10 brilliant inventions of Leonardo da Vinci (11 photos)

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the greatest geniuses in all of human history. He was an artist, a scientist, an inventor, a writer, and a musician. During his life he created several amazing inventions and projects. Some of them remained on paper, and some received technical implementation. Let's look at the most famous of his inventions!





1. Helicopter propeller



This is an aerial version of the "Archimedes Screw" that Da Vinci created in 1483. As planned, four people had to operate the propeller. However, such a device could not take off due to ill-conceived driving force and weight. But it is believed that this invention became a source of inspiration for the creators of rotary devices.

2. Tank





Although this vehicle looks more like an alien ship, it is actually a wooden and metal structure on four wheels with 16 cannons to attack the enemy. Da Vinci's "Tank" remained only a project - he made mistakes in the design that would have rendered it unusable. It was an easy fix, but he never completed the design.

3. Robot Knight



In the late 1400s, robotics was still a long way off, but da Vinci proved himself here too. He created several mechanical figures, including a drawing of a humanoid knight with a mechanism inside. With the help of this mechanism, the knight could move his limbs and head, sit down and walk.

4. Car (trolley)



Back then it was more of a self-propelled cart than a car in the modern sense. The cart was moved by a manual drive, symmetrical springs, and a mechanism that controlled turns. The design flaw is that the "car" would have to be stopped every few seconds to start it.

5. Machine gun



Da Vinci also created a cannon that resembled a modern machine gun in function. It was a weapon with thirty guns: three racks of ten barrels each were located on a rotating platform. Since early cannons usually took a long time to reload, da Vinci decided to speed up this process: while one row of cannons was firing, the second was reloading, and the third was cooling down after the shots.

6. Water skiing



These “skis” for moving on water were made of skins filled with air and attached to the legs. The idea did not come to fruition, but modern water skis are somewhat similar to them.

7. Aircraft



Da Vinci came up with a design for a device with which a person could soar in the air like a bird, flapping large mechanical wings. At the same time, to flap the wings it was necessary to use the strength of the legs and arms. When creating it, he even studied the anatomy of a bird's wing. However, the project also failed: after all, people cannot fly like birds.

8. Submarine



Another work of da Vinci is a submarine project. His boat did not submerge completely under water and was intended to sink enemy ships. However, the issues of movement and control of the boat remained unresolved.

9. Another submarine



Da Vinci also designed a submarine similar to the Turtle, which was developed in 1776 by American inventor David Bushnell. It was a small one-man submarine. In appearance, it actually resembled a turtle shell.

10. Chariot



Da Vinci's merciless chariot was called the "chariot of death." It was a cart with two horses, and was equipped with four scythes attached to long beams. As the chariot moved forward, the scythes began to spin, destroying everyone in their path. The disadvantage of the invention is that horses are about they were very afraid of the rotating blades - so it was difficult to control them.