Successful Leonardo Da Vinci Inventions?

Hello everyone! I have recently been having a look at some of Leonardo's inventions, and was wondering which of them would either be effective in their field or not? And could they have altered Renaissance Society?

Weapons of War:
  • 33 Barreled Cannon, 3 rows of 11 to reduce loading time
  • Giant Crossbow (27 yards across) that fires flaming bombs or rocks
  • Triple Barred Cannon, designed as an adjustable rack for easy movement and rapid deployment
Architectural Inventions:
  • A more accurate clock, with springs instead of weights to help it move
  • Ideal city, based around easy transportation with water also acting as a sewage system, wide roads. Basically, improved medieval cities
  • Spring powered cart that was coiled up and could move along a track after being coiled up
Flying craft:
  • Parachutes, based on a square pyramidal structure with the floor of that being the fabric designed to slow you down.
  • Anemometer (wind speed meter)
Water and Land Machines:
  • Scuba Gear that is far too complicated for me to explain, but could've been used to sink enemy ships.
  • Revolving bridge that used a rope and pulley system that could be used to isolate armies or evacuate armies rapidly.
Source of this: http://www.da-vinci-inventions.com/davinci-inventions.aspx

Thanks for Reading!


-Josh
 
Last edited:

Skallagrim

Banned
The cannon with multiple barrels have a lot of potential, certainly when combined with the adjustable rack. If I recall correctly, he had a design where the gun was placed on a circular board that could turn around in all directions, and the gun could easily be adjusted up and down as well. That allows for a lot of versatility when it comes to aiming. The giant crossbow can be put on the same kind of 'rack', as well. The revolving bridge, similarly, has a lot of potential, although that kind of thing needs to be set up, the exact terrain needs to be accounted for, etc. so that has some drawbacks. Could be very useful in certain situations, and pretty useless in others.

Those inventions are the ones I could see being quite easily adopted in an ATL scenario. All you need is a ruler willing to invest in their use. Interesting fact: Da Vinci collaborated with Machiavelli on an infrastructural project that never succeeded. There is a very cool book about it. Directly from the blurb:

"Few people know that Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli crossed paths when Leonardo worked -- ostensibly as an engineer, possibly as a spy -- in Cesare Borgia's court and Machiavelli was Florence's ambassador there. Soon thereafter, they formed a friendship and an alliance. Astonishingly, during the rich first decade of the sixteenth century, the pair joined together under the inspiration of one of Leonardo's most fantastic dreams: to build a system of canals that would make the Arno River navigable from Florence to the sea. Under Machiavelli's supervision, the Florentine government tried -- and ultimately failed -- to realize a portion of this plan in 1504. The first canal in the scheme had a military purpose, to cut off the water supply of Pisa, Florence's enemy -- but that was only the beginning. Leonardo dreamed of irrigating the Arno valley and controlling its water in order to fill Florence's coffers with tax revenues. He and Machiavelli foresaw the day that Amerigo Vespucci and other explorers would be able to sail from the city center to the sea, to travel over new lands and enrich Florentine merchants. Had the taming of the Arno succeeded, Florence might have become the center of a great world power. Unfortunately, in one of history's most tantalizing might-have-beens, the plans for the Pisa diversion were altered by the engineer in charge, not enough workmen were hired, and the ditches were not dug deeply enough. Not long after a sudden flood destroyed some of the work, the project was abandoned. It was one of a series of failures for Leonardo, who ultimately would depart Florence for Milan, Rome, and France, newly convinced that political power wasessential for an engineer and artist to thrive. For Machiavelli it was another military failure in a roller-coaster political career. If the project had materialized, the Republic might never have been overthrown, and Machiavelli might not have fallen from power and been imprisoned."

The emphasis there is mine. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with it. Have another engineer in charge, and we may well get a very successful long-term co-operation between Da Vinci and Machiavelli. The ATL success of the project would greatly increase both men's status, and they'd be in a position to implement more of Leonardo's cool inventions. The military ones above make a lot of sense to start with, but as the start of the co-operation is an infrastructural project, there's a lot of potential for other things, too.

You might see Florence putting Leonardo's clock in a central place in the city. Newer quarters of the city might be planned out according to Leonardo's urban development ideas, and/or his sewage system might be built. They might even use the spring-powerd carts-on-tracks to move supplies from one end of the city to another. If those things work, just as with the military inventions, they'll soon be imitated elsewhere. Do keep in mind, though, that Leonardo also had his limitations. He wasn't always practical. Hios more fanciful inventions won't be useful. I don't see the scuba gear plan working out very well. The parachute isn't likely to be a big hit, either.
 
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