It consisted of a metal frame supporting a throwing arm powered by 24 metal
springs. It was invented by Captain Allen West in 1915 and manufactured by the Reason Manufacturing Company of
Brighton, which was granted a patent for the device on 19 October of that year. Although called a catapult, it was a hybrid of a
ballista and a
trebuchet. It required a crew of five - three to compress the springs, one to load the bomb, and one to fire as soon as the fuse was lit or the grenade pin was pulled. In tests, it could throw
Mills bomb about or a projectile about with a flight time of 6 or 7 seconds. In the field it generally threw a
Jam Tin Grenade,
No. 15 Ball grenade,
No. 21 "Spherical" grenade or
No. 28 chemical grenade, equipped with a slightly longer fuse (typically 9 seconds) to ensure to reach the enemy trench before exploding. It was generally considered to be large and cumbersome and "generally more unwieldy" than the
Leach Trench Catapult. Production of this and other trench catapults was officially halted in 1916, being replaced by the
2 inch Medium Trench Mortar and
Stokes mortar. ==Ammunition==