The crossbow
A mechanical trigger lets an untrained soldier shoot as hard as a lifelong archer.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 100 years
- Known to
- ± 100 years
- Era
- Iron Age, Holocene
The crossbow appears in China by around 600 BCE with a precision-cast bronze trigger mechanism of several interlocking parts — a piece of engineering well beyond anything contemporary elsewhere. It removes the years of training a composite bow requires, since the bow is drawn at leisure and held mechanically. Combined with mass production, it makes large conscript armies militarily effective and is decisive in the Warring States period.