Technikatörténeti szemle 13. (1982)

TANULMÁNYOK - Szabadváry Ferenc: Leonardo da Vinci: Efficiency Problems of Technological Inventions

energy, intercontinental hit-proof missiles, space exploration, direct television transmission from the moon and so on and so on — who could be able to cite all the astounding products of science and technology created in the past decades — it is obvious that mankind's technological imagination will be kindled and will precede reality, which will then follow in due time. The 15th century was a similar period of great discoveries and inventions, in a certain sense much resembling the present age. During Leonardo da Vinci's life, the first navigation istruments: the compass and the cross-staff were invented, allowing man to venture sailing onto the swelling floods of the great oceans and to conquer new worlds: Africa and America. A new means of mass communication was invented: book printing, with the consequence that all sorts of information, among them technological information was able to spread much mor rapidly and in much wider circles than earlier. Fewerish activities were going on in the development of more efficient, longe-range and more hit-proof military equipment, resulting in the bronze cannon and the rifle. The first ballistic curces were constructed. The period obviously stimulated the technological imagination of the gifted. Was Leonardo one of these? Sure. A fanatic of technology with much flair and talent. He sketched numerous machines and devices, some of them belonging to the future, others to pure imagination, but many of them not so far away from the actual level of construction. One can frequently read that Leonardo's age didn't as yet possess the technological potential to carry out his designs and to introduce them into practice. This is a great mistake indeed. Technology in his time was rather well developed. Admirable machines instruments were constructed: pocket watches that were little marvels of precision, perfect rifle mechanisms, specialized machine tools driven by water power. Practically all types of gears in use at present were already known. Anyone turning over the pages of the large illustrated books on engineering which appeared shortly after Leonardo's death, the works of Agricola, Biringuccio and other authors will be surprised to see what technological ideas had already been put into practice, what machines had been constructed. All these books were is print and thus widely in circulation. Consequently, engineers must have lived who not only deamed about novel ideas, but in fact constructed the machines and set them into operation. The machines depicted in these books were in fact in operation at that time, since neither Picture 3. Sketch of a war chariot by Leonardo (from Gille)