model of an Odometer that Leonardo da Vinci

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model of an Odometer that Leonardo da Vinci drew on the first folio of his Codex Atlanticus, folio 1 r. 1504. This is a machine calculated distance travelled. This machine, however, was already known in antiquity, given that Leonardo did nothing more than re-elaborate the Odometer devised by Heron Alexandrinus, a Greek inventor who lived in the First century AD. Unlike the former one, the Odometer that Leonardo designed was shaped a little like a push cart and had a toothed wheel mechanism. Each time the wheel on die ground turned, the vertical toothed wheel turned once, in turn actuating a horizontal wheel. The latter contained metal balls or stones, which fell through a hole into a bucket: counting them at the end of the journey allowed the distance travelled to be calculated.

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Size: 5061px × 4144px
Location:
Photo credit: © World History Archive / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -construction, archival, archive, artist, codex, da, distance, drawing, engineering, historical, history, italian, leonardo, machine, madrid, measurement, mechanics, model, motion, odometer, polymath, vinci