Leonardo daVinci Exhibit

We went to a wonderful exhibit at the new Elliott Museum in Stuart, FL last weekend.  It is a hands-on exhibit showing Leonardo daVinci's  "Machines in Motion".  The exhibit is interactive so you can experience the creativity and designs of Leonardo.  A team of scientists and artisans in Florence, Italy constructed the machines, which included a working robot, flying machines and all kinds of mechanical devices.  The machines were made of wood, and all of them moved and operated in fine fashion.  All the models were made from Leonardo's journal drawings.  Here is one of the flying machines.

Above is a machine gun type of contraption, which could shoot 9 shells at one time without reloading.  And below is the first "tank", which looked like a weird-looking Yurt, but which had wheels and cannons to shoot. 

There were seats inside for four men to operate the wheels and guns.  Not quite sure how they could see out of the tank to aim, but it certainly was innovative! There were all kinds of levers and pulleys and many of the machines were usable for peace-time applications, but Leonardo lived in northern Italy when he invented many of these machines and they were concerned with border incursions, so war was high on the list for new inventions.  The entire exhibit was fun and educational, a great activity for youngsters of all ages!

The exhibit is up through August 23rd, so if you get to Stuart, FL, check it out, it is well worth the time!