Leonardo da Vinci’s Parachute
Invention
Leonardo drew blueprints for a
number of inventions that we use today, though many of these things were never
built in his time. Therefore he is not credited as the inventor. Many of these
inventions were theories of his that have since proved to be possible.
The great Italian from Florence
was born in 1452 and died in 1519 at the age of 67. He lived during the time of
the Italian Renaissance and was around when the various feudal Italian kingdoms
were at war. Leonardo was one of the world’s champion free thinkers of the age
with an insatiable curiosity for logic over superstition. This often got him into trouble with the
ruling authorities yet there must have been a compelling aspect about the
genius of the man because many of the Italian Republics sought his services.
Even the Pope hired his expertise and he was awarded many contracts in various
arts and engineering projects.
He designed flying machines like
a helicopter, submarines and parachutes. He dissected corpses and learnt a
great deal about anatomy too. The avenues of art and science this man explored
is limitless.
His concept of a parachute was
finally proved in 1783, more than two hundred and fifty years after his death
by a Frenchman named Louis-Sebastien Lenormand.
Leonardo Da Vinci drew such a
design and wrote such a theory:
"If a man has a tent made
of linen of which the apertures (openings) have all been stopped up, and it is
twelve braccia (about 23 feet) across and twelve in-depth, he will be able to
throw himself down from any great height without suffering any injury."
Leonardo’s actual design and
theory was put to the test in the year 2000 by a British daredevil named Adrian
Nichols. His parachute was a complete prototype based on Da Vinci’s actual
design.
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| Adrian Nicholls test Leonardo Da Vinci's Design |
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