The machines of Leonardo da Vinci
July 9th 2007 21:55
(1452-1519)
The Leonardo Da Vinci Machines Exhibition -- Thursday 5 April 2007 to Sunday 8 July 2007 -- showring, entertainment quarter, Moore Park, Sydney.
The blurb went: "The Artisans of Florence bring to you the Museum of Leonardo da Vinci... This remarkable internationally acclaimed exhibition displays over 60 models of Da Vinci's famous machines, inventions and designs based on ancient codices... The Niccolai Family has been interpreting the designs and constructing fine miniature models since the beginning of Vincian studies."
According to the Village Voice: "Curator Luigi Rizzo moved from Australia to Italy five years ago to fulfil a lifelong dream. He happened to bump into the da Vinci exhibition while visiting Florence and was hooked... 'The moment I saw the machines, I thought they had to travel. It took me two years to convince the experts I could do it,' he said. 'We are in Australia now, will head to New Zealand and then back to America.' ... Mr Rizzo's son, Thomas, worked with the Florentine artisans on some of the scale-model creations. 'I was overwhelmed to be part of such a great experience. I'm a history major so to be creating history with these was amazing. The works have been made by two generations of the Niccolai family in Florence,' Thomas said."
The SMH mentions: "All the interactive models in the exhibition were handcrafted by two generations of Florentine artisans from Da Vinci's original codices. Thomas Rizzo is the first non-Florentine apprentice. His father, a physics teacher and publisher whose family moved to Melbourne when he was a teenager, discovered the exhibition when he went to Florence in 2002. He persuaded the families who make the models to allow him to bring some to Australia. Since then about 200,000 people have seen the exhibition in Melbourne, Adelaide and Auckland. But the Sydney version has six 'new' machines, including the [cart with scythes]. Not all the models are warlike. There is an armour-wearing robot, the first aqualung and lifebuoy, and, of course, those famous flying machines, all rescued from the page and made real. The craftsmen found that Da Vinci always left out crucial details from his drawings. 'Copyright hadn't been invented yet,' Luigi Rizzo said. But Da Vinci always left clues in the codices."
***
Here's just a few of the machines.
The names of the devices, and the info in the captions, come mainly from the guidebook and Wikipedia.
Military machines
Some of the military machines were refinements of older devices -- catapults, various types of covered siege engines, an "escalator" (a ladder that gets wound into position), projectiles that were designed to be more aerodynamic...
One machine that didn't tour was a machine gun.
And another that was there, but which I didn't photograph, was a way to clear enemy ladders from your walls. You attach a horizontal bar just below your parapets, and you've got a mechanical system that can push the bar out and knock the ladders off -- simple and effective.
"Cannon saw its first real use on the European battlefield during the Hundred Years War, being only used in small numbers by a few states during the 1340s." -- Wikipedia
"The first tank to engage in battle was D1, a British Mark I, during the Battle of Flers-Courcellette (part of the Battle of the Somme), on 15 September 1916". -- Wikipedia
Civil machines
Various types of crane, and ingenious ways to use springs, cogs, pulleys, levers, gears, drills, chains... Presumably these comprise the bulk of Leonardo's inventions, and give the best idea of his engineering genius -- the ways he solved practical problems, found more efficient ways to do things, etc. But I didn't photograph many of them.
Models that (I think) didn't tour included: a wagon with differential gears (ie, the wheels can turn at different speeds as the wagon corners), an odometer, a machine for processing mirrors, and a printing press.
Guidebook (a slightly dodgy Italian translation) notes: "According to Leonardo, this instrument allowed to throw 'a beautiful and large light', probably with scenographic purposes. It is well known in fact his theatrical activity at the court of Ludovico the Moor, Charles d'Amboise and the King of France Frances I, where he tried to astound with... surprising sonorous effects or in the pompous games of lights and shadows."
"The first machine patented in the United States that showed animated pictures or movies was a device called the 'wheel of life' or 'zoopraxiscope'. Patented in 1867 by William Lincoln, moving drawings or photographs were watched through a slit in the zoopraxiscope." -- About.com
Some more info here.
Note, though that this might not be the world's first automaton. I've seen it claimed that some guy called al-Jazari beat Leonardo by around three centuries, and Da Vinci himself was inspired, says the guidebook, by automata described in Homer and Pindar.
"Some sources suggest Ferdinand Verbiest, whilst a member of a Jesuit mission in China, may have built the first steam powered car around 1672." -- Wikipedia
Da Vinci is credited as the inventor of ball bearings (whereas the first patent was taken out in 1791). The main idea is that you reduce friction -- think of the way that it's difficult to drag a heavy object, but much easier when you shove some logs underneath, which roll as the object moves.
The machine pictured reduces the friction on a vertical axle, but other designs appear in Leonardo's notebooks, including for a revolving stage.
"The documented ancestors of today's modern bicycle were known as pushbikes, Draisines or hobby horses. To use the Draisine, first introduced to the public in Paris by the German Baron Karl von Drais in 1818, the operator sat astride a wooden frame supported by two in-line wheels and pushed the vehicle along with his/her feet while steering the front wheel." -- Wikipedia
Hydraulic machines
Machines not photographed or that didn't tour include: a system to lift water, a rotating bridge, a machine for generating energy from water, and a machine for dredging mud.
A larger bridge than the one I've photographed was on display. Pictured here is the interactive model, which you could assemble yourself to see how it worked.
"The first submersible with reliable information on its construction was built in 1620 by Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel, a Dutchman in the service of James I of England." -- Wikipedia
According to Wikipedia, paddleboats might have been built in China in the 5th century, and the idea was mentioned in Roman treatises.
"Ancient instances of the lifejacket can be traced back to simple blocks of wood or cork used by Norwegian seamen. The modern lifejacket is generally credited to one Captain Ward, a Royal National Lifeboat Institution inspector in the United Kingdom, who, in 1854, created a cork vest to be worn by lifeboat crews for both weather protection and buoyancy." -- Wikipedia
Flying machines
The Chinese were way ahead on this one: "[T]he Extensive Records of the Taiping Era (978) suggests that a true glider was designed in the 5th century BC by Lu Ban, a contemporary of Confucius". -- Wikipedia
In 852AD, "A daredevil named Armen Firman jumped from a tower in Córdoba using a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts to arrest his fall with only minor injuries. In the 9th century, another Muslim Abbas Ibn Firnas attempted a similar feat. According to Joseph Needham there were working parachutes in China as early as the 12th century. Leonardo da Vinci sketched a parachute while he was living in Milan around 1480-1483. However, the idea of the parachute may not have originated with him: the historian Lynn White has discovered an anonymous Italian manuscript from about 1470 that depicts two designs for a parachute, one of which is very similar to da Vinci's." -- Wikipedia
Wikipedia reports plenty of early attempts at flight.
"Since 400 BC, the Chinese had a bamboo flying top that was used as a children's toy. Eventually, this flying top toy made it to Europe and is depicted in a 1463 European painting... In 1493, Leonardo da Vinci first sketched a semi-practical machine... that could be described as an 'aerial screw'. The word 'helicopter' (hélicoptère) was coined in 1861 by Gustave de Ponton d'Amécourt, a French inventor who demonstrated a small steam-powered model. Ján Bahyl, a Slovak inventor, developed a helicopter model powered by an internal combustion engine that in 1901 reached a height of 0.5 meters. On May 5, 1905 his helicopter reached 4 meters in altitude and flew for over 1500 meters." -- Wikipedia
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Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
Comment by Damo
I enjoyed seeing them.
Such a remarkable mind.
Only two things I regret:
One is that peole now associate him with the pulp fiction of The DaVinci Code.
and
That he dedicated so much of his time to inventing weapons.
Comment by katyzzz
Photography Tips
MS Paint Art
Amazing man, amazing things, amazing post, amazingly long. Amazing pictures and amazing wood and other simple products without the sophistication of to-day's modern technology.
And as for Da Vinci, he was an amazing man with an amazing and incredible mind and imagination.
I'm thunderstruck.
Not too sure that it is you Adrian, we don't get to see you much nowadays.
katyzzz
Comment by Damo
You should not mistake my regret with condemnation.
I have read in several of his biographies that he regrteted the same thing. He also regreted being in a position of having to work for war lords.
Comment by Lara M
Love Speaks
Food Slate
I was lucky enough to see 'The Mind of Leonardo da Vinci' exhibit at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence last year. It was a truly amazing exhibit, and even more amazing to see how his mind worked -- they had his original drawings/notes on exhibit too.
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
Great post. I began my career as a science teacher. Wonderful pictures. I appreciate your hard work researching this very interesting scholar in history!
Mis
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
A note to add on the military inventions is that I don't know if he built any of them.
Dear Katy, I wonder if the genius of the guy is more understandable from his biographies. I mean, presumably you're looking at the fruits of a lifetime of observation and trial and error. And who knows -- perhaps he had a lot of help in dreaming up some of these. Inspiration never really comes from nowhere.
Dear Lara, I was actually in Florence last year as well. But I took a look at the queue outside the Uffizi, then ended up skipping it. Went to the Medici chapel in Santa Croce, climbed the bell tower next to the Duo-whatever-it's-called, visited a leather factory, and wandered around and had gelato etc.
I saw Bill Gates' exhibition of Leonardo's notebooks when they were in Sydney, and it's funny -- handwriting is so personal -- it's funny to feel so close to a giant of the past...
Dear Ms W, thanks for the comment. You seem to have a led a varied life.
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Comment by Anonymous
thanks!!!!
Comment by lilo