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It isn’t unusual for baseballs to clear the fence at Thomas Jefferson University’s Alumni Field.
But on Saturday, it was a bright orange pumpkin that sailed 338 feet through a cloudless blue sky, falling just short of the edge of the ballpark.
It might not have been a home run, but that launch earned one of seven student teams the title in the College of Architecture, Design and Engineering’s inaugural “Pumpkin RAMpage” event.
Named for the university’s mascot, Phil the Ram, the punkin chunkin event featured several wooden contraptions that students from architecture, design and engineering disciplines designed and constructed over the past couple of weeks.
Some of the teams built traditional trebuchets, while other launchers had a more “Da Vincian style,” with a crossbow design, said Todd Kramer, associate dean for the college.
“Thats the beauty of all these disciplines coming together,” he said. “They all have a slightly different view, from what works from a physics perspective, or aesthetics, or historical.”
Students were not allowed to use gas-assist designs, cannons or motors. A world-famous annual punkin chunkin contest in southern Delaware was discontinued after an air cannon exploded and critically injured a woman in 2016.
While they’re powered by weight and gravity alone, the contraptions “are technically siege machines,” Kramer said, so safety was a priority.
