The battering ram was a large beam, made of the trunk of a tree, and having a mass of bronze or iron fastened to one end, and resembling a ram's head. This shape, as well as its name, was given to the engine in question, on account of the resemblence of its mode of action to that of a ram butting with its forehead. In an improved form, the ram was surrounded with iron bands, to which rings were attached for the purpose of suspending it by ropes or chains to a beam fixed transversely over it. See the lower figure. - Anthon, 1891