A recent article from the Journal Star highlights a newly opened exhibit at the Strategic Air & Space Museum featuring machines that Leonardo da Vinci had envisioned. The exhibit includes machines such as a wooden bicycle with wooden wheels, a 10-barrel gun that could be fired all at once, and a giant wooden tank.
“Made almost entirely of wood with tools and materials common in the 15th century, the full-scale machines are based on designs da Vinci made in his notebooks. About 6,000 pages, representing one-fifth of his total writings, survive today.
Visitors will be encouraged to touch and operate many of the machines. Kids and adults will be able to turn cranks and make things move. They will see and operate primitive devices that can lift water from wells and marshes and grind glass into lenses and mirrors.”
Many of these exhibits are interactive, enabling visitors to see up close the inventions of a man that was well ahead of his time. I found this fascinating that the machines aren’t just models but are actual working machines. This is especially related to our latest assignment in which we create an unconventional device. The exhibit runs through May 9, 2010.
Article via Lincoln Journal Star.
Video via SAC Museum website.
