Engineering drawings - Essay Example

These manuscripts speak about the science of mechanics, laws of movement. The manuscripts give details about how Leonardo understood each small components individually that goes into the making of big machines. When he studied screws, he studied its varied forms and methods to fabricate them. In this list are the components such as hoists, rollers, pulleys, flywheel, winches and many more. It is his remarkable understanding of these components in those days that made it possible for him to create many functional machine designs.

War Machines Leonardo developed many war machines when he was in the long service of Lodoviko Sforza, a duke at Milan. He displayed his abilities as a civil and mechanical engineer designing many useful devices. Some of the devices such as cannons, a giant wheel were developed by him as his military activities during the time. Leonardo developed a drawing of a bridge as a civil engineering project that spanned 240 meter. Though its real construction never materialized, it continued to inspire engineers that followed him.

His note books spoke about war machines that included a tank that could be operated through crank shafts. The design and mechanics though were not fully developed – perhaps his intention was not to allow it to fall in the hands of wrong people. He developed cannons that would spew small pebbles on the enemy to prevent them inflicting a frontal attack. A Device Resembling Flywheel Leonardo designed an engine kind device that is currently known as flywheel and crank. It is important to note here that when James Watt developed a steam engine, he never made use of flywheel – a wheel that provides high angular momentum.

It was much later that a design expert added flywheel to achieve steadiness in the shaft operation. A Device for Lifting Loads Lifting loads has been always a most cherished requirement of humans since time immemorial. No wonder than that Leonard worked on a system to lift heavy loads. What he designed in those days is known as the worm gear in current parlance. The device employed an endless screw that is turned by a crank to mesh with the teeth of a gear rotating and raising the load. His device provides more safety that usually a single tooth gear design lacks.

Worm gear as prevalent in current times came into existence much later. That shows Leonardo’s genius in designing a device that has hundreds of application in the modern machines including analog clocks. Bicycle Design One of the vehicle designs that he has drawn is a two-wheeled vehicle with spokes. Two wheels are joined by a single rod gives an indication that his vehicle takes a shape of a bicycle for an easy movement by humans. Rear wheel is attached to a cogged-wheel through a chain and cogged-wheel has pedals as found in the modern bicycles in current times.

Flying Design He studied motion and movements in depth. While building canals and locks he tried to understand the water flow and whirlpools. In the same way, he tried to understand the flying of birds – the operations and anatomy of the wing. That helped him to build flying designs. Many of the Leonardo's drawings present theoretical understandings or initial intuitions before an idea takes some concrete shape. One of the design looks like a helicopter provided with a huge spiral. It is not understood what idea he had in his mind to