Da Vinci's Purposeful Mistakes

puppetman writes "According to a story out today, Leonardo Da Vinci deliberately introduced mistakes in his inventions. The series, Leonardo, produced by the BBC, claims that simple mistakes were introduced; mistakes that would not become apparent until after the contraption was built. The series hypothesizes that this was either a form of patent protection, or a way of ensuring his work did not end up being used for military purposes (Da Vinci was a gay, vegetarian pacifist)."

Comments

Babbage did the same thing

[Caractacus Potts]

Babbage supposedly did the same thing in case spies got ahold of his work.

Babbage printer

Re:Thanks for the insight.

[deepvoid]

Actually artists of the time who were of "respectable" status did not take in young ladies and ask them nicely to take off thier clothes if they ever wanted to get another commision from the church. The artistic schools of the age would often perform the indicated anatomical substitutions once the carefully chaperoned sittings were complete.

Artists who broke this rule were isolated by the church. There were some exceptions, but as a rule, models were as male as the actors of the day.

If he had been a little less inquisitive and a little more compliant he might have ended up as a Jesuit monk, but was considered unsuitable for the holy vocation, somthing which colored his attitude for the rest of his life.

His disdain for sex is more likely due to his devotion to his own mother who was a simple barmaid who could neither read nor write. Her simplicity, yet country horse sense, educated him in compliment to the formal education he recieved from his father's family.

Da Vinci had two qualities which when coupled with his lack of want, produced a great man. Curiosity, and ingenuity.