
pre-1700: The trebuchet means the ancient sling. It was a piece of wood which was attached to an arm providing leverage. This turned into the traction trebuchet by the Chinese, in which a number of people pull on ropes attached to the arm like a lever. This type of trebuchet is smaller and has a shorter range, but is a more portable machine and has a faster rate of fire than larger firepieces similar to it. The smallest traction trebuchets could be powered by one person, but most were designed and sized for between 15 and 45 men. These people would sometimes be local citizens helping in the siege or in the defense of their town. Traction trebuchets had a range of 100 to 200 feet and wieghed up to 250 pounds. It is believed that the first traction trebuchets were used by the Mohists in China as early as in the 5th century BC.
1800: The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon,
developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and anti-crew weapon. While considered very successful early-on, carronades eventually disappeared as long-range naval artillery led to fewer and fewer close-range engagements.
1900: A mortar is a muzzle-loading indirect fire weapon that fires at a low velocity and short range. Sir Wilfred Stokes in 1915, crated a version of a more modern mortar which was able to be transported by one person.Theses cannons were also used widely during World War I.