Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey Bt. and the Study of Medieval and Ancient Projectile Weapons

Abstract

Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey is best known nowadays as the author of The Crossbow (1903) which remains a reliable introduction to the study of this weapon. Based on experiments with mediaeval weapons he had restored and the work of two research assistants it covers the development of the weapon from the early middle ages to the nineteenth century. He also made scale models and one third replicas of ancient ballistas, which he tested on his estate at Thirkleby, Yorkshire and at Fort Belan, adjacent to the Menai straits. Using a crossbow he shot an arrow and hurled a stone ball from a ballista, over the narrows, a distance of about a quarter of a mile. Arrowthrowing, shooting with the Turkish composite bow as well as the Indian quoit and the boomerang all demonstrate an interest not only in exotic and unusual weapons but also in the science of ballistics. This he showed to friends at Thirkleby, to enthusiastic audiences at the Royal Toxophilite Society meetings and more formally at the Royal Institution in 1908. The text of his lecture was subsequently printed and is reproduced here. These ballistic experiments led to the design of a golf ball with a reticulated surface and his unique 'roller' golf club.