Punkin Chunkin' Trebuchet

Our readers know that nHumanities is foolishly fond of trebuchets, the medieval seige weapons used to batter walls and toss projectiles over them. (See previous posts Trebuchet of the Day and More on Trebuchets.)

At left, however, is a trebuchet with a typically American twist: it's designed for punkin chunkin'.

Millsboro, Delaware, recently hosted the 20th annual Punkin Chunkin contest, where a variety of homemade machines launch pumpkins across the beach. This year's winner was an air cannon dubbed "Second Amendment" which launched its pumpkin 4,331.72 feet. Yep, the Second Amendment would be a citizen's right to bear arms, although nHumanities doubts the Founding Fathers included Punkin Chunkers in their original intent.

Among other deadly weapons designed to chunk pumpkins was the pumpkin trebuchet pictured above, named the "Yankee Seige." According to the article at NPR, the Yankee Seige was designed to throw pumpkins as heavy as 300 pounds. Sadly, throwing the contest's standard 8-10 pound pumpkin requires a more delicate launch, because the Yankee Seige turned its first competition pumpkin into "pie" (pumpkin that disintegrates upon launch).