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Leonardo Da Vinci’s Self-Powered Cart (2021)

145 points by areoform 3y ago

LegitShady 3y ago
would have liked to see a video of it actuating
stavros 3y ago
"Automobile" here might not mean "car". Rather, something that literally moves under its own power.
- signa11 3y ago
  just hyphenate at the right place, and the meaning spills out.
  - OJFord 3y ago
    Well, along those lines, 'car' just means 'carriage', so if there's a problem with calling it a car it's that it was a cart, not a seated-people-carrying device (not typically or in a way that would be called a carriage anyway) - not that it doesn't resemble modern carriages. (IMO.)
cf100clunk 3y ago
Fellow grownup geeks I'd worked with in the U.S. didn't know what the term ''Meccano'' meant, but sure remembered what "Erector Sets" were. Same product. I remember that our home first aid kit came in handy when I was building the impractical with Meccano. This da Vinci example is a true celebration of Meccano.
- RocketOne 3y ago
  Am 62 and have a large Meccano set in storage. All metal pieces, no plastic, and no "kits", just booklets of projects you could build from a simple cart to a huge gantry crane. Looks like the 'new' Meccano is basically an assembly kit for a pre-designed model. Pish posh lol. Fascinated by that toy growing up, I credit it to a large part with having a very good grasp of basic engineering. Levers, pulleys, wheels, axles, gear ratios, bracing, structural integrity, load dynamics... all learned by doing while still in elementary school. There aren't many toys that can teach those skills on a screen, not like building and testing actual equipment. I will pass it on down to one of my grandkids some day and hope they grow up loving engineering and creating mechanical dreams like I did.
- saghm 3y ago
  As someone born in the 90s, I've only heard the term "erector set" maybe 2-3 times ever (I feel like maybe I remember it mentioned in a Calvin and Hobbes comic, or something of that nature), so I have no knowledge about which term was more common, but one of them kind of sounds risque to me...did the word "erect" not have that connotation back then? It's not hard for me to imagine kids (or even adults, really) giggling every time someone used the term "erector set", so I'd expect that to be something people remembered more than "Meccano", which to me sounds like the name of a coffee brand or something.
  - cf100clunk 3y ago
    Different times, so I doubt there was much blushing.
  - dharmon 3y ago
    The 1996 movie Jack with Robin Williams had a joke playing off this. I don’t remember the joke exactly, but one of the boys asks Jack if he’s ever had an erection, and he says something like “No, but I was hoping to get one for my birthday.”
  - freetinker 3y ago
    It’s exactly like you imagine. The connotation of the word hasn’t changed much. I can confirm the giggling (personal experience).
  - monitron 3y ago
    From a Firesign Theatre album, 1969: “That's okay, I brought an Erector Set.” “Throw a towel over it!” “Do some pushups, Pablo, Maybe it’ll go away.”
shermantanktop 3y ago
Fascinating the lengths to which people will attempt to fill in the gaps or correct “errors” to make a semi-working modern model appear physically similar to a paper sketch of a fanciful idea. I think I sort of get it: at some point the challenge becomes a thing unto itself. But Leonardo was a genius precisely because his insights predated the experimental and iterative science spirit that came later, and which were necessary to produce practical technology. Can’t we just accept that his helicopter designs suck, his submarines were impractical, and his car was nonfunctional? They are still amazing and fascinating. Why contort or correct the designs to make them work?
- soperj 3y ago
  > Why contort or correct the designs to make them work? Because the end goal is something functional. If Leonardo was actually building it, he would have done the same.
  - shermantanktop 3y ago
    If Leonardo was alive today, he’d be sketching a Dyson sphere with multiple layers and a habitat in between, or something equally far ahead of where we are today. He was a lot of things, but in the technology sphere I’d describe him as a visionary first, a builder second.
- sph 3y ago
  A cynic and contrarian on the Internet, arguing that what is universally praised is overrated? What a unique phenomenon. Sorry, a weird dude designing helicopters and tanks some 500 years before their invention, among his incredible research in other scientific fields, is nothing short of remarkable for anybody, unless you are a professional internet cynic, which is as mundane as air itself.
  - andrepd 3y ago
    He literally said >They are still amazing and fascinating. Doesn't look like cynic or contrarian.
alentred 3y ago
I remember the time, quite a long ago, when I have visited Leonard Da Vinci's house (museum today), where many of his original drawings and modern replicas where exhibited, and I have discovered many more apparatus than I knew he imagined. I was very much inspired by human capacity to imagine the things that don't exist, and often couldn't even be created by the time they are imagined. Da Vinci's machines, first computers (Babbage's "analytical engine"), modern works like fusion power or quantum computers for example. And as new technology is invented and new discoveries are made we continue challenging ourselves. Having said that I am certain humans are not the only ones able to do so. So I will live this open-ended like this, just a tribute to the marvelous complexity of the intelligent life on Earth.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  It is inspiring. And many times when building things my most recurring thought is "I wonder how many other people have this exact same thing sitting in their garage". And far less frequently "How strange that nobody else thought of this before". Da Vinci was essentially a 'maker' but he didn't have todays tools, and you have to wonder what he would have been able to imagine with that kind of access that we today haven't seen yet and then go do that! At the same time: in the 1600's almost everything related to technology was still in the future and Da Vinci didn't even know about the possibilities of some of the fundamentals of technology yet. So without much knowledge about electricity, magnetism (though there was some of this it was very rudimentary) and other 'common' knowledge nowadays he was able to see very far indeed but only on those parts of science that were well illuminated at the time.
  - zabzonk 3y ago
    to be pedantic, da vinci lived in the 1400s to 1500s.
tiku 3y ago
I often find it weird that we don't have more devices powered by gravity / heavy weight, except our old school scales for weighing our bodies.
- berkes 3y ago
  In order to store any significant energy, you'd need great heights or giant mass. Both rather impractical. That said, one of the oldest energy captures is a watermill. It's powered by gravity.
- mdiesel 3y ago
  Counterbalances are in use all over the place, look at lifts (/elevators) if they didn't have the weights they'd need much much more energy to move the system. Almost everything that works with weights+heights will have some kind of counterbalance system. Hydroelectric energy storage is one example that is hugely successful, albeit requiring geography to help. We also use water towers in some places to maintain pressure in pipes with the hydraulic head. On a smaller scale, it's more space efficient to use weights to store rotating energy as a flywheel. That said, stored energy in a system isn't always a desirable property, generally it means more careful designs are needed so that the system defaults to safe.
- sho_hn 3y ago
  There are many mechanisms powered by the Huygens weight drive + a governor, for example many clocks. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintaining_power https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintaining_power
  - a1o 3y ago
    Here is the cool interactive blog https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/ https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/
Physkal 3y ago
In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, you come across many ot Leonardo's war machines. As an assassin you befriend Leonardo and must destroy his blueprints as well as any prototypes the Borgia created. Very historical game worthy of checking out.
- ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
  Sir Terry had Leonard of Quirm[0], who The Patrician kept locked in a back room, producing war machines. [0] https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Leonard_of_Quirm https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Leonard_of_Quirm
tibanne 3y ago
For anyone else wondering: Leonardo da Vinci's self-powered cart, often considered one of the earliest forms of a robotic vehicle, was powered by a coiled spring mechanism. Here's how it works: Coiled Spring Mechanism: The cart was powered by a pair of coiled springs, which were the main source of propulsion. These springs were wound up manually, storing potential energy. Gear and Pulley System: Once the springs were wound, the stored energy was transferred through a system of gears and pulleys. This system was designed to control and direct the movement of the cart. Steering Mechanism: Da Vinci's cart also featured a programmable steering mechanism. By setting pegs into a series of gears, the operator could predetermine the cart's path, allowing it to turn and move in specific directions. No External Forces: The cart did not require any external forces like animals or humans to push or pull it once the springs were wound. The energy stored in the springs was enough to move it forward. Early Example of Automation: This invention is significant as it represents an early example of automated transportation, displaying Da Vinci's advanced understanding of mechanics and engineering. Leonardo's self-powered cart was far ahead of its time, showcasing his genius in mechanical invention and his ability to think centuries ahead of the technological capabilities of his era.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- csdreamer7 3y ago
  Why is this being downvoted? Seems informative to me.
  - pests 3y ago
    Cause it's ChatGPT, we can all just go ask it ourselves.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

145 points by areoform 3y ago

LegitShady 3y ago

would have liked to see a video of it actuating

stavros 3y ago

"Automobile" here might not mean "car". Rather, something that literally moves under its own power.

signa11 3y ago
just hyphenate at the right place, and the meaning spills out.
- OJFord 3y ago
  Well, along those lines, 'car' just means 'carriage', so if there's a problem with calling it a car it's that it was a cart, not a seated-people-carrying device (not typically or in a way that would be called a carriage anyway) - not that it doesn't resemble modern carriages. (IMO.)

cf100clunk 3y ago

Fellow grownup geeks I'd worked with in the U.S. didn't know what the term ''Meccano'' meant, but sure remembered what "Erector Sets" were. Same product. I remember that our home first aid kit came in handy when I was building the impractical with Meccano. This da Vinci example is a true celebration of Meccano.

RocketOne 3y ago
Am 62 and have a large Meccano set in storage. All metal pieces, no plastic, and no "kits", just booklets of projects you could build from a simple cart to a huge gantry crane. Looks like the 'new' Meccano is basically an assembly kit for a pre-designed model. Pish posh lol. Fascinated by that toy growing up, I credit it to a large part with having a very good grasp of basic engineering. Levers, pulleys, wheels, axles, gear ratios, bracing, structural integrity, load dynamics... all learned by doing while still in elementary school. There aren't many toys that can teach those skills on a screen, not like building and testing actual equipment. I will pass it on down to one of my grandkids some day and hope they grow up loving engineering and creating mechanical dreams like I did.
saghm 3y ago
As someone born in the 90s, I've only heard the term "erector set" maybe 2-3 times ever (I feel like maybe I remember it mentioned in a Calvin and Hobbes comic, or something of that nature), so I have no knowledge about which term was more common, but one of them kind of sounds risque to me...did the word "erect" not have that connotation back then? It's not hard for me to imagine kids (or even adults, really) giggling every time someone used the term "erector set", so I'd expect that to be something people remembered more than "Meccano", which to me sounds like the name of a coffee brand or something.
- cf100clunk 3y ago
  Different times, so I doubt there was much blushing.
- dharmon 3y ago
  The 1996 movie Jack with Robin Williams had a joke playing off this. I don’t remember the joke exactly, but one of the boys asks Jack if he’s ever had an erection, and he says something like “No, but I was hoping to get one for my birthday.”
- freetinker 3y ago
  It’s exactly like you imagine. The connotation of the word hasn’t changed much. I can confirm the giggling (personal experience).
- monitron 3y ago
  From a Firesign Theatre album, 1969: “That's okay, I brought an Erector Set.” “Throw a towel over it!” “Do some pushups, Pablo, Maybe it’ll go away.”

shermantanktop 3y ago

Fascinating the lengths to which people will attempt to fill in the gaps or correct “errors” to make a semi-working modern model appear physically similar to a paper sketch of a fanciful idea. I think I sort of get it: at some point the challenge becomes a thing unto itself. But Leonardo was a genius precisely because his insights predated the experimental and iterative science spirit that came later, and which were necessary to produce practical technology. Can’t we just accept that his helicopter designs suck, his submarines were impractical, and his car was nonfunctional? They are still amazing and fascinating. Why contort or correct the designs to make them work?

soperj 3y ago
> Why contort or correct the designs to make them work? Because the end goal is something functional. If Leonardo was actually building it, he would have done the same.
- shermantanktop 3y ago
  If Leonardo was alive today, he’d be sketching a Dyson sphere with multiple layers and a habitat in between, or something equally far ahead of where we are today. He was a lot of things, but in the technology sphere I’d describe him as a visionary first, a builder second.
sph 3y ago
A cynic and contrarian on the Internet, arguing that what is universally praised is overrated? What a unique phenomenon. Sorry, a weird dude designing helicopters and tanks some 500 years before their invention, among his incredible research in other scientific fields, is nothing short of remarkable for anybody, unless you are a professional internet cynic, which is as mundane as air itself.
- andrepd 3y ago
  He literally said >They are still amazing and fascinating. Doesn't look like cynic or contrarian.

alentred 3y ago

I remember the time, quite a long ago, when I have visited Leonard Da Vinci's house (museum today), where many of his original drawings and modern replicas where exhibited, and I have discovered many more apparatus than I knew he imagined. I was very much inspired by human capacity to imagine the things that don't exist, and often couldn't even be created by the time they are imagined. Da Vinci's machines, first computers (Babbage's "analytical engine"), modern works like fusion power or quantum computers for example. And as new technology is invented and new discoveries are made we continue challenging ourselves. Having said that I am certain humans are not the only ones able to do so. So I will live this open-ended like this, just a tribute to the marvelous complexity of the intelligent life on Earth.

jacquesm 3y ago
It is inspiring. And many times when building things my most recurring thought is "I wonder how many other people have this exact same thing sitting in their garage". And far less frequently "How strange that nobody else thought of this before". Da Vinci was essentially a 'maker' but he didn't have todays tools, and you have to wonder what he would have been able to imagine with that kind of access that we today haven't seen yet and then go do that! At the same time: in the 1600's almost everything related to technology was still in the future and Da Vinci didn't even know about the possibilities of some of the fundamentals of technology yet. So without much knowledge about electricity, magnetism (though there was some of this it was very rudimentary) and other 'common' knowledge nowadays he was able to see very far indeed but only on those parts of science that were well illuminated at the time.
- zabzonk 3y ago
  to be pedantic, da vinci lived in the 1400s to 1500s.

tiku 3y ago

I often find it weird that we don't have more devices powered by gravity / heavy weight, except our old school scales for weighing our bodies.

berkes 3y ago
In order to store any significant energy, you'd need great heights or giant mass. Both rather impractical. That said, one of the oldest energy captures is a watermill. It's powered by gravity.
mdiesel 3y ago
Counterbalances are in use all over the place, look at lifts (/elevators) if they didn't have the weights they'd need much much more energy to move the system. Almost everything that works with weights+heights will have some kind of counterbalance system. Hydroelectric energy storage is one example that is hugely successful, albeit requiring geography to help. We also use water towers in some places to maintain pressure in pipes with the hydraulic head. On a smaller scale, it's more space efficient to use weights to store rotating energy as a flywheel. That said, stored energy in a system isn't always a desirable property, generally it means more careful designs are needed so that the system defaults to safe.
sho_hn 3y ago
There are many mechanisms powered by the Huygens weight drive + a governor, for example many clocks. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintaining_power https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintaining_power
- a1o 3y ago
  Here is the cool interactive blog https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/ https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/

Physkal 3y ago

In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, you come across many ot Leonardo's war machines. As an assassin you befriend Leonardo and must destroy his blueprints as well as any prototypes the Borgia created. Very historical game worthy of checking out.

ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
Sir Terry had Leonard of Quirm[0], who The Patrician kept locked in a back room, producing war machines. [0] https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Leonard_of_Quirm https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Leonard_of_Quirm

tibanne 3y ago

For anyone else wondering: Leonardo da Vinci's self-powered cart, often considered one of the earliest forms of a robotic vehicle, was powered by a coiled spring mechanism. Here's how it works: Coiled Spring Mechanism: The cart was powered by a pair of coiled springs, which were the main source of propulsion. These springs were wound up manually, storing potential energy. Gear and Pulley System: Once the springs were wound, the stored energy was transferred through a system of gears and pulleys. This system was designed to control and direct the movement of the cart. Steering Mechanism: Da Vinci's cart also featured a programmable steering mechanism. By setting pegs into a series of gears, the operator could predetermine the cart's path, allowing it to turn and move in specific directions. No External Forces: The cart did not require any external forces like animals or humans to push or pull it once the springs were wound. The energy stored in the springs was enough to move it forward. Early Example of Automation: This invention is significant as it represents an early example of automated transportation, displaying Da Vinci's advanced understanding of mechanics and engineering. Leonardo's self-powered cart was far ahead of its time, showcasing his genius in mechanical invention and his ability to think centuries ahead of the technological capabilities of his era.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
csdreamer7 3y ago
Why is this being downvoted? Seems informative to me.
- pests 3y ago
  Cause it's ChatGPT, we can all just go ask it ourselves.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]