The Book of the Crossbow

Rating:
Summary: Lavishly illustrated introduction to Crossbows.
Review: The all-time bestseller with a first edition as far back as 1903, later to appear with the 1907 appendix, was written by an amateur (in the true sense of the word) of archery who apparently had an unlimited source of money and time, but only modest background in physics. Along with the history of the crossbow, detailed accounts of the construction and maintenance of various crossbows designed for bolts and bullets are given. Related and/or relevant medieval weapon, like longbow, ballista and arquebus, are also treated in some detail, and the 1907 appendix on turkish bows serves to give a most interesting contrast to european archery of the epoch. When it comes to performance and comparison of the variety of weapon described, maximum range and -sometimes- draw force is the only information given, whereas obvious ballistic terms like exit velocity, time-of-flight and air resistance are conspicuously absent. Some self-evident details of construction or handling, clearly vi! sualized by the illustrations, are too often spelled out in full, while more obscure mechanisms of elaborate trigger systems, which would benefit from a whole lot more detailed explanation, are treated casually. This said, it must be stressed that on the whole it IS a very fine piece of work, made by a historian rather than an engineer, a book without a match for almost a century, and certainly well worth recommending.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource for crossbow builders
Review: This book is an interesting look at crossbows and siege engines, with lots of useful info for the DIY armourer. It's weakness is that it's written at the beginning of the century, and a little dated, both in writing style and content. I.e. modern materials are quite naturally not covered. It's strong points are the excellent drawings and illustrations. Highly recomennded overall.

Rating:
Summary: For all who are curious, the definitive guide.
Review: This book is, quite frankly, the one-stop place to look for information not only about all aspects of crossbows, but related subjects such as the Chinese chu-ko-nu, or "repeater crossbow," seige engines, and other related topics. The author apparently had enough money and spare time to actually experiment, and living in pre-World-War-I Britain, had access to actual original examples of a lot of the weapons he wished to study. Building copies to test them, he came up with definite figures on how they worked and how well they worked, or didn't.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This book is, quite frankly, the one-stop place to look for information not only about all aspects of crossbows, but related subjects such as the Chinese chu-ko-nu, or "repeater crossbow," seige engines, and other related topics. The author apparently had enough money and spare time to actually experiment, and living in pre-World-War-I Britain, had access to actual original examples of a lot of the weapons he wished to study. Building copies to test them, he came up with definite figures on how they worked and how well they worked, or didn't.