Leonardo da vinci inventions biography
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The Codex Atlanticus, for instance, includes a plan for a 65-foot mechanical bat, essentially a flying machine based on the physiology of the bat and on the principles of aeronautics and physics.
Other notebooks contained da Vinci’s anatomical studies of the human skeleton, muscles, brain, and digestive and reproductive systems, which brought new understanding of the human body to a wider audience.
He was based in Milan at this time and although we are unsure as to how he financed his large studio during this period, we do have a plethora of drawings which provide all manner of different ideas for war machines and weapons.
Whilst art historians only treated him as a painter for several centuries, whilst in the court of Milan, Leonardo within his own lifetime was well regarded in a variety of disciplines, including engineering.
Helical air screw
Another notable flying machine design (pictured below) can be found in a collection of Leonardo’s papers known today as Manuscript B. He was, wrote Sigmund Freud, “like a man who awoke too early in the darkness, while the others were all still asleep.”
Several themes could be said to unite da Vinci’s eclectic interests.
He understood the differences in weight and design of birds and humans made this approach unworkable, and so he moved on to alternative solutions, including a pedal-controlled version, and then a less ambitious glider.
Leonardo was entirely hampered by the lack of light materials available during the Italian Renaissance, and many of his flying machines displayed clear, sound thinking from an engineering point of view, but would only be effective in later centuries.
He produced a number of study sketches for it, and it is legend that he forced an assistant to test it from a steep hill in Tuscany.
When did Leonardo work as a military engineer?
Leonardo da Vinci worked as a military engineer between the years of 1500-1503 for Cesare Borgia. Whilst continuing to invent, he was not accepted into the fold and tried his luck in Venice and Florence too.
It is important to mention that the precise years given are approximate, as most collated drawings and notes cannot be precisely dated.
| Date | Invention |
|---|---|
| 1482 | Multi-barrelled Guns |
| 1485 | Parachute |
| 1485 | Treadmill Machine Gun |
| 1485 | Giant Crossbow |
| 1485-1488 | Armoured Car |
| 1485-1487 | Flying Machine with Steering Device |
| 1487 | Helicopter |
| 1495-1499 | Two Mortars with Explosive Shells |
| 1500 | Diving Suit |
| 1502 | Maps of Imola |
Leonardo as a Military Engineer
The mid to late 1480s marked an important period in Leonardo's work as an inventor.
Self-supporting bridge
Leonardo was employed by a number of powerful patrons throughout his life, including Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI.
Of the numerous contraptions Leonardo invented for his patrons, one of the simplest – but most effective – is a portable wooden bridge that appears in the Codex Atlanticus.
A modern incarnation of Leonardo’s self-supporting bridge, constructed in Denmark.
The Complete Paintings and Drawings, Frank Zöllner & Johannes Nathan, Taschen
Leonardo da Vinci
When Milan was invaded by the French in 1499, and the Sforza family fled, da Vinci escaped as well, possibly first to Venice and then to Florence.
He believed that human and animal anatomy represented the complexity of the world as a whole, and that much could be learnt through his studies.1
The artist brought extraordinary creativity into the discipline of science and invention, bringing in fresh new ideas as well as tweaking existing ones. However, such limitations never hindered (and perhaps even fueled) da Vinci’s desire for knowledge and great ambition.
At the age of 15, da Vinci became the apprentice of the painter Andrea del Verrochio in Florence, where his skills as an artist developed, flourished and even intimidated his mentor.
Today, the portrait—the only da Vinci portrait from this period that survives—is housed at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, where it attracts millions of visitors each year.
Around 1506, da Vinci returned to Milan, along with a group of his students and disciples, including young aristocrat Francesco Melzi, who would be Leonardo’s closest companion until the artist’s death.
His interest in engineering can be traced back to his early thirties, but this was the first period in which he spent considerable amounts of time focused on this discipline.
In order to become a self-taught inventor, Da Vinci would travel around Italy studying existing machinery and weapons, looking to understand how they worked, but also to consider how they might be improved upon.
The simple structure was designed to be erected in a matter of minutes, making it ideal for military use (Image Credit: Cntrading / CC).
Designed to help armies cross bodies of water, the bridge is made up of several notched wooden poles, erected without the need for any screws or other fastenings.
As demonstrated by modern replicas (like that pictured above), the pressure created by the interlocking beams keeps the whole structure firmly in place.
5.
Sadly, Leonardo's detailed plans were not implemented correctly and the project failed. The ‘robot’
As well as flying machines, bridges and weapons, Leonardo also made contraptions designed purely for entertainment.
Around 1495, he drew up plans for a mechanical knight – an armour-clad ‘robot’ that could sit up, move its head, and even wave a sword in its hands.
Having immersed himself in the study of anatomy, Leonardo knew how to make the knight’s complex system of gears and pulleys emulate the movements of the human body as closely as possible.
While a complete drawing of the knight doesn’t survive, American robotics expert Mark Rosheim managed to construct a successful working replica in 2002 using Leonardo’s notes.
A miniature model of Leonardo’s mechanical knight and its inner workings on display in Berlin.
The drawing appears in a collection of sketches and notes known as Manuscript B, held by the Institut de France in Paris (Image Credit: Public Domain).
2. But, of course, all things must come to an end.
In 1499, the French invaded Milan and Duke Sforza was sent fleeing the city. By studying the anatomy of birds, he hoped to build a machine that would one day allow humans to join them in the skies.
Towards the end of his life, the polymath gathered his thoughts on the topic in a text known as the Codice sul volo degli uccelli (‘Codex on the Flight of Birds’), written around 1505–06.
However, concepts for so-called flying machines were sketched throughout Leonardo’s career.
Diving suits
Following the invasion of Milan, Leonardo fled the city state and spent a brief stint in Venice.
As his temporary new home was also under threat from foreign powers (this time by the Ottoman empire), the polymath again offered his services as a military engineer.
In the Codex Arundel, Leonardo depicts designs for diving suits made from leather, complete with glass goggles and cane tubing.
In theory, the suits would have allowed Venetian soldiers to walk on the seabed and sabotage enemy ships from below – their breathing made possible by air tanks floating on the water’s surface.
One of Leonardo’s designs for underwater breathing apparatus (found in the Codex Arundel), alongside a modern museum exhibit showing how the mask would have fit over the diver’s head (Image Credit: Public Domain / Public Domain).
9.
Enthusiasts have also developed his ideas into working prototypes over the past century, proving the sound scientific ideas that lay behind his drawings.
Leonardo da Vinci, initially, was only known as a painter, and it took several centuries before his career was looked at in a more rounded, comprehensive manner. Ironically, the victor over the Duke Ludovico Sforza, Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, commissioned da Vinci to sculpt his grand equestrian-statue tomb.
He learnt to understand precisely their method of flight, and found variations from one species to the next.