Catapult competition at Cantigny blends fun and history
The Peace Keepers' winning catapult launch in the distance category was an inch shy of 498 feet - a spec that landed well beyond the farthest orange marker set up Saturday in a field at Cantigny Park in Wheaton.
But power wasn't everything in the First Division Museum's fifth annual Cantigny Catapult Contest.
After their Murlin Trebuchet-style catapult misfired, the Lombard duo of Jeff Mott and Randy Marsh were disqualified from the part of the competition where the goal was to group three baseballs closest together.
No worries - the Peace Keepers and eight other teams in the offbeat competition weren't there on a perfect fall morning for the glory.
"We're just neighbors who decided to do this and have fun with it," Mott said.
So did about 100 spectators, including Jerry and Dora Madsen and their three kids from South Bend, Indiana. Jerry grew up in Winfield and the couple have family here, so they combine visits with events at Cantigny.
"It's cool to see the ingenuity and their take on it," Dora said of the homemade catapults.
Teams of up to four people were challenged to build a catapult and compete in three categories: distance, accuracy and shot group. Cash prizes of $100 and $50 were given to the first- and second-place teams, respectively, in each category, and the top three finishers received custom medals.
"We like to think of different ways we can take something from military history and make it more accessible to people," said Paul Herbert, executive director of the museum.
The competition helps develop family relationships and touches on math and physics as well as history, he said. "It's appropriate to our field and people like it," Herbert said.
Catapults are used to launch an object over long distances, and one of the earliest types was developed by the ancient Greeks. The Trebuchet and Mangonel were the two main types used in Saturday's competition.
The former was used during the Middle Ages to launch boulders during sieges. The latter is more versatile and could target buildings and people with stones, boulders, spears and fire pots.
That was the model the Chuckers, a group of four co-workers who happen to be mechanical engineers, used to take first place in the shot and accuracy categories.
Chris Minkley of Wheaton, Carlos Garcia Jr. of Chicago, Pratik Shah of Elk Grove Village and John Gillespie of Libertyville entered the challenge as a team-building activity.
"We learned a ton about the torsion bundle," Minkley said of the tightly wound rope used as the power source. "We had to reinforce everything so we could tighten it up enough."
Just down the firing line, the Germain Klan, a family from Mazon, which is near Morris, finished out of the running but took their third catapult competition in stride.
"The curiosity, the fun, that special time away from the electronics," Greg Germain said. "You may find a design on a computer, but you have to build it by hand."