Leonardo and his machines: Earth

Index The odometer The odometer The auge The auge crane latch crane latch grinding wheel for concave mirrors grinding wheel for concave mirrors

The odometer It is used to calculate the distance travelled. The odometer created by Leonardo had the shape of a wheelbarrow provided with toothed wheels, the vertical wheel performs one shot at each turn of the wheel hub which rests on the ground. The toothed wheel has a vertical projection; at each complete turn it drives the horizontal wheel that is provided with holes. Through these holes, metal balls or pebbles pass in an appropriate container counting them it’s easy to trace the length of the road travelled.

The auge The double movement auge was conceived by Leonardo even before his arrival in Milan, this device allows you to dig deep: the top bar turns the auger so it sinks into the ground, while the second bar takes it back bringing with it the land that you are picking on.

crane latch Leonardo designs this machine to speed the removal of the ground during the excavation for the construction of channels. It is able to move thanks to an ingenious system of rails and screws to follow the ' progress of work. This is a huge crane double-arm driven by a single string that works on the principle of ups and downs. There are three teams of diggers working on three levels: they synchronize their operations in such a way that each time a container full of earth is lifted, a container is unloaded by means of the weight of the workers, and those who were resting, use it as elevator back on the job. The work was organized in the following way : while a team of diggers filled the box at the bottom, another team unloaded the bucket tied at the other end of the rope out of the channel. When the box at the bottom was filled, the team outside, which in the meantime had recovered energy, jumped into the box to reach their place of work, while the workers came down to the canal and went to download the caisson.

Grinding wheel for concave mirrors By operating a single crank, the rotary motion is transferred simultaneously to two disks of stone on two different axis. These discs, combining the respective rotary motions, got the effect of digging and polished the mirror placed on the horizontal disk.