This article was taken from the October 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
When Jörg Sprave (above) was nine, his father took him into the woods for a rite of passage: making his first catapult. "We found a perfectly forked hazel wood stick,"
Sprave says. "Then we cut the rubber from a car's inner tube and made the pouch from an old shoe." He was hooked. Now 46, Sprave, who lives in Bavaria, Germany, has made hundreds of catapults -- above is a "double-shot over/under slingshot-crossbow", but others are made from broomsticks and condoms.
In 2009 he created The Slingshot Channel on YouTube where he demos his latest contraptions. His most popular, with 1.4 million views, is a 20-metre-long catapult-crossbow that blasts a full-size machete. He also features "impact videos" such as Slingshot vs Coconut, which demonstrate the incredible force his creations generate. Spoiler: the coconut doesn't win.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
