Russia (bbabo.net), - Visitors of an interactive exhibition at the I. Kramskoy Museum will see prototypes of an airplane and a parachute, a diving suit made of tarred canvas and a "pedometer" in the form of a cart. The inventions of the great Leonardo are shown in the form of models, often in full size. All exhibits can be touched, and some are easy to use. Both children and adults enthusiastically load the catapult, build a bridge without a single nail and pump water with a lever and small buckets.

Many people know the great Italian primarily for his ingenious painting. "Mona Lisa" and "Lady with an Ermine", "Madonna Litta" and "The Last Supper" are masterpieces that first come to mind. However, Leonardo da Vinci was no less a brilliant scientist and engineer. He was interested in everything: physics and anatomy, astronomy and chemistry, military affairs and medicine. He left six thousand manuscripts, drawings and paintings, and developed devices that are used everywhere today. During the life of the author, only some of his inventions were used. Most are way ahead of their time.

The masters from the Moscow company Mask of Time tried to recreate the most interesting mechanisms. Previously, she was engaged in the construction of theatrical scenery. According to Leonardo's drawings, three dozen cars and individual components were assembled. At the exhibition, you can see how rack and worm gears work, start different mechanisms: a cam (automatic hammer), which helped blacksmiths process parts, or a crank - it rotates, for example, wheels in cars.

To measure the length of the path, Leonardo came up with something like a wheelbarrow with a bowl filled with stones. After several revolutions of the wheel (say, every three meters), one of the stones fell into the hole. By counting the fallen cobblestones, it was possible to determine the distance traveled by a bulky pedometer.

Among the exhibits were a camera obscura - the grandmother of the camera, a model of a heavy tank, a mechanical drum, a huge crossbow and a "water-lifting station", set in motion by a simple rotation of the handle.

Masters from a Moscow company tried to recreate the most interesting mechanisms

- Leonardo dreamed of the idea of ​​flight and thought that if you make wings like those of a bird, then a person will be able to rise into the air. We made a mechanical plane strictly according to da Vinci's drawings. For each curved plank, I had to create my own layout to ensure the desired curvature,” said Dmitry Sukharenok, curator of the exhibition. - The model of the tank was originally larger and with wooden armor, but it was difficult to exhibit it: not all cities have spacious halls. Therefore, we made another version, with a metal coating (this is provided for in Leonardo's project). It is more durable, which is especially important, since young researchers who want to get to the bottom of the truth come to the exhibition. Because of this, some models have to be repaired. Now we are just repairing a popular exhibit - a mechanical elevator based on a system of blocks and a worm gear. With his help, a six-year-old child lifted his father weighing 150 kilograms.

Photo reproductions of Leonardo's paintings were hung next to the mechanisms. Sometimes visitors say that the "Gioconda" in the original is smaller. In fact, it has exactly the same dimensions as the original in the Louvre. You can just look at it not from afar through armored glass, but up close.

The exhibition "Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci" will run in Voronezh until March 13, 2022. On Saturdays and Sundays there are free tours at 12.00 and 16.00. They must be booked in advance by phone: (473) 255-50-81.

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Dmitry Sukharenok, exhibition curator:

“We didn’t hunt for old wood, we didn’t grind square-headed bolts, which were in use in Italy at the end of the 15th century. The idea was to make all exhibits accessible and functional. Similar projects have been implemented both in Leonardo's homeland and in Russia - for example, in St. Petersburg. Interactive models of machines and mechanisms can be found in the Moscow Museum of Cosmonautics, in the Polytechnic ... But these are stationary exhibitions, and the mobile one still gives greater coverage in the regions. Russia also has its own inventors-nuggets, which would be worth talking about in an interactive format, take the same Kulibin. But this is already a project that needs to be dealt with at the state level.

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