Story and Photos by Darlene Froberg
Many people have seen photos of the Mona Lisa or heard about the mystery
behind the novel The Da Vinci Code , but few know about Leonardo Da Vinci’s abilities as
an avid inventor. Here is such an invention. The first invention shown
here is a tank designed in 1487. The idea behind the tank was that it
could be used instead of elephants to break through enemy lines. It was
powered by eight men and included a turret at the top for navigation.
Unfortunately it was difficult to maneuver and contained an intentional
or unintentional design flaw in which the front and rear wheels turned
on opposite directions.
The second invention shown here is a floatation suitcase patented in
1915, only three short years after the sinking of the Titanic while
sailing in the Atlantic Ocean near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. The
idea behind the floatation suitcase was that it would not only provide a
floatation device if someone were to fall into the ocean, but would also
give some protection from hypothermia in the icy Atlantic waters. It was
also portable, in that it could fold up into a suitcase.
Both these inventions have been rebuilt from the original patents and
were on display at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon as a
traveling exhibit for the television series The Re-Inventors on the
History Channel. The Re-Inventors series takes old patents and rebuilds
the device according to the original specifications. Then they test them
to see if they actually work. I will leave it up to the reader’s
imagination or research abilities to see if these two inventions
actually worked.
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