arm.
Finally work starts on raising the great trestles. With each passing day, the situation at castle Urquhart more and more resembles the siege of old. With two trebuchets to finish, there is a nagging feeling that Renaud's machine may not get done before the timber framers must return home.
Over at Wayne's trebuchet work on attaching the lead weights is finally finished. All that remains is to cut the arm. Even with the help of pulleys, this requires 40 people. With a 13,000-pound counterweight, it is a much bigger job than anyone imagined, and it will have to be repeated for each fling.
The trigger mechanism is not strong enough, and buckles alarmingly as it takes the full weight of the throwing arm.
It's bending as we're releasing the arm, and we're wondering whether it can hold the weight right now.
To avoid an accidental firing, they reinforce it with a link of chain.
We've got lots of engineers on this, and maybe they've got it right, but it's got difficult to get it right.
It's chaos, the sun is going down, I don't have a clue whether or not we'll finish even one of these machines on time.
Well, we're under the gun now. It's kinda touch and go whether we're gonna get the things put together and actually fling both machines but finally, this crew who come from Hallow Highwater will gonna make these things fling and go as you like.
The next morning, a 250-pound sandstone ball is quickly positioned in the sling for the first throw.
I'd rather have it blow this sling.
It's got about 50% of chance going in the right direction. It could go in the lake by mistake, because these adjustments are not well-known to us.
You're ready? This is it.
One, two, three, fire in the hole.
No.
words to remember:
splint: (v.) To support or restrict with or as if with a splint. 扶植
trestle: (n.) A horizontal beam or bar held up by two pairs of divergent legs and used as a support. 支架
nagging: (a.) 恼人的
touch and go: (n.) 快速的行动, 一触及发的形势
|