An episode of Man v Food contained a scene where the host talked about using a catapult "like we were storming a 19th century castle". My friends and I think that catapults may have been a little outdated by 19th century, but we wanted to be sure. Thoughts?
The catapult, which is popular imagination is an Oneger, is a weapon of the classical and early medieval era. As such, the siege machine was out of date by thé time of standard "Castles" from the mid to high Medieval Era. It would be the 15tu century that would see a shift away from catapults and trebuchets and towards artillery and the use of chemical propellants over torsion based weaponry.
As such, artillery will become a major means of destroying the old style castles with high and heavy walls. As a result, there would be a major shift away from this towards the Trace Itallienne which had much lower and sloped walls to deflect the energy of artillery shells. Commonly known as a star fort, These would be major obstacles for the movement of enemy armies, something that Louis XIV would depend upon with the implementation of the Vauban system of fortresses that would dot the borders of France. By the Napoleonic Era, artillery would be powerful and accurate enough to destroy these forts.
As you suggested, you are right, artillery far surpasses the use of torsion based siege weapons. Considering that artillery crews and engineers are focused on fortifications in this era, they would have most likely not been taught Noé knew how to make a catapult or trebuchet.
