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Building Leonardo da Vinci's Armored Car — The Ancestor of the Tank
In 1487, looking for a patron, Leonardo da Vinci designed an armored fighting vehicle: a round, turtle-shaped wooden shell plated with metal, ringed with light cannons to fire in every direction, and driven by men inside turning cranks. It is the ancestor of the tank, sketched four centuries early. It also hides a famous puzzle: in Leonardo's own drawing the gears drive the front and rear wheels in opposite directions, so it cannot move — a mistake many believe he made on purpose, to stop the design being stolen. This blueprint reconstructs the vehicle and, with the gearing corrected, makes it roll.
Advanced
30
Instructions
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1
Understand the machine
Understand the machine
Leonardo's armored car is a circular, dome-shaped shell on wheels, plated for protection, with light cannons all around its rim and a crew inside to drive and fire it. Firing in every direction and shielded on all sides, it is a direct ancestor of the tank — proposed in 1487.
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2
Build the wheeled base
Build the wheeled base
Build a strong circular wooden platform carried on four wheels, with axles bored to turn freely. This base takes the whole weight of the shell, crew and guns, so make it stout.
Materials for this step:
Beech Lumber4 piecesTools needed:
Hand Saw
Hand Auger3
3
Raise the conical shell
Raise the conical shell
Build a sloping conical shell of timber over the platform, like an upturned bowl. The angled sides deflect arrows and shot. Leave a small lookout turret on top and gun ports spaced around the lower rim.
Materials for this step:
Beech Lumber5 piecesTools needed:
Hand Saw
Knife4
4
Armor the shell
Armor the shell
Reinforce the wooden shell with metal plating so it can shrug off missiles, as Leonardo specified. The plates follow the slope so blows glance off rather than strike square.
Materials for this step:
Binding Rope10 metersTools needed:
Awl5
5
Arrange the guns around the rim
Arrange the guns around the rim
Set light cannons at the gun ports all around the circular rim so the vehicle can bring fire to bear in any direction at once — the all-round firepower that made the design so menacing on paper.
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6
Build the crank-and-gear drive
Build the crank-and-gear drive
Inside, seat several crew at cranks that mesh through wooden gears to the wheels, so their combined muscle turns the wheels and moves the vehicle. All the power comes from the men within.
Materials for this step:
Wooden Gear6 pieces
Dowel Rod2 piecesTools needed:
GougeHand Auger7
7
The famous flaw — and the fix
The famous flaw — and the fix
In Leonardo's own drawing the gears are set so the front and rear wheels would turn OPPOSITE ways, locking the vehicle in place. Scholars debate whether this was a copyist's error or, as many think, a deliberate mistake by Leonardo so the design could not simply be stolen and built. Re-mesh the gears so all wheels drive the same way and it moves.
Tools needed:
Gouge8
8
Why it mattered
Why it mattered
Cranked by hand it was too heavy and slow to be practical in 1487, and Leonardo — who called war 'a most beastly madness' — never built it. But the idea of an armored, all-round-firing mobile gun platform is exactly the tank that appeared in 1916, and the corrected reconstruction rolls under its crew's power.
Materials
4- 9 piecesPlaceholder
- 10 metersPlaceholder
- 6 piecesPlaceholder
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CC0 Public Domain
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