Leonardo Da Vinci and his many many inventions such as Jacks, roller bearings, Hydraulic Screws, and Helicpoters

Jack: Since the lifting of weights is one of the most common problems of the engineer and mechanic, Leonardo gave it much study, designing devices using the principle of the pulley, the screw, and, as here, the ratchet in a form that anticipates the modern automobile jack.

File Cutter: Though there is no record that such a machine was built, it is workable in principle. It involves two ideas significant for the future: first, the use of a threaded shaft to control automatically the movement of the file blank so that it may be evenly scored by the trip-hammer, and second, the use of a falling weight as a source of power. The latter is a clockwork mechanism here applied to an industrial use. Therefore the machine represents a step toward automation, an idea that recurs in Leonardo's notebooks, but was not to be realized for centuries.

Spring-Driven Car: It is doubtful that any such vehicle was ever constructed. Though springs had been known since ancient times, their use to supply power first appeared in clocks and watches made after Leonardo's time. He recognized their potential usefulness in such theoretical designs as this, and in a drawing for a flying machine in which springs were intended to provide an aid to manpower.

Automatic Turnspit: Such devices were known in various automatic and semiautomatic forms since ancient times. In this version Leonardo shows his knowledge of the principle of convection, since the spit turns through the action of the rising hot air on the fan set in the chimney flue. In another turnspit he applied the clockwork mechanism of the falling weight to turn the spit, using a fan vaned with goose feathers as a governor.

Roller Bearings: Leonardo carried out many experiments with friction, including a transmission system. He found that roller bearings, as here applied to the revolving axle of a wagon, were excellent "friction removers," a function they continue to fulfill in many different situations.

Gear Study: Drawings of gear systems recur throughout Leonardo's notebooks, often, as here, theoretical rather than applicable to a specific device. Similar systems to this later appeared in clocks and clock-like mechanisms, and variations of them are in common use today

Wire-Testing Device: Like modern scientists and engineers, Leonardo wanted as precise information as possible about the properties and capacities of materials so that they could be used more effectively and economically. By weighing the basket after the breaking of the wire had automatically shut off the flow of sand he could determine the tensile strength of the wire.

Printing Press: Gutenberg is generally credited with the invention of the printing press nearly a half century earlier, in about 1448, but Leonardo seems to have been the first to attempt a basic improvement by making it potentially possible for one man to operate it instead of several. A turn of the screw draws both type bed and paper under the platen and supplies the pressure to print, while a reverse turn releases the bed. The first practical applications of such improvements had to await the early 17th century.

Variable Speed Drive: Another theoretical gear system that anticipates a number of modern applications. By meshing the three cogged wheels of different diameters to the same lantern wheel, three different speeds of rotation result, a principle used in the transmission of the modern automobile.

Hydraulic Screw: By encasing a waterwheel, the water turbine was developed in the early 19th century. Leondardo's horizontal impulse wheel, driven by the weight of falling water, and his hydraulic screw were important steps in this direction. Like the turbine, the hydraulic screw works with greater efficiency and a smaller water supply than the older overshot or undershot type waterwheels.

Spindle-Shaped Hull: Intensive study of the action of water and the shapes of fish led Leonardo to design hulls of greater stability and less friction &127;than the round-bottomed vessels then generally in use, and somewhat similar to certain sections of mod em racing hulls. Each side of the model illustrates a different design, each developed from an experi mental and functional point of view similar to that of modern engineering and marine architecture.

Double-Hulled Ship: If the outer hull of such a vessel were damaged, either by enemy action in time of war, or by reefs or floating wreckage, the inner hull, still intact, would keep the ship afloat. In more recent times both double hulls and the division of the interior of the vessel into separate compartments by watertight bulkheads have carried Leonardo's ideas toward still greater safety at sea.

Two Level Bridge: In reserving the upper level for pedestrians and the lower for vehicles, Leonardo used the same idea for traffic control that appears in his plans for an ideal city in which entire streets were thus restricted. The truss is similar to a type used in bridges since the early 19th century.

Rotating Bridge: Designed to connect an island stronghold with the mainland, this bridge could be swung across a stream or moat and back again by means of windlasses. Swing bridges have proven to be practical only in relatively short spans.

Flying Machine: This early design called for a wooden framework and two movable wings to be activated by the aviator who lies prone in the framework, and works the wings by pulleys connected with stirrups moved with his feet, aided by the windlass worked by his hands and arms. In later designs, often with more than a single pair of wings, Leonardo has the operator standing upright.

Helicopter: Leonardo was fascinated with the form of the spiral which often appears in nature, and is involved in the principle of the screw. His helicopter takes the form of an aerial screw, following the example of a device earlier brought to Europe from the Far East in the form of a children's toy. Of his design for the helicopter he wrote, "If this instrument made with a screw be well made - that is to say, made of linen of which the pores are stopped up with starchÑand be turned swiftly, the said screw will make its spiral in the air and it will rise high."

Parachute: "If a man have a tent made of linen of which the apertures have all been stopped up, and it be twelve braccia across and twelve in depth," Leonardo wrote, "he will be able to throw himself down from any great height without suffering any injury."

Scaling Ladder: To reach the top of the wall of an enemy fortress, Leonardo designed this scaling ladder in a form similar to that employed today in fire-fighting apparatus. It is elevated and lowered by means of the crank and the large toothed gear.

Triple-Tier Machine Gun: There are eleven barrels in each tier. While one is fired, another tier is loaded, and the third cools. This weapon, like others Leonardo designed, shows him constantly attempting to achieve greater fire power.

Military Tank: Leonardo designed this ancestral version of the tank to carry heavy fire power and be driven by men working the enclosed wheels with cranks. Its turtle-like cover was intended to deflect enemy fire. "These," he wrote, "take the place of the elephants. One may tilt with them. One may hold bellows in them to spread terror among the horses of the enemy, and one may put carabineers them to break up every company."

Hygrometer: The humidity of the atmosphere may be determined by measuring the imbalance caused by the absorption of moisture by the cotton, which, wwen dry, is equal to the weight on the other side of the scale. Leonardo spent much time studying the atmosphere both as an artist and as a scientist, recording in drawings many of the effects he observed.

Odometer: Leonardo often made maps, both for military purposes and for canal construction. He therefore designed several distance-recording devices, including a pendulum type pedometer and the odometer. The latter is one of several variations on an instrument described by the Roman architect and engineer, Vitruvius, whose works were rediscovered early in the Renaissance. It was geared to drop a pellet into a box for a given number of revolutions of a wheel, thus computing the distance traveled.

Inclinometer: Leonardo always sought the greatest possible accuracy, and therefore was constantly designing devices for measurement, such as this instrument to determine the degree of incline of a given surface by the relation of the plumb bob to the concentric scale inscribed below its mounting. The accurate figuring of slight gradients was of great importance in laying out canals.

Anemometer: A device for measuring the force of the wind by reading on the quadrant scale the highest point to which the vane, hinged at the top, is blown. "The air," Leonardo wrote, "moves like a river and carries the clouds with it, just as running water carries all the things that float upon it."

Clock: For greater accuracy, Leonardo designed a clock mechanism with two separate trains, one for minutes and the other for hours, each complete with escapement, gears, and weight. Weight-driven mechanisms had been associated with clocks for so long that they had come to be regarded as exclusively for this purpose, but Leonardo used them for the increased automation of other machines, such as his file cutter. Clocks registering both hours and minutes had become sufficiently accurate during the 15th century so that they were even occasionally used in astronomical observations. It may be that Leonardo had some such purpose in mind when he designed his dual train mechanism. Real accuracy in clocks was not achieved until the use of the pendulum as a regulating device in the 17th century, yet Leonardo made a drawing of just such a device in a form applicable to clockwork.

Consideration for Ancientminds.com -

Leonardo Da Vinci is becoming one of my favorite ancient minds. In a lot of ways, I am like him. He is a artist, inventor, and mathematician. These are all aspects of my life that I love. Not only that, but he is a procrastinator. That is me in a nut shell. Like Da Vinci, I too start many artistic projects and leave them unresolved for one reason or another. Usually, it is a mental issue that blocks my ability to do good works.

Ancient Uniqueness -

There are not many people in the world that can match the likeness of Leonardo Da Vinci. He had the mind to invent, paint the most amazing pictures, and write about life and love. He also was way ahead when it came to anatomy and human understanding. He was a pioneer of the Renaissance era. Leonardo Da Vinci is still one of the most admired and famous people to have lived on the planet Earth. It is an honor to study him.

Please note that this site is strictly a hobby site. The authors of any pages do not have degree's nor wish to be accredited for any work. We are just stating that there is more out there than what you may realize. All information is food for thought.