Leonardo Da Vinci is the greatest Italian artist, painter, and engineer of the 15th century. He is commonly known to many of us for his famous painting Mona Lisa. Da Vinci, however, did not just paint. He had so much love for art that it made him come up with great ideas.

The Renaissance artist was home-schooled. It is not known to many that Da Vinci was never been to high school. Whatever he learned was from the instructions that came from his father or from his master, Andrea del Verrocchio, who was a famous painter back then in Florence.

Leonardo was already an art enthusiast and it did not take him long to learn the necessary skills from Andrea. It came as a surprise to the painter when Leonardo completed one of his paintings.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s  Artistic Mind

Leonardo did not stop at painting. He always had a love for math. In his journal, he has stated how he was always interested in the properties of water and air. Leonardo was also very keen to observe birds of prey. All the passion and love for nature and art made him invent mechanisms that laid the foundation for many of the great inventions of today.

Greatest Inventions of Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo DaVinci in his life span has accomplished many goals. He, however, was a patient man and always took his time with his work. It is due to this fact that most of his work was left incomplete when he left the world.

The Italian polymath also had a thing for military and artillery equipment. It was due to this that he leveraged his skills to invent one of the most innovative pieces of equipment of the 15th century.

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Let us go through some of the many inventions that do not get talked about much.

1. Parachute

Leonardo was very much interested in the properties of air and always dreamt of touching the skies while flying through in the air. He was so into it that it made him think about how we can land safely while descending to earth once we are in the air. His thought gave birth to the idea of a parachute and hence he painted his famous painting of a pyramid-shaped parachute.

According to him, the device he invented could land a person safely back to the ground. He understood the mechanism of air and how to mold it using a device such as a parachute to land safely.

2. The Giant Crossbow

The crossbow was already invented back in the first millennium BC. Leonardo however gave it a new perspective. He molded the weapon and designed it as such that it could do more damage to the enemies. The device as such the giant crossbow could help in penetrating large force troops.

He not only managed to sketch this masterpiece but also left notes on how to operate it.

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3. The Armored Vehicle

The first tank was built not so long ago in the late 20th century. The great Leonardo Da Vinci himself, however, invented the idea of it. He portrayed a sketch of an armed vehicle that allows it to fire from a 360 angle. The sketch that he depicted had cannons all around and a metallic surface covering the outside of the vehicle.  

Leonardo’s invention laid the foundation for a heavily loaded vehicle. However, people criticize its shape because it would make the vehicle immobile. A conical-shaped vehicle that people would conceive as a spaceship or a flying saucer in the modern era.

4. Diving Gear

Leonardo was as much interested in water as he was in the air. His militant side made him wonder what would happen if the enemy attacked from the sea. Pondering upon it, he sketched a suit that would allow humans to breathe underwater. This would let people be mobile in the sea and navigate their way through to sabotage enemy warships.

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5. Self-supporting Bridge

Among many of his great inventions, Leonardo Da Vinci designed a structure that would allow the troops to cross the river more efficiently. He designed a bridge that was a pack-and-go. His idea of the bridge involved such a mechanism that you could pack it up and structure it where you want to surpass a river.

6. Barreled Cannon

Leonardo Da Vinci did not like the idea of the canon as it took long enough to reload. By the time you load the canon, you would have already taken much damage from the opposition. Thus, he designed a barreled cannon that would shoot multiple shots at once and can be rotated to redirect fire directions.

Today, you can see the idea prevails in modern machine guns that can fire hundreds of rounds at once.

7. Anemometer

Anemometer is a device that you use to measure the speed and direction of winds. Although the device was already invented in the 15th century, Leonardo made several amendments to it to make it more efficient and accurate.

8. A Robotic Knight

The anatomy of humans fascinated Leonardo Da Vinci. At the same time, warfare and the military intimated him. This made him come up with models that are very amusing to look at. One of those models includes a Robotic Knight.

Leonardo’s Robot had such a mechanism that allowed it to move, sit up and even move his hand holding a sword in the air.

9. Ornithopter

Leonardo was very fond of birds and their natural flying mechanism. He dreamt of flying whenever he saw a bird in the air. Sketching his imagination, he came up with a design that would fly in the air by simply flapping its wings like a bird in the air, an ornithopter, or a flying machine.

Achievement of the model was not possible at his time. It was due to lack of resources and necessary equipment. The Wright brothers accomplished it later in the 20th century.

10. Self-propelled Cart

This might come to you as a surprise. Da Vinci himself invented the idea of cars. The cars you ride in today take their origin from Leonardo’s primary design of a self-propelled cart.

The device was meant for theaters to give performers the ability to move through the stage without being pushed or carried away. The structure involved a pulley, springs, brakes, and steering to steer the device.

Leonardo Da Vinci was a prominent name among the duke of his time. He helped engineer many great designs for the latest war equipment that could spar great enemy troops. His love for nature, air, water, birds, and the military pushed him to invent such devices that have redefined history.