526 Years On, Da Vinci's Clockwork Car Constructed

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.""

fascinating

[msim]

It's taken them long enough to figure it out.

I guess that 2 things can be learned from this
1) Da Vinci was a genius ahead of his own time
2) Document your frigging drawings! were not all mind readers ya know!

Re:fascinating

[natrius]

The fact that his drawings weren't commented is what tipped us off to his genius in the first place. Everyone knows smart people don't comment.

Re:fascinating

[LordK3nn3th]

By your logic the windows source code should be documented to all hell, while the linux source code has roughly three comments in it.

Re:fascinating

[nacturation]

By your logic the windows source code should be documented to all hell, while the linux source code has roughly three comments in it.

No, no... in Linux, the comments are written *backwards*.

Re:fascinating

[E_elven]

Seen in actual code

// |/| 4 1 (| |/| 3-3 _| + + 1 _| 0 + '| 3 =| =| |_| 8 3 |-| +
// 2 |V| '| 0 =| 2 |/| 4 '| + |/| 0 1 + ) |/| |_| =| 2 1 |-| +
void to_little_endian(void * buffer) {
...

Re:fascinating

[Seekerofknowledge]

// |/| 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

Re:fascinating

[Knetzar]

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?

Re:fascinating

[kfg]

Particularly smart people before the advent of a patent system.

Once upon a time, in a New World far, far away from it's cultural origins, there arose a new nation, founded by men who thought very hard about what they were doing and, for the most part, got things pretty right (there are always men who think only of their own benefit who muck up the system).

Thomas Jefferson got the patent system pretty right, and while things were under his direct control the system worked very well and Leonardo (had he come to America) would have felt free to publish and comment without fear, and the public would not have had to wait hundreds of years for his ideas to become freely available to them. This system actually stood as a model for the world for 100 years.

But extraordinary men are always replaced by lesser men.

Patents are not the problem. Patents are the solution to a problem that most people have forgotten existed. Except, perhaps, those trying to create corporeal versions of Leonardo's drawings.

The problem is protectionism bolstered by greed. Congress, of course, is supposed to represent the people in creating systems that allow the people to engage in profit making enterprises without abrogating the rights of the people.

But congress, for the most part, is made up of these lesser men, driven by protectionism and greed.

"What if you were an idiot? And what if you were a member of congress? But I repeat myself." --Mark Twain.

KFG

Re:fascinating

[black mariah]

I've been trying to explain this to people for years. When handled properly, patents are in the best interest of everyone. Leonardo had to have other ways of protecting his work, namely his weird code.

Re:fascinating

[rzbx]

"...that only exist because of patents."

I'm sorry you believe this. Who exactly told you this? Did you read this somewhere? Was it part of your history class in high school? PATENTS DO NOT FURTHER SCIENCE. Patents are a legal document that are claimed to exist for incentive purposes, but used more so as protection against competition. You have no idea what science is if you believe that patents are somehow directly involved in progress in science and technology. The idea that patents help progress i

Re:fascinating

[fenix down]

Although he certaintly encoded his work on things other than weapons, mostly after he got old, his defense contractor work is most of what's encoded. Leonardo didn't give a shit about intellectual property, he had patrons. He didn't have to worry about the artist down the block stealing his animatronic kight design and taking over his contract with Wal-Mart. He got paid even when he didn't produce anything, which is actually what happened most of the time, and why he changed patrons more often than he changed his underwear.

He encoded the tanks and the ballistas and everything in case the wrong guy wanted to build them. He encoded other things for his own reasons, but he never encoded anything because he was afraid that Italian noblemen would start paying for the bragging rights of having the guy who ripped off Da Vinci stay in the guest house.

Re:fascinating

[kfg]

And the modern term for "patron" is "employer."

In the case of the machinery of warfare the federal government often takes the place of the Lord, as they stand in much the same relationship to one another.

The government often employs its own patent systems to protect the ideas embodied in its war machines, since those 'secrets' never remain secret very long after a device is actually produced.

Perhaps that's an underlying reason why governments have been so willing to extend the protections of patents beyo

Re:fascinating

[Hast]

Leonardo (had he come to America) would have felt free to publish and comment without fear

Though I think he would have had to fear the general public instead. When the patent system was passed by congress Leonardo had been dead for over 200 years. Him coming to America and walking around then would probably have caused quite a stir. ;-)

It is however true that the idea of patents are a good thing. Encouraging people to freely share their ideas is good. However in the current implementations patent systems

Re:fascinating

[geekoid]

top 2 things overheard in Da Vinci's lab:

"Even a simplten with a mere IQ of 210 will be able to understand these drawings, no need to document"

"Surely, everybody will want to read my writing as if they are looking into a mirror."

top 2 things heard in developers cubes:
"If it's hard to write, it should be hard to read"

"My code is self documenting"

Re:fascinating

[endx7]

"My code is self documenting"

Hey, not all of us are cobol programmers!

Re:fascinating

[geekoid]

That, from someone who grew up using c!?!

Re:fascinating

[Radical Rad]

"Even a simplten with a mere IQ of 210 will be able to understand these drawings, no need to document"

I saw somewhere that DaVinci purposely put flaws into his drawings as a type of copy protection. Only another genius would be able to see the flaw and build the device correctly. This would come in handy if his plans were stolen or captured since many of his designs were commissioned for siege craft.

Re:fascinating

[kfg]

In fact, my experience is that only another genius would recognize that the work of a genius could have flaws that require correcting.

Most people are sheep and blindly follow "the directions," even when those directions result in nonfunctioning items. They blame the nonfunctionality on themselves, rather than on the design.

Hence the notations you'll find on many processed food products these days, "You'll find that this might taste good with a little cheese on it. Or maybe some salt." They have to be told to "think outside the box," as it were. Many people get all weird about the idea of even modifying a published recipe. The published version is the "correct" version in their minds. Perhaps this phemonenon is a good part of why some people get all weird about the idea of open source software. They need to feel that out there, somewhere, is a definatively "correct" version, handed down from the mountain engraved on stone tablets by some programing god or other.

Most people who play classical music play it as if they were some sort of flawed mechanism in a player piano whose function is to reproduce the markings on the paper as closely, and mechanically, as possible.

The musical genius recognizes that the markings on the paper are one genius talking to another genius, saying, "Hey, look at this idea," and interprets the music.

KFG

Re:fascinating

[no longer myself]

Most people are sheep and blindly follow "the directions," even when those directions result in nonfunctioning items. They blame the nonfunctionality on themselves, rather than on the design.

I will disagree on one point. The sheep these days never accept blame, and make claim that the designer was an idiot, and it's obviously just junk.

And I do agree with your point about OSS. Many times it would almost take a genious to follow those directions to the letter, but even if you did, it would most likely fail. You have to think on your feet to spot little details for your particular situation (as everyone has their own unique situation) and make adjustments.

The musical genius recognizes that the markings on the paper are one genius talking to another genius, saying, "Hey, look at this idea," and interprets the music.

That reminds me of Mozart's "Ein musikalischer Spass". Only now people are starting to realize the true genious behind it. Ironic that any "bird brain" [whyfiles.org] could have figured it out. ;-)

Naturally, I'm partial to jokes... even subtle ones.

Re:fascinating

[LilGuy]

Reminds me of grade school. No matter which class, there would always be some kid sitting next to me, peeking over at my paper. I'd act like I didn't notice/care, but secretly mark wrong answers. As soon as they finished their test, I'd go back and change them to the right answers.

I fooled kids for many years that way. No one ever confronted me as to why I always had a higher grade than they did.
Served them right.

hmm,

[way2trivial]

I always just changed my scantron form to make it indicate it was the new 'master' scantron machines (the ones my school had) scored cards marked as masters as a perfect score (0 missed) and to the hell with the forms folliwng mine.

Re:hmm,

[ajs318]

Marking machines?!

I'm glad I'm British, where teachers still read pupils' answers. In my day, we almost always used to have to answer in complete sentences rather than giving an answer from among multiple choices. That taught us to form proper sentences.

Re:hmm,

[bluGill]

As I recall teachers were onto that trick. I don't recall how, I think the machine beeped differently after that master page was run though. Even if not though, it only takes a moment to check for that box while coping the score down. At least they all said they were, I never tried it, it is easy for someone to catch if they are looking for it so you have to assume someone who says they are onto it really is.

Re:fascinating

[Lumpy]

A food preparer follows the recipie.. a Great chef looks at the recipie for the general idea, throws it aside and then creates the meal.

Great Chef's also are extremely happy to tell you all about that meal, even the ingredients and enough information that another chef can reproduce it very well, if not exactly.. althoguh the taste will still be different as you cannot recreate the chef's steps exactly... not even the great chef can reproduce his creations exactly.

The Best minds in the world are happy to share with you how it was done... it is the no talent hacks with something to hide that favor hiding everything from view.

Re:fascinating

[geekoid]

hehe, It's the little touches that make it funny.

Re:fascinating

[Niet3sche]

DaVinci was a genius, yes. However, I am no longer so inclined to say that he was ahead of his time. Quite a bit of our current view of the "backward-thinking" dark/middle ages comes about from (can't remember his name now - he wrote "Sleepy Hollow"). Also, they apparently KNEW the world was round - Columbus did NOT make that discovery, and it was NOT against Church doctrine. I caught a program by Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) [I believe] and he was going through and outlining this. It was really an amazing insight into the time. So ... they were actually NOT the "backward savages" that we're inclined to believe, nor was the Church such a crushingly obtuse entity with respect to science - seems it was in its best interest to encourage people to check out and unravel God's workings - to get to better know the mind of God. Sooooo ... it was a great program, anyway.

Re:fascinating

[Niet3sche]

Here we go:

This is the program I was thinking of - "Medieval Lives" [hillingdontimes.co.uk]

It's actually a brilliantly watchable series. ;)

Re:fascinating

[emarkp]

Yes, the Greeks knew the world was round because the shadow on the moon during a lunar eclipse was always round. Also, a greek librarian (Eratosthenes of Cyrene) figured out the size of the Earth from his books and a little measurement.

Columbus' success was based on two things: 1) He vastly underestimated the size of the Earth (even compared to other estimates of the time) and 2) got really lucky that the Americas were in the way.

Re:fascinating

[operagost]

Four corners = four compass directions. Like the phrase "you say that I am," it's an ancient expression that modern people like to misinterpret.

Stars = shooting stars.
Since Hebrew doesn't have the word "meteor", it would have been difficult to have it any other way.

Your mention of pi equaling three proves that you are just another atheist parroting an oft-repeated fallacy - because it's not God that creates the "sea" (the bowl or tub) but Solomon. Number one, since all the measurements of the bowl are given in round figures, there's no way pi would every pop up exactly. Number two, they were probably measuring the outside circumference of the bowl. Since the rim is described as opening like a "lily blossom", this measurement would have resulted in numbers that were slightly "off".

Re:fascinating

[Fancia]

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.

Turns only to the right?

[bearl]

A programmable steering mechanism allows it go straight, or turn at pre-set angles. But only to the right.

To the right? That's of no use! Reprogram that sucker to turn left and send it to NASCAR.

Re:Turns only to the right?

[rchatterjee]

or they could always just decide to have races with this kind of car going the opposite direction on the track.

Re:Turns only to the right?

[LostCluster]

The reason why they turn to the left in NASCAR is because that turn creates a downward force on the car. A right turn at such a high speed create an upward force, and could risk the cars loosing grip with the pavement which would send a car straight toward the wall at the curve.

Re:Turns only to the right?

[corbettw]

That's odd, I thought the drivers in NASCAR races turned left mostly because they race on oval tracks in America. I'm sure if NASCAR suddenly became popular in Britain or Australia, they'd all be making right hand turns.

Re:Turns only to the right?

[Xzzy]

Uh, they turn left in NASCAR because they drive on an oval, and go counterclockwise.

If they turned right they'd slam into the wall, no matter what kind of downforce they lost. If the race was set up to go clockwise turning right would be exactly the same as turning left does currently. :P

Turning left is supposedly a trait carried over from horse races.

Re:Turns only to the right?

[YU Nicks NE Way]

No, that's only true in the Northern hemisphere. It's the other way around down South.

Here is an official explanation

[geekoid]

of that guys post here [reference.com]

Re:Turns only to the right?

[ajs318]

Australian and British WCs are mostly of the "washdown" design. The entire basin is really just the belled-out mouth of a U-bend. The waste pipe (110mm is standard in the UK) goes over a weir of about 10cm., then usually exits backwards through an outside wall. As a result there is not much water in the bottom of the basin, just enough to seal the trap; this acts like a brewer's airlock to prevent sewer gases from entering the house. The flushwater pushes the contents of the basin backwards, up and ov

Re:Turns only to the right?

[CrowScape]

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.

Clockwork Car?

[haRDon]

I wonder if it'll get you to work on time?

Re:Clockwork Car?

[nacturation]

And what about the colors... does it come in Clockwork Orange?

Re:Clockwork Car?

[DarkHelmet]

Alex: "IT'S A SIN! IT'S A SIN!"

Dr: "Sin? What's all this about sin?"

Alex Points to the car... "THAT!"

Impressive....

[Yoda2]

...but the real headline will be when someone successfully pilots one of his flying machines!

Re:Impressive....

[electrichamster]

This has been done - There was a programme on Channel 4 (UK) about three weeks ago in which they successfully built his glider and flew it. It flew very well, although it was apparently like nothing that currently exists with regards to handling, and it had no yaw (I think thats the word) at all.

Re:Impressive....

[Yoda2]

Forgot about the glider. I was thinking more of that crazy helicopter thing.

Re:Impressive....

[uberdave]

People have been using parachutes for years.

The other Leonardo's car

[Anonymous Coward]

They should create a replica of the turtle van used in the old cartoon, now that would be worthwhile science!

Is it just me...

[Chmcginn]

Or does it seem like there must be something else going on that makes them not want to test their model. Consider:

The springs are wound up by rotating the wheels in the opposite direction to the one in which it is meant to go.

"It is a very powerful machine," Professor Galluzzi said. So powerful that although they have made a full-scale "production model", they have not dared test it. "It could run into something and do serious damage," he said.

If the springs are wound by rotating in the opposite direction... why not just wind it up only a few meters in the middle of a large parking lot? Can't go any further than you wind it...

Re:Is it just me...

[trick-knee]

> Can't go any further than you wind it...

maybe it coasts?

still, you've a good point. THEY'RE HIDING SOMETHING!!

Re:Is it just me...

[physicsphairy]

If the springs are wound by rotating in the opposite direction... why not just wind it up only a few meters in the middle of a large parking lot? Can't go any further than you wind it...

Well, yes it can. As a matter of fact, it can go arbitrarily far with arbitrary impulse, depending on the mechanism inside it that stores the energy. (There are, of course, technological limitations and some limitations of physical law on the extreme end)

You don't know how much energy it takes to wind this thing back a few meters. It could easily be tend times the energy required to move it forward a few meters. Think of a cross bow. You only "wind" the bow back a fraction of a meter at most. Does in any way limit the distance the bolt will fly to just a fraction of a meter?

Re:Is it just me...

[general_re]

You don't know how much energy it takes to wind this thing back a few meters. It could easily be tend times the energy required to move it forward a few meters.

For a minute there, I was worried that I only imagined those spring-powered cars from my childhood, the ones that shot across the room after being pulled back a foot or two ;)

Re:Is it just me...

[t_allardyce]

The arrow is restricted by the amount of energy you put in - ie you can easily 'feel' that the force your pulling with will make the arrow embed itself into the nearest tree, or fall to the ground 2 meters away. similarly the car is restricted by the amount of energy put in which could be measured, or just put a stupidly small amount of energy in for a small amount of time and its safe. I dont know why they dont test it, maybe they're the sort of people who build domino's up and then pack them away without

Re:Is it just me...

[Speare]

Can't go any further than you wind it...

You never owned a spring-loaded toy car? You back it up a few inches, and it drives forward more than a yard, until it disappears under your refrigerator. The spring stores the energy of your ARM, not the potential INCHES which you rolled it backward.

Re:Is it just me...

[TummyX]

Perhaps they don't want to depreciate the value of the car by increasing the milage on the clock.

Re:Is it just me...

[fenix down]

I think there probably is, and I think you spell it "giant-ass springs held in place by nothing but Rennaisance-era carpentry."

"Ok, guys, just keep pulling it back, yeah, keep going, keep going, keep..."
*FWOING*
"Oh, Jesus, he's got an arm off!"

That can't be good for the university's insurace rates.

It can only turn right...

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess DaVinci agrees that we should be Left Hand Drive...

Not on the road?

[dankney]

"It is a very powerful machine. It could run into something and do serious damage."

And the SUV that nearly killed me this morning isn't?

The real reason it isn't on the road is government regulation. There needs to be a 10-year rigorous testing project to make sure it meets federal emmission standards.

Re:Not on the road?

[splerdu]

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...

I can't wait...

[lewko]

Until homeless bums jump in front of your clockwork car at traffic lights, start cranking and then demand five bucks...

that's nothing...

[physicsphairy]

I will soon complete a modern version of Da Vinci's nuclear breeder reactor as soon as I can find a wood cog that decelerates neutron emissions.

Helicopter

[rchatterjee]

Ok, that's pretty good now how about someone go and try to build one of these?

Helicopter [artist-biography.info]

A clockwork...

[paul248]

I was going to say a witty pun related to "A Clockwork Orange," but I couldn't think of anything that rhymes with it...

Clockwork Door Hinge

[tunabomber]

...oh wait, it has to be witty.

Re:A clockwork...

[xs650]

Door hinge

There once was a poet.

[uberdave]

There once was a poet who was born John,
Who looked for a word to rhyme orange on.
He searched every dictionary,
including ones fictionary,
and he absolutely failed to find one.

Got to quaote witchy-poo

[geekoid]

oranges poranges, who cares!

Unless you are a rap star. In that case the proper rhyme for 'Oranges' is 'booty'.

The secret has been revieled

[geekoid]

1) Make obscure drawings the kind of look like what you are thinkging of
2) Don't document, allow other to figure it out
3)Profit!

wait, that would be management.

Yeah

[splerdu]

I can see DaVinci reaping the rewards of his invention right now!

Interesting feature...

[schmink182]

Open top three-wheeler. 2004 reg. Italian design and craftsmanship. Zero mpg. No emissions. Easy parking. Programmable steering
(Emphasis mine)

Not to pick nits, but shouldn't it have infinite miles per gallon? Zero miles per gallon implies that, no matter how much gas you put in it, it'll never go anywhere.

Re:Interesting feature...

[Nimrangul]

Exactly. How's the gas supposed to wind the mechanism? I suppose if it's a watermill design it may get some crummy milage out of it, but that's the only benefit I can see out of gassing it.

Re:Interesting feature...

[lostchicken]

...no matter how much gas you put in it, it'll never go anywhere...

Well, seeing as it doesn't run on gas, this would be correct. When it's wound down, I can pour gas on and into it all day, and it won't go any farther than the burning embers can fly.

Re:Interesting feature...

[DeionXxX]

Well yeah.. putting gas into it won't make it go anywhere except maybe catch on fire if someone smokes near it...

:-P

Re:Interesting feature...

[Mulletproof]

Not to nitpick (we are anyway), but since there are no gallons, it is impossible to derive mile from them, thus no miles per gallon. granted, the statment is redundant, but fairly accurate at anyrate.

Re:Interesting feature...

[Captain Nitpick]

Not to pick nits, but shouldn't it have infinite miles per gallon? Zero miles per gallon implies that, no matter how much gas you put in it, it'll never go anywhere.

As others have stated, dividing by zero is undefined.

When people talk about X/0 equalling infinity, what they mean is that the limit as the denominator approaches zero from the appropriate direction is infinity. This is not the same as X/0 being equal to infinity, and is not true in all cases of division by zero.

In this case, taking the limi

Re:Interesting feature...

[p4ul13]

Which brings to mind an excelent idea (to me). I think we should build one of these and add on a V6 engine to wind the motor for us. Think of the gas savings!!! =)

Picture of car

[Lord_Dweomer]

For those who don't want to RTFA and just want to see what it looks like:

Enjoy. [cnn.net]

If anybody happens to have a link to a picture of the actual plans, I would be QUITE interested in getting a look at those.

Re:Picture of car

[chevybowtie]

For a hires version, try here [www.kfki.hu]

If Da Vinci had a 386??

[malia8888]

From the article A programmable steering mechanism allows it go straight, or turn at pre-set angles. But only to the right. Good in towns like today's Florence, with a one-way system. As ever, Leonardo was centuries ahead of his time.

Imagine if Da Vinci's genius would have been amplified by the use of computers--CAD simulations; and computation. He could have accomplished even more than his prodigious list of both scientific and artistic accomplishments.

Re:If Da Vinci had a 386??

[Anonymous Coward]

Not necessarily; imagine all of the time he would kill playing tetris!

Re:If Da Vinci had a 386??

[kisielk]

Or reading slashdot.

Re:If Da Vinci had a 386??

[geekoid]

of course, he would be designeing cars, helicopter, and parachutes. Too bad they would already exist.

Kind of like the Gilligans 'tv movie' where they get off the island, and everything the professor comes up with already exists.

Or, perhaps he would be put off . . .

[Idou]

by having to compete with omnipotent corporations with armies of lawyers and patent specialists.

I mean, if genius is innate, should we not have like 10 Da Vincis just due to probability and the increase in population?

Maybe an environment that recognizes and protects novel ideas is also required besides just having access to the technology. Unfortunately, it is harder these days to protect one's own ideas and the environments that have the resources to protect ideas (corporations) usually cultivate environ

Re:If Da Vinci had a 386??

[solios]

.... or wasted years actually LEARNING the CAD system.

Computerized drafting and visualization are awesome once you know how to make the applications do what you mean. Until you get to the top of the learning curve, they're almost worthless, or extremely time consuming at best.

renaissance hazard

[tunabomber]

"It is a very powerful machine. It could run into something and do serious damage." ...and to make things worse, they also successfully reconstructed Da Vinci's design for a clockwork cell phone.

Da Vinci bike

[John Harrison]

I made a Da Vinci bicycle my freshman year out of wood. Got a lot of odd looks riding it around campus. It was also quite loud. When I left at the year of the year I locked it to a bike rack and it wasn't there when I got back. If you ever see someone riding around Palo Alto on a primitive wooden bicycle knock them off it for me!

Found a picture

[insanechemist]

Was curious about the drawing and found a copy here [64.233.161.104] (Google cache)

Re:Found a picture

[steveha]

Clickable link:

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

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 [www.kfki.hu]

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

steveha

Your other Left

[Mulletproof]

I know we're all throwing around the word genius and all, but exactly how hard was it to make the steering independent from the drive mechanism again? Left hand turns only? Hello? I'll give you the fact that the damn thing was WAY ahead of it's time, but really now...

Or he had sense of humor enough to screw with our heads a few hundred years into the future :p

Here is a pic of the machine....

[cowmix]

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

poor performance

[Arctic Dragon]

"The wooden models spring forward several meters (yards) after a pair of back wheels are wound up, much like a kid's car zooms forward after the wheels are revved up against a surface."

Only several meters? Not a very quick machine, I imagine. A Supra rear wing and a dozen Type-R stickers would surely help.

How do they know they got it right?

[harlows_monkeys]

My understanding is that people have tried to build this thing before, and failed.

So we assume that because DaVinci was such a genius, this failure must be due to people failing to understand his design. Bright people then try to figure out what he could have meant.

It seems to me there is a very real possibility that what we actually have is a new design by those bright people, somewhat inspired by DaVinci's ideas.

Re:How do they know they got it right?

[NSash]

It's well-known that he built subtle flaws into many of his designs. It was a common practice of inventors before patents were created: he alone knew the "mistakes" he had introduced, and could easily fix them, but anyone else who stole his notes would spend a long time making something that would never run.

(One example is the mechanical lion he built for the king of Spain. If you build it exactly as described in his design, it is impossible for it to move: its gears turn against each other. Yet DaVinci did build it, and it worked.)

If daVinci were alive today he'd say...

[geekoid]

"HELP!,HELP!, I'm trapped in some sort of box!"

Re:If daVinci were alive today he'd say...

[Ravenrage]

na he'd say "aiuto!, aiuto!, Sono bloccato in una certa specie della scatola!."

Car made of wood?

[skinfitz]

Wooden work.

Skater's dream

[mdielmann]

Where the hell are you going to sit on this thing? I can just imagine a bunch of people in Victorian clothing pushing it backwards and getting on their skateboards while still holding on for a ride down the cobbled streets.

The gas companies...

[dawg ball]

... must be worried.

Safety concerns?

[mdielmann]

How can you tell this car was built by academics? They spend god knows how many hours building a car out of wood, from purposely obfuscated plans that are half a thousand years old, and have never heard of the Utah salt flats. I mean come on, they test rocket cars there! Do they really think a giant wind-up toy is going to do better than that?

Meme's floating around

[bigattichouse]

It really makes me think about the human "meme cloud"..

I mean, its not the leonardo necessarily was the first person to think about these sorts of things, but its more like it takes a genius to synthesize all the little meme's floating out there. The steam engine was employed by the greeks to open temple doors in Socrate's time... How long did it take for someone to combine the idea with the cart meme?

Seems that if you have a genius on hand, they can have a flash of insight and put this sort of stuff together.

Which is probably why science fiction has lead to so many inventions.. it sort of gives you a "pre-patent" description... I have this idea, and here's a plausable description of its operation. Given enough time, some genius will connect it with all the ideas that currently DO exist, and will create the ide ain question. So these geniuses (like Leonardo) might not be creating much of anything, just incredible synthesists. Or, given that many of them were also very talented artists, they are able to create *just* enough themselves to fill in all the "*poof* a miracle occurs" spots in the plan.

Re:damage

[Feanturi]

Is he talking about a hummer?

Possibly.. A hummer in a moving vehicle is often prone to cause great amounts of damage.