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526 Years On, Da Vinci's Clockwork Car Constructed

Posted by timothy on from the bright-fella dept.

SimianOverlord writes "The Guardian (and several other news outlets) report on the attempt by Professor Paulo Galluci and his team to build a working model of Leonard Da Vinci's clockwork powered car, designed in 1478. Previous attempts have been made to create the vehicle, but they failed to work properly. This is thought to be due to a misunderstanding of the original design, which is corrected in the new model. Apart from the 1/3 scale replica, the team have also made a full size model but have not dared to test it. Professor Galluzzi explained "It is a very powerful machine. It could run into something and do serious damage.""

14 of 402 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not on the road? by splerdu · · Score: 2, Informative

    DaVinci's car does not have a driver, and could only follow a set program. At least the SUV you mentioned could be steered or stopped. As you imagine a full-scale model might be troublesome...

  2. Found a picture by insanechemist · · Score: 5, Informative

    Was curious about the drawing and found a copy here (Google cache)

    --
    I thought it was a good idea
    1. Re:Found a picture by u-238 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Here's a direct link that will load a hi-res version of his drawings:

      http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/l/leonardo/12engi ne /4device3.html

    2. Re:Found a picture by steveha · · Score: 4, Informative

      Clickable link:

      http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/l/leonardo/12engine /4device3.html

      You can click on the drawing and get a toolbar that lets you resize it, even past 100%. It's convenient.

      Straight to the drawing:

      http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/art/l/leonardo/12engine/ 4device3.jpg

      No toolbar, but if you click the drawing you zoom it to 100% size.

      steveha

      --
      lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
  3. Re:fascinating by Niet3sche · · Score: 2, Informative
    Here we go:

    This is the program I was thinking of - "Medieval Lives"

    It's actually a brilliantly watchable series. ;)

  4. Re:fascinating by Seekerofknowledge · · Score: 5, Informative
    // |/| 4 1 (| |/| 3-3 _| + + 1 _| 0 + '| 3 =| =| |_| 8 3 |-| +
    // 2 |V| '| 0 =| 2 |/| 4 '| + |/| 0 1 + ) |/| |_| =| 2 1 |-| +
    void to_little_endian(void * buffer) {

    Whew, I finally figured out what that said. It only took about 5 mins, a mirror, and some head-scratching.

    For all of those who don't have a mirror handy, or are too lazy (who are we kidding :), it says:

    the buffer to little-endian
    this function transforms


    One more thing:
    I guess this function knows how big a buffer to convert? I mean, is it converting some words to little-endian or dwords? hmm, what about 64-bit ints? Doesn't seem very clear. I hope this didn't come out of the Linux kernel :P
  5. Re:Turns only to the right? by Emperor+Igor · · Score: 2, Informative

    Cariolis Effect, I believe, should have no effect on the movement of cars around a track unless the track is very big, as in spanning a large ways north and south (hundreds of miles) and the cars are floating above the track or something. As Cariolis Effect explains the motion of something like clouds traveling southward on the greath sphere that is the Earth (link).

    Contrary to popular belief and that hilarious episode of the Simpsons water doesn't necessarily flush in a different direction on the southern hemisphere :P There is no "natural" tendency of rotation on the different hemispheres. Or, now, am I missing something even further about the Cariolis effect? I could be. I'm terrible at the sciences.

  6. Here is a pic of the machine.... by cowmix · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/automobile/

  7. Re:Impressive.... by Lt.Hawkins · · Score: 2, Informative

    actually, the design of _his_ actual parachute was only recently tested. (essentially a pyramid of fabric around a square frame at the base)

    This was documented on the Imax "Adrenaline Rush" film and was cool as hell!

    --
    -- My Sig is a P228.
  8. Re:Turns only to the right? by CrowScape · · Score: 4, Informative

    They can make that claim, but it wouldn't be true, as the first computer predated Da Vinci by about 1500 years. It's called the Antikythera Device which could calculate the positions of the sun, moon and planets.

    --
    common sense: noun
    What those who are ignorant of the subject matter think; usually wrong.
  9. Re:Picture of car by chevybowtie · · Score: 5, Informative

    For a hires version, try here

  10. tech specs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    This site contains a lot of the original da vinci models and drawings

  11. Re:fascinating by Fancia · · Score: 2, Informative

    But going back in the history of the church, you won't find that everyone suggests that you *should* go to the bible for science. In his Literal Commentaries on Genesis, St. Augustine (~300 A.D.) warns Christians *not* to take it as creation science. Augustine was very much against literal interpretations of the bible; in fact, it's this claim of religion as science that drove him away from the Manichee cult and towards Christianity. The spiritual interpretation of the bible appealed to him greatly.

    --

    Bít, zabít, jen proto, ze su liska!
  12. Re:fascinating by Knetzar · · Score: 2, Informative

    Remember that it's backwards, that means read right to left, bottom to top. It says "This function transforms the buffer to little-endian."

    Now who wants to take bets that someone will write a program/script to translate text into backwards 733+ speek?