leonardo's greek robot (science)

[painted wolf]

Leonardo da 'Vinchi was asked to make a robotic lion.

When Lionardo was at Milan the King of France came there and desired him to do something curious; accordingly he made a lion whose chest opened after he had walked a few steps, discovering himself to be full of lilies."
Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects (Florence 1550).
Constructing a mechanical lion that could walk, let alone present flowers to the king, can't have been a simple task back in 1515 - even for a genius like Leonardo da Vinci. How he managed this feat remained a mystery until 2000, when US robotics expert Mark Rosheim came to a surprising conclusion.

*the following comes from here:
http://www.newscientisttech.com/chan...mg19526111.600

Leonardo also designed a robotic human.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo's_robot

Also of intrest is Ibin Ismail Al-Jazari, a maker of 13th century robots.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Jazari

so much for the wonders of "modern" tecnology. It makes me wonder though how far we could have gone if it hadn't been for those pesky Dark ages.

wa:do

[MidnightBlue]

Yet the trail doesn't stop there. It led me even further back past the automata of the Byzantine court and ancient Rome to ancient Alexandria. It was here that Hero, one of the greatest Greek engineers, constructed a programmable robot that pre-dates da Vinci's by 1500 years.

I saw a show about that on the Science Channel or the History Channel or some such. Cool beans.

[Nanda]

Originally Posted by MidnightBlue

I saw a show about that on the Science Channel or the History Channel or some such. Cool beans.

Heh, I saw that show, too. Good stuff.