Alright folks, grab a coffee or tea because today I actually tried building a couple of Leonardo da Vinci’s gadgets myself. Yeah, the famous painter dude also sketched a ton of wild machines way back when.
Where It All Started
Flipping through one of those chunky art books at the library yesterday, those crazy drawings got stuck in my head. Stuff like helicopters made of reeds and weird looking bridges. Figured, why not see if you can actually make any of this stuff work, right?
First Shot: The Self-Supporting Bridge
Saw his design for a bridge that holds itself together without nails or rope. Just interlocking logs or planks. Sounded too easy. Grabbed some old paint stir sticks from my garage stash.
- Cut them down to rough matchstick size.
- Started slotting them together like the sketches showed, criss-crossing them.
- Got messy real quick. My sticks kept slipping sideways – definitely didn’t magically lock like the picture.
- Realized: Probably works way better with perfectly smooth, identical pieces. My sandpaper scraps weren’t cutting it. Ended up using some rubber bands just to hold the stupid thing upright long enough for a photo. Major wobbly fail.
Next Up: Trying the Ornithopter Wings
Alright, that bridge ticked me off. Moved onto those flapping wings he drew – the “ornithopter.” Dreaming about flying machines.
- Found a simple diagram online for a basic hand-operated model.
- Raid the recycling bin: Cardboard, some thin wooden dowels, duct tape (always), string.
- Spent ages cutting wing shapes and trying to hinge them.
- Attached strings to a central wooden handle like a puppet.
- Yanked the handle hard. Result? Cardboard flapped weakly once, then folded weirdly. Strings tangled. One wing ripped where I taped it. Felt like I was wrestling a giant, clumsy bat that didn’t want to fly.
- Facepalm moment: Obviously didn’t account for how heavy my materials were or how floppy the cardboard got. Da Vinci likely pictured super light wood or parchment skin.
The Thinking Part (After the Mess)
Gave up on flying for the day. Swept up the sawdust and snapped cardboard pieces. Needed that post-fail bike ride to clear my head. What really hit me wasn’t that the stuff didn’t work perfectly (mine sure didn’t!), but how clever the ideas were for his time. Imagining bridges assembled quickly during wartime? Dreaming about flight centuries before engines? That’s the cool part. His brain wasn’t stuck in “the way things are.” He was sketching “what if?” constantly.
The Takeaway
Building his stuff myself – even my crappy versions – hammered that home way harder than just reading about it. Learned to appreciate the raw blueprints themselves. Sure, my workshop floor looked like a disaster zone, and I probably wasted half a roll of tape. But man, getting your hands dirty trying to piece together history? Totally worth the glue stuck to my fingers. Maybe next weekend I’ll try that rolling ball clock sketch… though I’m already prepping for more frustration. Got a notebook full of my own messed-up drawings now to prove it.
