SLING

, a string instrument, serving for the casting of stones &c with the greater violence.

Pliny, lib. 76, chap. 5, attributes the invention of the Sling to the Phœnicians; but Vegetius ascribes it to the inhabitants of the Balearic islands, who were celebrated in antiquity for the dextrous management of it. Florus and Strabo say, those people bore three kinds of Slings; some longer, others shorter, which they used according as their enemies were more remote or nearer hand. Diodorus adds, that the first served them for a head-band, the 2d for a girdle, and that the third they constantly carried with them in the hand. But it must be impossible to tell who were the first inventors of the Sling, as the instrument is so simple, and has been in general use by almost all nations. The instrument is much spoken of in the wars and history of the Israelites. David was so expert a slinger, that he ventured to go out, with one in his hand, against the giant and champion Goliath, and at a distance struck him on the forehead with the stone. And there were a number of left-handed men of one of the tribes of Israel, who it is said could Sling a stone at an hair's breadth.

The motion of a stone discharged from a Sling arises from its centrifugal force, when whirled round in a circle. The velocity with which it is discharged, is the same as that which it had in the circle, and is much greater than what can be given to it by the hand alone. And the direction in which it is discharged, is that of the tangent to the circle at the point of discharge. Whence its motion and effect may be computed as a projectile.