Last week we started our Ode to Leonardo da Vinci with a little biography on one of the brightest minds of the Renaissance, and with his 500th death anniversary coming closer and closer, we’re going to look at some Leonardo da Vinci inventions that where the basis to some items and vehicles that are commonplace in our society. We’ll have to admit that he really never had the chance to put the majority into practice, but the Leonardo da Vinci sketches of inventions are one of the things that answers the question “What was Leonardo da Vinci known for?” & “Why is Leonardo da Vinci famous?”.
The man behind the definition of Renaissance Man, Leonardo da Vinci was well versed in all of the arts, anatomy, and military strategy. The creative process he was so good at, made him experiment as much as possible in the fields that he worked in. So, what did Leonardo da Vinci invent? We’ll discover the most important da Vinci inventions in this Leonardo da Vinci inventions list.
The Diving Suit
If you want to go scuba diving today, you’ll definitely not be using the prototype of this invention. But you can thank the sketches of Leonardo inventions, such as this one because he came up with the idea that one can stay for enough time under-
The Parachute
Not the first parachute to exist, but the Leonardo da Vinci parachute was the first one to be tested in modern times and proven to work. It’s amazing that in a time that flight wasn’t common place, except from buildings really, you had someone create something so useful to the future of the human race. This is no doubt one of the Leonardo da Vinci inventions used today.
The Tank
There are a lot of different Leonardo da Vinci facts about his inventions, when it comes to the Tank/Armored vehicle. The idea behind this invention was to create a perfect war machine that would keep its users safe. A conical-shaped vehicle with cannon pointing on the outside, manoeuvrable only by the soldiers inside, thus making it impossible to use on a battlefield. Some say that he purposely made it inoperable, because he knew the potential devastation this weapon could have brought.
The Flying Machine
One of the most talked about things that Leonardo da Vinci invented, if you’ve played Assassin’s Creed you might remember the Venice mission where Ezio uses it. The Flying Machine, opening up the debate on “Did Leonardo da Vinci invent the plane?”. One thing I can say for sure is that he came up with the idea of being able to fly, but realistically he didn’t invent the first plane, he put the basis down.
The Automaton – Robot
The automaton, was the first concept of robotics that ever graced the earth, and Leonardo was the first one to create one, at least for what I personally know. Out of the endless Leonardo da Vinci inventions, this one is the most modern, if we look at the drive of robotics in our modern day. So when the Robot uprising arrives, just think about good old Leo.
The Self Driving Car(t)
Not exactly a self driving car, and not really something he put into practice, but following suit with the robot invention above, I wanted to talk about this invention simply because with all of the self driving cars we see in the making a little wink at Leonardo’s sketch is worth making. Just don’t think about the fact that this cart could only turn right, and you can tell Musk that Leonardo really invented the self-driving car.
