Legends Of STEM - Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
I sometimes wonder how he does it, like come to think of it, he impacted so much to our world and it seems like multitasking, many described him as the most intelligent man to ever walk the earth, which is actually not far from the truth since he is amongst few the world marvel at their works, he is a Legend Of STEM
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Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
And the ideas just keep coming, this time, I decided to bring to the steemstem community Great men and women who brought us thus far, I call them the Legends Of STEM and who better to begin this list than the man Leonardo da Vinci.
Early Life
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was his name of which on translation simply entails Leonardo, son of ser Piero from Vinci, he was given birth to on the 15th of April 1452 in Vinci, an illegitimate son he was. His Father, Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci may have been a slave from Middle east and since Leonardo has no surname the term Da Vinci was used as one.
His early life consisted of his stay in his household which included family members uncle and grand parents in the town, Vinci. 1466 saw Leonardo da Vinci at age fourteen an apprentice to Andrea di Cione, who was also called Verrocchio head of the Verrocchio workshop. This was the workshop where Leonardo learnt on the humanities, and history has it that Leonardo would have learnt so many skills during his staying at the workshop as it was associated with some famous men of his time.
He created paintings which marveled his master and also worked together with his master in the creation of some notable paintings like the Baptism of Christ. He was also related to some of his masters work like the Archangel Michael a status of David and others.
1472 when he was twenty years old saw him to qualify in the guild of great artist and doctors. The earliest work associated to him was the drawing of the Arno Valley.
We have a man who contributed to many fields when STEM is mentioned, a role model who though his time made a tremendous impact to man, I have made a list of some works of sir Leonardo Da Vinci of which he was featured on today's Legends Of STEM,
Why He Made The Legends Of STEM
And this is the part of this article where I introduce you to some of the works of this legend and why the world will never forget such a man, here is why Leonardo da Vinci made today's Legends Of STEM.
Leonardo Da Vinci In Human Anatomy
History have it that our hero studied under the apprenticeship of Andrea del Verrocchio where the mystery of drawing was uncovered to him, though we know our hero to be quite an artist, he did put this in the study of the human body drawing parts of the human body, and I do not mean only external parts, but delicate internal parts of the body, now you can imagine. According to his words,
...to obtain a true and perfect knowledge ... I have dissected more than ten human bodies, destroying all the other members, and removing the very minutest particles of the flesh by which these veins are surrounded.
He did this putting into consideration that the body may decay with time, so he did this to several bodies for an art do as to get that perfect picture.
During his days being a student, Leonardo was taught the principles of bringing to art muscles, skeletal structures, tendons so he could have a view of drawing intricate parts as it was very common for trainees to be exposed to the human anatomy for study and drawing and this saw him getting to a perfect state of art at an early age which so much helped communication of his ideas.
A furthered his studies on the human anatomy producing many art works and notes with respect to different parts of the human body, and when he had mastered bringing to art that visualized by the eye, Sir Leonardo da Vinci got the opportunity to dissect dead corpse and get pictures of how parts of the inner parts of the human body looks in Santa Maria Nuova hospital at Florence. This fellows with him dissecting more corpse at Maggiore hospital in Rome and the Santo Spirito hospital at Italy and moving his study further with Marcantonio della Torre who was a doctor in the medical field.
During his life period of dissecting the human body and making observations on them, sir Leonardo da Vinci according to history recorded milestones of dissecting corpse of about thirty corpse both male and female which led to the preparation of some theoretical work with respect to the anatomy of humans.
The study of the human anatomy led to him drawing different sections of the body's skeletal system after dissecting, history saw him to be the first man to describe the form of the backbone as double S and also, he ventured into the study of the sacrumand and the pelvis inclination and proposed a theory of the sacrum not being of a uniform nature.
His contributions to the science of the human body also saw him studying the human foot, trying to know how this connection went, he furthered his study in biomechanics.
Another aspect of the study of the human anatomy saw our hero studying how the human brain works hence examining and putting to art it's structure, by dissecting and drawing different sections like the frontal, transverse and sagittal sections and we were told that this was urged by the search of the center of the human brain of sense.
And he did a study on the skull, above is an art drawn by our hero on the human skull
He was the first to make a drawing on the human appendix the urinary tract, the lungs, mesentery, the cervix muscle, organs of the reproductive system and a view of the coitus cross-section and also, he was amongst those who created a view of the fetus when in the intrautero.
The vascular system was also studied by our hero as we saw pictures of the heart which was drawn by him trying as much as possible to understand the working principles behind the circulation of blood but anyway, he didn't hit that score as his study saw him believing that pumping of blood was to the muscles which consumed the blood pumped.
He Made A Comparison Between Humans And Animals
The anatomy of birds, monkeys, cows, and frogs were also studied by Sir Leonardo da Vinci by dissecting them just like he did that of the human body and getting an art on them which followed comparison between the anatomy of these animals to that of the human body.
He also compared a horse teeth with a snarling lion and man.
With respect to his words, he brought the proposition that the human body when compared to other animals are dull with respect to the sense organs, for a lion he said that it's sense of smell was connected to some substance from the brain coming down to its nostril to give them quite a sense of smell.
An anatomy of the bear was also studied by our hero who put into drawing it's paw, there exist drawing of its hind feet, some other notable works by Leonardo da Vinci with respect to the science of anatomy was drawings made showing the uterus for a cow which was pregnant, the muscle structure of a dog and hind parts of a Mule.
Leonardo' s interest with respect to anatomy made him put his excellent drawing skill into the good use in producing clear bone structure but some observations were made with respect to his depiction of the internal tissues of humans as incorrect due to the fact that his specimen might have been hampered for the lack of techniques to preserve them but one thing Is for sure, if we are to have him in our age, we are definitely going to have another STEM historian far better than the late. Leonardo da Vinci.
Leonardo da Vinci Created Some Accurate Maps
Unlike today where we have accurate maps everywhere to navigate our towns and the world at large, (I always wonder what I can do without Google map) but in his time back at the 16th century, maps are seen by most on occasional basis and those seen are more or less inaccurate with respect to navigation but our hero took it upon himself to create quite some accurate Maps.
Note: This was not done with Google map or an NASA technology, a map of Imola which won him the heart of Cesare Borgia to make him a military engineer
Today, maps are created with respect to modern technologies after man have traveled through the sky but during his days, to get a map of navigation, you must have to study the area in question and put down in accuracy your study, and now you can Imagine such a task.
Some maps created by Leonardo da Vinci include the map of the town Imola which won him the heart of Cesare Borgia moving him to hire Leonardo as an architect and a military engineer. He also produced the map of the Chiana Valley of Tuscany after surveying the area, and mind you, this was done without the aid of any modern technology walking through the distance. History has it that Leonardo also brought about a map of the Roman Southern Coast which was related to plans to drain it's marshland.
A recent research into his other paintings was aimed to check the background to some locations employing the Cartography and it was said that the Mona Lisa painting had the background of Val di Chiana, the picture if the Annunciation was related to Arno Valley and the Madonna of Yarnwinder the Valley of Adda was related to.
In His Study On Moving Waters.
Leonardo da Vinci also took a stroll in the field of flow, thus was seen by his drawings which the study of the the movement of water with respect to high velocity hitting surfaces
Just like we might have discovered by now, Leonardo showed his interest in drawing and with respect to hydrodynamic his interest was manifested in drawing rivers and stream when it comes to its actions on rocks and their actions when it comes in forms of flood this led him to several projects which were not completed such as that of the Arno River.
A Man Who Understands The Chemistry Of Paints
Training in the chemistry of artistry saw him to experiment with paint chemicals so as to get the perfect paint mixture for his paintings, one of those experiments was the Painting of the last supper which was spoilt just after one century of painting.
His practice with paints made him get the title as being an alchemist but didn't contribute much to the alchemist voyage
Master Of Engineering Principles
The works of Sir Leonardo da Vinci also spanned on a more wide range towards engineering, this began towards his age of thirty which saw him to begin putting his skills into use. Leonardo da Vinci voyage through engineering saw him to design many engineering machines making use of so many existing principles bring to inventions some machines like weapons, tanks, submarines, and so much more.
His skills also spanned across civil engineering which saw him designing Bridges and so many architectural design and he also progressed into flight.
An engineering design of a crossbow by Sir Leonardo da Vinci
His inventions so affected the human life to quite an extent making it impossible to count how many of his works which were quite of interest to humanity but some of his noted works in relation to engineering was noted some of which included a bobbin winder, a lens grinding machine, a tester machine for checking the strength of wires through tensile test and a strut bridge.
He was not only an Inventor but a knowledgeable one who saw the action of man and decided on him to conceal some of his works.
In his Era he did not show to men the means which he was said to discover to stay under water, according to one of his quotes, he explained that the evil nature of man will see to ships sunk to the bottom of the sea, hence decided to show to them only those needed for less danger.
Some Engineering Projects Can Be Seen Below
A Man Who Designed Bridges
Leonardo was quite a constructor as he had the conviction that he could get to design strong bridges through water which can be used during wars to see armies transported during war.
During his survey of the city of Venice, the idea to construct a Dyke which is movable so as to see to the protection of the people of Venice sprang up in him.
A civil engineering project of a bridge for Istanbul was put into drawing by Leonardo which saw this bridge to have a span through a place called Golden Horn but due to Sultan Benazid who felt that such a construction was quite impossible, this project was not carried out but came 2001 when his works were put into reality, a bridge based on his vision was constructed.
Leonardo In War Machine Construction
The letter to Ludovico made me wonder how Leonardo confidence works, in this letter, he wrote that
When a place is besieged I know how to cut off water from the trenches and construct an infinite variety of bridges, mantlets and scaling ladders, and other instruments pertaining to sieges. I also have types of mortars that are very convenient and easy to transport.... when a place cannot be reduced by the method of bombardment either because of its height or its location, I have methods for destroying any fortress or other stronghold, even if it be founded upon rock. ....If the engagement be at sea, I have many engines of a kind most efficient for offence and defence, and ships that can resist cannons and powder.
And that was our hero speaking with great confidence of war.
When his books were studied, it was seen that he constructed some variety of war machines of which a man propelled vehicle was on of them but this inventory was studied the when constructed later on, will be seen to not have a forward movement.
Another machine constructed by Leonardo was the pillion rider which was moved by horses.
A very brilliant man he was who always thought ahead of others, during his days in time of war, he used his design of a cannon to cause confusion to enemy troops.
The Leonardo's Tank: Constructed to intimidate enemy rather than war
This was a cannon which though could not give a successful fire was designed with so many crossbow that at the sight of it can cause fear, Leonardo also brought to actualization a cannon which was water cooled, this cannon design was constructed such that repeated fire was gotten with no stop time since it was designed with three rack which saw that one will be undergoing fire while the others being loaded for use.
The inventions of Leonardo da Vinci did not stop there as he went as far as making a drawing of a diving suit to combat ships on water, when this suit was later constructed years later, on testing, it was seen to be quite an invention be Leonardo
He Envisioned Man Flying
When Leonardo da Vinci was little, he noticed a hawk hovering on his cradle, a prophecy, he called this incident and that prophecy later inspired his study in to flight, trying to give a theory about how the bird suspended on the air, displacing the air to make them hover the sky and he wondered if only man could fly.
His journals told his interest in flight as it contains so many studies on the principle of the flight of birds. Our hero designed so many design for wings for man which was mainly on the study of birds and flight, the bat most especially.
Although some flight machine was designed by him, he even went as far designing a rotor powered flight machine which might not have worked when constructed, he also put to design a parachute with a hang glider and these were said to most probably worked.
Other Works By Da Vinci
If I begin to write on all the works of Leonardo, I might take a 10, 000 word article and it would probably not be enough so I will like to summarize his works by saying his works spanned through many fields such as music (as he was know to have constructed a bow musical instrument called the viola organista) , he also displayed works in astronomy, geometry, geology, botany and mathematics.
When he experimented with his brain with respect to light waves it saw him drawing some of the world's most fascinating arts of which the lady with an Ermine and the Mona Lisa was included.
Put simply, Leonardo was a genus, a light which was seen by men in the search of the world we now live to enjoy.
Last Days And Conclusion
He was given the commission by François for the construction of a mechanical lion, this saw him to be granted a Manor which was near the Royal house and that was where our STEM hero spent most of his Last Days on our world.
He died on the 2nd May 1519, and was buried in a Chapel called Saint Hubert and his works with respect to paintings and some tools were given to Melzi, a friend and apprentice under Leonardo. His wish of which he had requested sixty beggars to accompany him on the road to his grave was also granted when he was laid to rest.
Due to the length of this article all works by Leonardo were not featured but I will like you to see this video which compiled his innovative works works, a man way ahead of his time.
For me, Sir Leonardo da Vinci was a blessing to our world, he impacted quite a lot to the world of STEM, a man to be celebrated of which many will describe as the most intelligent man who walked the earth till this day.
Though dead, his works proceed him, and we will always have in our mouth, always bear in our minds his name, singing to the glories of the name Sir Leonardo da Vinci a man who stood out amongst many in the world of STEM.
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Among my idea to weekly bring to the Steemit community Humans And Evolution which aim to encourage us to impact to our world in terms of bringing ideas into manifestation in our various fields , I also decided to bring to the Steemstem community the STEM hall of fame, The Legends Of STEM, men and women who without them, I just wonder were we would be today so join me as I blog.
As I will always say, do try as much as possible to create an impact in your field, you might someday make my collection on The Legends Of STEM.
See you on Humans And Evolution
REFERENCES
Images And Videos
Reference to images and video used can be seen to be right under the said image or video.
General
Some Accomplishments Of Leonardo
American Society of Mechanical Engineering
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