Leonardo da Vinci owns a great many inventions of various kinds. The genius of an outstanding inventor proved himself in such seemingly diametrically opposed areas as painting and hydraulics, architecture and aeronautics, cooking and military affairs. Most of the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci were not appreciated by contemporaries and remained only in the form of diagrams and drawings. Only centuries later, other scientists repeated his discoveries and put them into practice. This article will list the main inventions of Leonardo da Vinci - with names and descriptions.
Multifaceted genius
The hero of this article undoubtedly belongs to the so-called "universal people". This term is used to designate outstanding inventors, discoverers, and so on, whose activities go far beyond the scope of one area of ​​human knowledge. Simple scholars with superficial knowledge in many areas cannot be ranked in this category. A universal person must master several occupations at a professional level, and these are inherently opposite, and make a number of discoveries in them. The inventions of Leonardo da Vinci indicate that he was the person of such a warehouse.
Although the upbringing of diverse interests in a person was strongly promoted in the Renaissance, nevertheless, history does not know so many personalities that can be put on a par with the hero of this article. In domestic science, the name of Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov, whose talent, as is known, has manifested itself in literature, physics, chemistry and in other fields, stands out clearly.
Mirror letters
Like many geniuses, Leonardo da Vinci had several traits that may seem strange to the average man in the street. For example, he always wrote only with his left hand. Its lines were directed from right to left. The most striking thing about this is the fact that the letters reproduced by Leonardo da Vinci were mirrored. It is not known for certain whether this feature was caused by a defect in the education of the scientist, or whether he deliberately encrypted his messages in order to prevent the illegal use of discoveries. Most of the drawings of the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci are accompanied by text written in this way.
Some of these diagrams are presented as illustrations for this article.
Many descriptions of inventions by Leonardo da Vinci have errors. Researchers of his heritage say that these shortcomings were made by the master in order to protect his works from misappropriation. For example, in the drawings depicting the design of the tank running gear, there is an error.
On the diagram, gears are arranged in reverse order. This was the reason that the model of the military machine, which was made by English specialists, could not budge. After modern engineers unraveled the secret of the specularity of the drawing, they easily managed to correct the admitted mistake. As a result, the huge mechanical structure, equipped with firearms and having an armored body, was able to move at a speed approximately equal to human.
Dream of flying
Leonardo da Vinci, whose inventions are numerous and varied, from childhood was fond of observing various natural phenomena, including the flight of wild birds. Already in adulthood, he repeatedly sketched the design of feathered wings.
The great scientist was convinced that if he manages to make such flying accessories for humans, then people will gain the ability to move around in the air as freely as birds.
The scientist’s drawings depicting the design of a hang glider were correct, although they only came to life in the 20th century. The artificial wing raised the English fan da Vinci, who was able to fly with his help several tens of meters. It is not known for certain whether these schemes were tested during the life of the inventor. However, after the idea of ​​human wings, the genius came to the idea that sentient beings need other devices designed to raise their air.
He came to the conclusion that people should soar with the help of various devices that provide their hands with sufficient freedom. These aeronautics should be operated by a person in a seated position. We can say that these thoughts determined the direction in which all further research of this kind took place. Leonardo managed to realize the idea only a few centuries later with the invention of the balloon.
The Italian genius left behind a number of records in which he offers several models of aircraft, the most notable of which is the vertical take-off device. This famous invention of Leonardo da Vinci is sometimes called a helicopter, since it was supposed to lift a person into the air with the help of a special screw, driven by a pedal mechanism.
Like many other ideas of the Italian designer, this one is several centuries ahead of its time. The first helicopter was created only in the twentieth century.
Ban on classical education
The hero of this article was the son of an Italian lawyer and a simple peasant. The parents of the future inventor were not bound by a legal marriage. In that era, a person who was born from such a union did not have the right to study foreign languages, including Greek and Latin, in which most of the scientific literature was written.
Therefore, young Leonardo was forced to obtain information about the world from his own experiences and observations. This was the reason for his many inventions, which were many decades ahead and sometimes centuries ahead of their time. Who knows, if the Italian genius received a classical academic education, could he go beyond the framework outlined by the level of science that existed in his time?
Leonardo's Notebooks
The inventions and discoveries of da Vinci were not framed in a form suitable for scientific work and research. He recorded thoughts in notebooks, which he always carried with him.
In such notes, the great inventions of Leonardo da Vinci coexisted with ordinary diary entries about incidents of an ordinary nature, new jokes that he heard from friends, his own witty sayings. In addition, the scientist always made a plan of future work for himself and a list of the necessary information that he needed to get.
It is known that the inventor had several thousand such notebooks. Less than half have survived to this day. Many of them were disassembled into parts and stored in various collections around the world. The largest collection of manuscripts with technical inventions by Leonardo da Vinci is in London at the Royal Academy of Sciences, where in several rooms about six hundred pages from the notebooks of the great Italian are presented to the audience.
Underwater army
Along with peaceful discoveries and research, an outstanding scientist often addressed the problem of creating various weapons, as well as equipment used in defense. What inventions of Leonardo da Vinci are intended for such purposes?
In addition to the tank already mentioned in this article, the designer made attempts to create not only a new type of weapon, but also the combat arms that did not exist before that time. So, being in the service of the ruler of Venice, he proposed for consideration a special suit with which people could dive under water and stay there for quite some time. According to his plan, an army with soldiers equipped in this way was able to easily sink enemy ships with minimal casualties.
It was only necessary to put on dozens of warriors in spacesuits. These people must make holes in the lower part of the hulls of enemy ships and thereby sink them. Special clothing could be sewn from pigskin and impregnated with a solution. Vision under water was provided by a mask equipped with eye openings covered with glass plates. The breath was supposed to be carried out through reed hoses, the ends of which were held on the surface of the water by a large cork float.
The fleet, against which this type of troops was supposed to be used, approached Venice, however, did not attack its inhabitants and soon withdrew. Therefore, the need for diving suits disappeared.
Peaceful inventions of Leonardo da Vinci
A brief description of the main discoveries of the great scientist is impossible without mentioning his contribution to the visual arts.
In adolescence, the future designer was sent by his father to study with the famous Italian artist Verrocchio. In the studio of this painter, several more students worked. According to the traditions of that time, the teacher sometimes trusted the most capable of them to participate in the writing of his own paintings. So, when Leonardo was fourteen years old, he was commissioned to create an image of an angel on one of Verrocchio’s paintings on a religious subject.
The young man wanted to show himself from the best side, therefore, working on the task, he applied all his ingenuity. These days, painters, as a rule, used paints based on egg yolk. Therefore, their creations did not differ in particular brightness and expressiveness of chiaroscuro. Skillful student decided to apply other colors. He made them using oil.
A similar technique for their manufacture already existed then, but was not used so widely. It is not known whether young Leonardo da Vinci heard about this new product, or repeated its discovery itself, but the figure of an angel entrusted to him turned out to be surprisingly bright and luminous. The effect was enhanced by the fact that next to the character, who was drawn by a skilled student, there was a similar figure of a heavenly messenger, but made by a teacher. Verrocchio's option was clearly losing.
New line view
But if the invention of oil paints cannot be called a merit of Leonardo da Vinci, then he undoubtedly could boast of another discovery in the field of fine art. The paintings created in the Renaissance, as a rule, differed in that each of their elements was clearly delineated. The contours of objects were drawn with a solid line. Leonardo da Vinci, who always built his conclusions on the basis of real experience, realized that in reality a person sees the world around him a little different. The air space that is between the observer and any thing prevents the perception of contours in the form of continuous envelopes.
Each object that is in the field of vision of a person, he sees as something slightly blurred. Therefore, the Italian genius decided that the contours should not be indicated by continuous lines, only hints should be made on them. He also used this technique when writing an angel in the painting of Verrocchio.
Innovations that have lived several centuries
Many inventions of Leonardo da Vinci did not wait for embodiment during his lifetime. However, there were those who found practical application. Among them is the mechanism of a pistol based on the so-called "wheel lock". This scheme of the great Italian genius was not only brought to life, but also the weapons based on it were immediately put into mass production.
In this regard, even the appearance of the widespread at that time military armor changed. A new type of pistol required the use of fine motor skills. Therefore, to protect brushes in armor, they began to use not metal mittens, as before, but gloves made of iron. The wheel lock, designed by Leonardo da Vinci for pistols, was involved in arms manufacturing as early as the nineteenth century.
Culinary invention
Leonardo, as you know, for many years he served at the court of large French and Italian aristocrats. For various celebrations, he often came up with a variety of entertainment programs. Once the Italian genius even invented his own culinary dish. The meat cooked according to this recipe, and now bears the name "Da Vinci."
The secret is to cut the beef into very small slices, put in a pan so that the whole bottom is covered. Top with onions, dill, leaves of garlic and other herbs. The dish must be fried in sunflower oil until cooked.
Life buoy and other useful things
Leonardo is the author of the most popular drowning aid. A lifebuoy is one of those inventions that immediately came into use. However, the designer originally wanted to do something else. He planned to design special shoes for walking on the water. Thanks to such boots, a person could cross small bodies of water.
In addition to the above items, the list of inventions of Leonardo da Vinci includes:
- Submarine;
- parachute;
- telescope;
- skiing;
- bike;
- machine gun of a special design (several guns, interconnected);
- crossbow.
Most of the diaries of the great designer have been lost, which means that mankind does not even know about the huge number of his brilliant discoveries.
This article has listed the main inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. Presentation on this topic is often one of the tasks in physics in high school. The material collected in this review may be useful in carrying out such work.