The Life Of Da Vinci

Third Part

Your Inventions

1. Robot

It sounds crazy, but Da Vinci already imagined the creation of robots back in the 15th century. As a great student of human anatomy, the inventor performed autopsies to understand how our muscles work to move us. He applied this knowledge to machines, more specifically a kind of robot that was used in festive displays organized by his sponsor Ludovico Sforza, the same one who commissioned the painting “The Last Supper”. It is not clear what this Leonardo robot did, but historical sources indicate that by means of ropes and pulleys he could walk, sit and even move his jaw.

2. Modern city

It was not easy to live in Milan around 1400: the city - like countless others at the time - was poorly organized and very dirty, without an effective basic sanitation system, and this ended up facilitating the proliferation of diseases. Leonardo realized that cities were more prone to these pests and, as one of the pioneers of urban planning, he designed plans for a city with sewage systems. This urban area would be developed in layers and everything that was human disposal would be carried through a system of channels down to the lower level. There was even a clean water distribution system using hydraulic pumping similar to the one currently used. Unfortunately, the modern city of Da Vinci never got off the ground in its day.

3. Helicopter

There is a fight over who is the father of aviation - Santos Dumont or the Wright brothers - and they really were the ones who developed the first flying machines heavier than air. Leonardo, however, still in the 15th century, designed what can be considered the first helicopter in history. The difference is that instead of propellers, the vehicle would fly with a kind of spiral that, when rotating, would send the air down and propel the flying vehicle upwards, which is the same principle of operation of the helicopter. Perhaps because of its different look, it is one of Da Vinci's most famous inventions.

4. Parachute

The parachute sketched by Da Vinci is not necessarily a novelty - after all, there are reports of similar devices being used in China in the 11th century, 400 years before the Italian inventor. But Leonardo's project, with its unusual pyramidal shape and wooden structure, made it a much safer and more effective model than what had been thought of before.

5. Wetsuit

Exploring the mysteries of the depths of lakes, mares and oceans has always been a human desire, but obvious - like our breathing, for example - always made adventure impossible. Da Vinci collage with his immense creativity in a way to make long periods of water possible. Again, this is not his original idea, as well as that of the parachute, but the similarity of his sketches with suits that were used during the 20th century for diving is impressive.

6. Bearing

Do you know those things that we don't always see or handle, but that are of immense importance? So are the bearings, which are used to connect wheels on axles, considerably reducing the friction between the parts and are used in machines, vehicles and even in the probes that were sent to Mars. Similar devices have been used since the days of the Roman Empire, however, Da Vinci's drawings show a piece incredibly similar to modern bearings. The inventor even used primitive bearings in his most complex machines.

7. Flying machine

As we have already seen in the case of the helicopter, Leonardo was very fascinated in obtaining ways to make the man fly. For this very reason he invented what is called an “ornithopter” - those who know the work Duna, by Frank Herbert, will find the familiar name - a kind of airplane that flaps its wings to fly. In it, a system of gears and pulleys transformed the movement of a crank in the flapping of the wings, all inspired by birds and bats. Anyone who has played Assassin’s Creed 2 should be very familiar with this vehicle.

8. Machine gun

Despite being a pacifist and defender of nature, Leonardo created a weapon that can be considered the first machine gun. It was a set with several muskets - those very old shotguns, one of the first invented firearms - that were fired in sequence by means of a crank. Unlike today's machine guns, which fire multiple projectiles from the same barrel, Da Vinci's invention actually needed to have several separate barrels to carry out the shots in sequence. Still, for the time, it would make a hell of a war weapon!

9. Battle tank

It is difficult to convince Leonardo that he was a pacifist with these types of inventions, but a prototype - quite different - from a battle tank is one of the most famous inventions of the Italian. It was a structure like a pointed tortoise shell that was moved by the force of eight men. In addition to providing protection for the displacement of people, 36 firearms aimed at all sides of the vehicle, which would do a great deal of damage in a war of that time. A curiosity: the design of Leonardo's war tank had an unacceptable error for someone of his level - if it were built as in the plan, the vehicle would be unable to move by turning its front wheels back and the rear wheels forward. Historians believe that Da Vinci "made the mistake" on purpose to prevent anyone from being able to assemble that killing machine.