Da Vinci Bridge Built 134
cluening writes: "A bridge designed about 500 years ago by Leonardo Da Vinci has finally been built. It's mighty cool that something envisioned so long ago has actually been created with relatively little trouble." See also the project's home page.
Re:Does it Work? (Score:1)
Re:Does it Work? (Score:1)
As an afterthought, I hope it does work seeing as they've built the bugger
Re:Does it Work? (Score:1)
Was this a DaVinci work?
Well I'll be tickled! I thought it was a 0/2 flying artifact with a 1-colorless mana casting cost!
Wow.
Re:Does it Work? (Score:2)
THE most irritating creatures when used with giant groath or something
Re:Does it Work? (Score:1)
No, its just a scale replica. (Score:2)
Using todays technologies and materials we could easily do it, but the egos of states and engineers would get in the way.
Re:No, its just a scale replica. (Score:2)
Re:No, its just a scale replica - with bandaids on (Score:2)
Notice in the picture the four T shaped supports holding up the spans outside the bows. Even with these supports the near span is visibly sagging. In DaVinci's design that area was to be filled with masonry, I hope they do something other than leave those inappropriate supports in place.
And while I suppose the handrails are required by local building codes, they do spoil the entire effect. All those little vertical lines ruin the effect the clean span. Of course, a series of fatal accidents involving skateboarders and bicyclists falling onto the highway below would probably also spoil the bridge's reputation...
(And no, I have no idea how to make a visually appropriate hand rail. I'm not an architect, just a critic.
Re:No, its just a scale replica - with bandaids on (Score:1)
Around here, any footbridge that goes over a roadway is completely enclosed. If they didn't do that, at least once every year, some kids would drop bricks or something on cars as passed under. Some people were killed on the Autobahn like this a few years ago. Brick goes through windshield at 160kph...
Re:No, its just a scale replica - with bandaids on (Score:3, Informative)
If you look at the model [vebjorn-sand.com], you can see that the sag is part of the design. I'd be interested to know how this would have been done with stone, and without rebar :).
Safety and $$$ (Score:3, Interesting)
That being said, if there was another added benefit (strength, cost) would it be possible to create that bridge for automobiles? If anyone who knows more about architecture than I do has an answer, I'd like to know.
Re:Safety and $$$ (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Safety and $$$ (Score:2)
Despite that, I did get a little bit of training in engineering in College. I'd have to guess that the design probably isn't ideal, because Leonardo did not have the benefit of differential equations, modern material science, etc. Engineering was by trial and error back in the day.
But, that bridge sure looks good, and I'd be we could build the bridge today, out of steel and concrete, across the Bosporus. That would be really cool, although the Turks would have to be willing to throw the extra money around.
P.S.: Leonardo, your Workshop rules. Now I can upgrade my Civ III Spearsmen to Riflemen for only 60 gold a pop! Sweet!!
Overbudget (Score:5, Funny)
"The laminated timber version, to be built by the firm best known for engineering the innovative "Viking Ship" skating arena for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway, Moelven Laminated Group, is estimated to cost a modest $466,000"
Leonardo envisioned the bridge in stone. When that proved too expensive, the Norwegians settled for a graceful wooden version for $1.36 million.
A 200% cost overrun. Still, it's cheaper than most dot-coms furniture bill.
Re:Overbudget (Score:3, Funny)
My boss would consider that normal. OTOH, the 500 year schedule slip is a tad much even by software development standards.
Celebrating a Contender (Score:3, Interesting)
Bridges schmidges! (Score:1)
-how about a hub then? Or was that covered by the invention of the wheel?
Re:Bridges schmidges! (Score:2)
IBM built some very cool models [leonet.it] of his other works but they are now here [leonet.it] (in English) [leonet.it]
Re:Celebrating a Contender (Score:2)
Re:It's not "da Vinci"; it's "Leonardo". (Score:1)
bau
Re:It's not "da Vinci"; it's "Leonardo". (Score:5, Informative)
Not quite. Remember that Leonardo was born in 1452, well before modern European naming conventions developed. His full name of 'Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci' means "Leonardo, sired by Piero, from Vinci".
So whilst "da Vinci" is the last chunk of his name, referring to this bridge as the work of "da Vinci" effectively means attributing it to "some bloke from Vinci". If he'd been born 400 years later, "da Vinci" would have been reasonably described as a surname, as it is, it stands as a reasonably useful way of referring to the man, but then so does 'Leonardo', which, as Kazzuya points out, has the benefit of being how the artist himself signed his work (let's not get into the 350 different ways Wm Sheakspeer spelled his name...)
TomV
Re:It's not "da Vinci"; it's "Leonardo". (Score:5, Interesting)
Leonardo actually signed most of his stuff as Io, Leonardo ("I, Leonardo").
Until relatively recently, most people were known as So-and-So from Some-Place, possibly with the addition of Son or Daughter of Somebody. There just wasn't enough travel or communication to make any finer-granularity naming scheme necessary.
To this day Russians use the So-and-so, Son/Daughter of Somebody form, which is the usual adult form of address. Icelanders form names like this too. The Celtic patronymics Mc/Mac are well known.
Examples: Mikhail Sergeyevich ("son of Sergei") Gorbachev, Bjork Gudmundsdottir.
In France having la particule "de" in one's name is positively fashionable. People search family trees to find any justification for using it. They may even invent justification: one of Napoleon's colleagues changed his name from Demorny to de Morny.
All we have in Canada is a popular TV show called Da Vinci's Inquest [davincisinquest.com].
...laura of Vancouver, daughter of Dennis
Re:It's not "da Vinci"; it's "Leonardo". (Score:1)
Re:It's not "da Vinci"; it's "Leonardo". (Score:1)
OK, so strictly, village-wise, he was born in Anchiano, a full 3 km from the town of Vinci, on April 15 1452, but he was baptised in the chapel of Vinci, and his family moved there when Leonardo was five. His father was a public official in Vinci, Vinci was the centre of the parish and the local administrative centre. Leonardo lived there until he was 14 (very much adult in those days) when he moved to Firenze (Florence). Trust me, I'm a librarian!
TomV
Re:It's not "da Vinci"; it's "Leonardo". (Score:1)
Not quite I say (Score:1)
Meaning Sir Piero da Vinci was his father.
You explained the origin of last names but doesn't mean that's not a last name.
Infact there are three names in the full naming convention of Leonardo, and the last name is Vinci (most likely the name of a city).
Re:It's not "da Vinci"; it's "Leonardo". (Score:2)
Not quite it will translate perfectly, though convention is that the only translation applicable to proper nouns is where there are incompatable alphabets involved.
Where problems arise is officialdom assuming that all names conform to a personal name/family name format (with an optional "auxillary" name.) When there are plenty of people who's names simply do not follow this format.
Re:It's not "da Vinci"; it's "Leonardo". (Score:1)
Its little outdated, but still used.
Just a little FYI.
Re:It's not "da Vinci"; it's "Leonardo". (Score:1)
Nordmenn elsker bruer (Score:2, Interesting)
Hats off to the norwegians for cool engineering and no fear of new (and old) designs.
Now, if someone could tell me please, when do they close the fjords at night?
Another cool old bridge (Score:5, Interesting)
The PBS show NOVA [pbs.org] did a program [pbs.org] about engineers trying to recreate the famous Rainbow Bridge shown in this this [pbs.org] 900-year-old painting.
It is widely believed that the bridge actually existed in China centuries ago, but it's actual design was a bit of a mystery. Using the famous painting as a guide, they were able to come up with a feasable design using wood and ropes. They eventually built a full sized bridge in a Chinese village. The bridge was remarkably strong [pbs.org] for a millenium-old design.
NOVA has to be one of the coolest shows around...
Re:Another cool old bridge (Score:1)
Re:Another cool old bridge (Score:1)
Re:Another cool old bridge (Score:2)
Secrets of Lost Empires on Nova rocks!
Da Vinci bicycle (Score:5, Interesting)
I even rode it to class a few times. Nothing attracts attention like riding your extremely loud wooden bicycle to class.
We ended up not having a place to store for the summer it so we simply locked it to a bike rack and left it as art. It lasted as art for several months before being removed.
Re:Da Vinci bicycle (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Da Vinci bicycle (Score:3, Interesting)
Overall it was pretty sturdy, but I only rode it for a few days. I didn't dare give it heavy use prior to having the project graded. Then I had to leave campus a few days after it was turned in. It was heavy and not very comfortable to ride but really the lack of steering was the only real deficiency. We couldn't see from the drawing how it would have been steerable. Perhaps with an axle in the frame mounted behind the front wheel. Maybe someday I'll build it right.
Re:Da Vinci bicycle (Score:2)
Everything old is new again. (Score:2, Insightful)
Genius if forever.
Fashion can make a day seem forever.
More Info (Score:1, Redundant)
This bridge doesnt look too good in the photos to date, anyone got links to more detailed ones?
Maybe not the vidication everybody thinks it is (Score:4, Insightful)
First, the actual bridge is much smaller than the bridge that DaVinci envisioned. When you scale things down, they get stronger due to the cube/square law (strength varies as the square of size, mass as the cube - halving the size of an object reduces strength to a quarter, but reduces mass (and thus needed strength) to an eighth).
Second, the actual bridge is using laminated lumber, rather than the stone DaVinci specified. Wood is a very strong substance, and will flex rather than crumble like stone.
The project page is
Re:Maybe not the vidication everybody thinks it is (Score:1)
For me DaVinci's inventions are not going to be "better" than what we invented in the last few hundred years. He did however show incredible creativity. IMHO (which isn't much when I am not talking about biology or C/C++ programming ) its not the fact that it is "better" than current, its the fact that it was thought of hundreds of years before it was possible to complete.
Mirror of project page (Score:2, Informative)
[google.com]
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:kyvmjWinIt
Wibbly Wobbly Bridge (Score:1)
Andrew
Re:Wibbly Wobbly Bridge (Score:1)
Engineers 1, Architects 0
there's a sucker born every few centuries (Score:5, Funny)
"I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you"
-- Da Vinci, 1502 AD
"No Thanks"
-- Sultan Bajazet II, 1502 AD
"Where do I sign?"
-- Norwegian Highway Department, 2001 AD
Reminds me ... (Score:3, Informative)
Assembly Techiques (Score:3, Funny)
What I want to know is did they use those hex keys to assemble it, and can I get one in Ikea?
Re:Assembly Techiques (Score:1)
Leonardo's methods are the way forward (Score:3, Interesting)
While his designs may not be right for the modern world, the way he dabbled in every form of science was amazing. If only more scientists could see beyond the tunnel-vision of their specialism to get a grasp of the 'big picture' the way Leonardo did.
Modern scientists such as Professor Stephen Hawking are truly geniusses, but they lack the all round scientific insight to be productive. How many bridges have been built by theoretical physicists ? ;-)
I think the problem is the education system which forces us by the 'major' system to specialise rather than follow our interests. This has to change as we move forward into the 21st century.
Re:Leonardo's methods are the way forward (Score:2, Informative)
On the other hand, if we used our education system to encourage everyone to do everything, I think we'd have a lot of non-genius folks who would just suck at lots of things. We're probably better off just letting the geniuses figure out that they're destined for bigger & better things.
Re:Leonardo's methods are the way forward (Score:4, Interesting)
The problem is, the "big picture" doesn't pay. That type of science is called "blue-sky" research, and there aren't that many companies (besides the US Gov, IBM, GE) that are willing or can afford to maintain such research groups. Unless you specialize, you don't get funding. A lot of researchers would love to be generalists, dabbling in everything and trying to come up with something new. However, unless you pick a specialty, you don't get funding from the school. You don't get research grants. You can't pay off your student loans. So you specialize.
No, he designed a non-working machine that sorta looks like a helicopter. He also designed a non-working device that looks like a parachute but would kill the user. I think one of the criteria for an "invention" is that it works. I don't think you can get a US Patent on a non-working device.
Every Single One. The designers might not have had a nice shiny plaque on the door that said "theoretical physicist", but the Roman Aquaducts weren't designed by peasants throwing rocks around hoping they would stay together. Even the fallen tree over the stream. Some bright individual had been using deadfalls to cross streams, and thought to himself - "hey, I could cut down a tree and lay it across *myself* instead of having to hike all the way up here". He was a theoretical physicists. So was DaVinci for that matter, although he rarely put theory into practice. Theoretical and physicist are relative terms remember depending on what the general pool of knowledge was in that time period.
Nothing forces you to specialize into something you don't like. You choose your major. You choose the topic for your thesis. You choose which research grants to apply for. You choose which to accept.
I chose not to pursue a degree in theoretical mathematics. I choose to instead be a dirt poor novelist struggling to pay my massive school loans working as a helpdesk tech. It was my choice to leave the system. Everyone has that choice.
Not to say the school system doesn't have problems and couldn't use a LOT of reform at the primary and secondary levels. That I don't have an answer for.
Re:Leonardo's methods are the way forward (Score:2)
No, he was an Engineer, and probably proud of it.
Re:Leonardo's methods are the way forward (Score:1)
Ugg: No, ever since he put that log across the stream he's been all "holier than thou" to the rest of us.
Ogg: Damn engineers. When will they learn to leave well enough alone? If some supernatural being we haven't gotten around to naming yet wanted us to use trees to cross streams, he would have given us something to cut down those trees.
Ugg: Did you see what Trogg used to chop down the tree? He didn't chew it like the rest of us, he used a rock tied to a stick! I hear he's also playing with fire too. Calls it cooking. Says it will revolutionalize eating. I'm telling you Ogg, there's something wrong with that kid.
Ogg: {shakes head}
Leonardo's parachute (Score:2)
Actually, according to another post [slashdot.org] in this discussion, his parachute actually worked quite well, even being made of materials and with tools of the time.
Ahh, now that might be possible. According to the article, the person who tried it cut himself free 2000 feet above the ground and switched to a modern parachute to avoid injury.
Cheers......
Re:Leonardo's methods are the way forward (Score:2)
Re:Leonardo's methods are the way forward (Score:1)
Re:Leonardo's methods are the way forward (Score:1)
mchawking.com
Re:Leonardo's methods are the way forward (Score:1)
Archimedes mirror (Score:4, Funny)
could somebody build a scaled down version of Archmedes mirror and mirror this Leonardo bridge site so I can see the pictures? Use wood if you need to.
There is no truth to the rumor that Slashdot is the modern equivalent of the hemlock that Socrates drank.
Re:Archimedes mirror (Score:1)
http://www.indigo.com/magnify/gphmgnfy/plastic-
I coined the term magnifying glass as I built this wonderous machine, one that collects the rays of the sun and can focus them on a single point, causing fire.
The bridge looks abit... small. (Score:1)
I have a mirror for the pictures (Score:2, Informative)
I was able to get the pictures off the website and I have put them in a .zip file and I am sharing them on WinMX [winmx.com]. I also included this note along with the pictures.
Original story: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/01/135215
Pictures obtained from: http://www.vebjorn-sand.com/thebridge.htm
From: AnotherBrian
These files are probably copyrighted, I have made them avaible through other means in order to allow people who can not access the above web site due to the 'Slashdot Effect'. The files will be removed from my server 48 houres after the posting date of the artical above. Please do the same.
Find it by searching for: [SLASHDOT When I'm at my computer I will try to give this file 1st priority. It's hard (for me) to tell if a site will be /.'ed and if the pictures won't be avaible to others. I'm wondering what the rest of you think. It would be nice for the first posters to follow my example for sites that could go down quickly. How many of you would be willing to take some time to do the same? I think I have a nice template for setting up mirrors, (suggestions welcome).
What impresses me... (Score:1, Interesting)
Typical Leonardo.
In other news... (Score:1)
One onlooker praised its amazing "rolling" motion, saying that, "It's mighty cool that something envisioned so long ago has actually been created with relatively little trouble."
No animals or reputations were hurt during the wheel's construction.
reminds me of newtons bridge (Score:2)
Newton designed/built a bridge over the river cam in Cambridge
It had no bolts and held together with gravity
Students could not work out how it worked
One night pissed they took it apart to find out
And they could not put it back now its held with bolts !
bridges are fun no matter how much tech people get them wrong witness the London millennium bridge
(it swayed so much you could not walk over it !)
regards
john jones
Re:reminds me of newtons bridge (Score:1)
http://www.quns.cam.ac.uk/Queens/Images/WinBridg.
Re:reminds me of newtons bridge (Score:1)
they do lie then (-;
regards
john jones
Re:reminds me of newtons bridge (Score:1)
Usually urban myths are at least _somewhat_ likely
Praise be to deferred intentions. (Score:2)
Architectural critic Herbert Muschamp thinks it's a great project, something the New York skyline has been waiting for. "The possibilities for integrity are limited only by the mind's capacity to hold unity and complexity together. That is the capacity that distinguishes architecture from real estate," he says.
(Yes, I know that reading this entire article requires a dollar for a print copy or a free registration, but in my opinion it was well worth it.)
Sure, it's JUST like his design... (Score:3, Funny)
And the Boeing 777 is just like his airplane design too, except for being bigger and a different shape and made out of different materials.
Re:Sure, it's JUST like his design... (Score:1)
The scale of the bridge and the material that it is made of are not the issue. The bridge built by the Norwegians follows the same structural design as his bridge.
A year ago to the DAY (Score:3, Insightful)
His ideas are bizarre at best. Yet we already have the Helicopter. We now also have his Bridge. And some people think he was the father of photography. I have seen his paintings, his sketches, and models of his projects. They never cease to amaze me.
Perhaps he was a genius. Perhaps he was a lunatic. Either way, I wish someday I could have the insight that he had, and be as absolutely "crazy" as he was.
More pix can be found here: (Score:3, Informative)
Dagbladet 2 [dagbladet.no]
Aftenposten 1 [aftenposten.no] - english text with a nice pic.
Aftenposten 2 [aftenposten.no] picture special.
Pages also include some text for those of us who can read Nowegian.
It is a silly bridge... (Score:1)
It's just a model.
What was the original design length, really? (Score:1)
Re:What was the original design length, really? (Score:1)
Leonardo... (Score:4, Informative)
Now, I am not an engineer - and the arguments made are valid. But I do know a bit about Da Vinci - and the one thing he wasn't is incompetent.
If it was to be made of wood - he would have designed it that way - he knew about composite construction, from designing and building large (and not so large) torsion and bow-based siege engines for various sponsors. Many of his designs were meant to be done in wood, actually - others in stone, and still other in a combinations, which included metals and glass (optics, in that case).
He not only designed, but built large scale machines for boring long lengths of both wood and metal (for water pipes and cannons, respectively). These are large scale constructions and projects - I have no doubt that his full scale construction, as intended in stone, could be realized as he planned.
It is true that he saw farther than most men, and did lapse in areas that were more conjecture than real things that could work (his helicopter and ornithopter designs would likely not work - but they saw far, at the least - his parachute would have been fragile, and wouldn't have worked too well - but it has been built and tested - and it did work better than thought). But most of works are truely the "stuff of legends".
Here we are - 500 years after this man's death - still discussing, still trying out his ideas, ideals, and plans. I think of the sketched self-portrait of his as an old-man - as well as various other images I have seen of him. A powerful, muscular individual. This was a man intent on improving his mind, his body, and the world around him. It has been said that he was strong enough to bend an iron horseshoe with his bare hands - yet gentle enough to not harm an insect. He was supposedly a vegetarian. I have also heard he may have been homosexual.
None of this changes my image of the man - this man is a man to aspire to be like. A true individual who walked on the earth - and made it a better place through art, science, compassion, and dignity.
The Vinci Parachute - same story (Score:2)
A 1500' stone arch? That would be something (Score:2)
It's probably possible to build such a monster, but the falsework needed to hold up all that granite during construction would in itself be a huge bridge. Steel bridges are usually self-supporting while under construction, but that doesn't work for stone, which has zilch tensile strength. It would probably take more work building the temporary structures to hold up all that stone than to build a bridge som other way.
Other nice bridges... (Score:1)
"Tell me if anything ever was done" (Score:1)