Talk:Repeating crossbow

It's not a Manchurian Crossbow

I deleted the part that called it a Manchurian Crossbow. The Cho Ko Nu was invented in the Han dynasty.

-Intranetusa

photograph

Just out of interest, does anybody have a link to a photograph of it in use in the sino-japanese war? Especially as the text mentions there are several photographs about. Hellfire83 19:08, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

The Photograph link is stupid and annoying. The reader expects it to lead to the picture mentioned in the text - instead it brings up the totally unrelated article about photography.

03062005 Agreed with above, someone could host a pic? Edited the link away..

Wasn't those double magazine repeaters used only from stationary positions like wall tops? I might be wrong so I leave it as is.

what is it?

After reading this article, I still don't have any idea what a repeating crossbow is. Other than that it's a weapon of some sort, and apparently it fires arrows quite fast. Any chance someone could add (a) an introductory paragraph that gives the article an opening, instead of dumping us straight in the history of something that we know nothing about, and (b) a basic explanation of how the weapon actually worked? A picture would be even better. — Haeleth Talk 17:38, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

--That would be very helpful.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.123.170.3 (talk • contribs) 20:45, 22 June 2007.

Added a brief description section as asked by the previous poster. Made it up as could not find any good definition on the net. --Bolasanibk 12:16, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Greek

I can't find anything through Google about the Greek repeating crossbow. Pictures? Or names of the documentaries?

There was a documentary on the History Channel the other night on Chinese superweapons of the ancient period (didn't catch the name) that had some excellent footage of a replica in action. Pat Payne 19:04, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

AOE2:AOK

Can we add something to link back to Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings? (It can be enlightening to see an artist's conception of such a weapon in action, if one has the game available.) -Octavo 00:58, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

other than Chinese

You know, the Chinese weren't the only ones to possess repeating crossbows. AllStarZ 01:21, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

No, there were the only ones. The Romans had a slow "sort-of" repeating ballista, but not a crossbow. The main element of a crossbow is the trigger lock mechanism along with a sight...which the Romans didn't have. -intranetusa

purcase

Does anyone know where I can purchase a repeating crossbow (perhaps a replica chu-ko-nu)? I've seen schematics floating around on the net, but I'm not much of a craftsman. I have yet to encounter anyone actually selling them. -Vertigo

attribution

This article appears to have large sections lifted from: this 1903 text. Proper attribution would be appropriate.

Confusion?

...is commonly believed to have been invented by the Chinese strategist Zhuge Liang (181-234 A.D.) of the Three Kingdoms period. However, this belief is false as the earliest repeating crossbows (found in Tomb 47 of Qinjiazui, Hubei province) were dated to the 4th century BC.[1] It is likely that during the Ming Dynasty historians confused the repeating crossbow with Zhuge Liang's invention of the lian-nu (which shot two to three bolts at once and was used in massed formations).

The Ming historians did not confuse the two, since the 'lian nu' had already been divided into two categories, one capable of rapid, single bolt fire, the other being capable of firing many bolts simultaneously.

It is fairly well known that Zhuge Liang did not actually invent the lian nu (repeating crossbow); however, he did improve its design immensely, and for that reason the repeating crossbow is named after him (at least, this is well-known in China). In fact,the Zhuge Nu from the Ming dynasty were improved even further, with the capability of firing 10 bolts continuously, so in China, they were also known as the 元戎弩 (yuan jie nu). Refer to the Chinese Wiki if you will.

The reason for the confusion probably arose from such popular novels as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and the appearance of the Cho-ko-nu in modern popular culture, in such games as Civilisation IV and Age of the Empires II, and exists mainly in the younger generations in China, and outside of China.

For the above reasons, I'm removing the second sentence above. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Whipster (talk • contribs) 10:29, 21 August 2008 (UTC)