The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #59171   Message #942364
Posted By: GUEST
28-Apr-03 - 08:29 PM
Thread Name: BS: 'From my cold, dead hands' farewell
Subject: RE: BS: 'From my cold, dead hands' farewell
Raedwulf, do some research on automatics will you please?

A type of crossbow used by the Chinese since at least 210 B.C. was a repeating design with a gravity-fed box magazine! The magazine was situated above the bolt track. When the lever at the rear of the crossbow was first raised and then lowered, the box moved forward, caught the string in a wooden recess and drew it to full cock, dropped a bolt into the track and released the string. These crossbows were neither powerful nor accurate, but they could launch a bolt every second or two until the magazine emptied. Poison was usually smeared on the points to increase their lethality.