Revisiting Discovery Channel's Doing Da Vinci

This was an interesting show.

I have an MFA degree so I can give you a real quick run down on Leornardo Da Vinci. He was a showman first, architect/artist second. He found a real quick way to keep his many projects funded was to promise some rich emperor to build weapons and architectural marvels that would keep him year ahead of the competition. Much of this stuff was never realized, but Da Vinci's patrons really didn't care. Da Vinci knew that his manuscripts themselves might become valuable over time, so he kept on compiling volume after volume, with the idea that this would set him up for retirement. He taught himself to write backwards left-handed so that forgers would have a hard time faking his documents.

So, with all this paperwork showing flying machines, irrigation equipment and tanks with guns it was only natural that The Discovery Channel would set up a crew to put his supposed 'working diagrams' to the test.

... the struggles.

There was always some real nerdy perfectionist transferring Da Vinci's drawings into a CAD system, and then some construction 'get er done' types whipping out the chainsaws and blow torches to get the job done on time. I laughed at how the nerd engineer was yelling at the crewmen that they built the stair for a rolling siege tower with risers two inches too high! The 'chainsaw' wood worker dude (full beard naturally) said 'hey, we're a bunch of hired soldiers attacking a castle now! No one's going to care about how high the stair steps are!'

It works... but REAL LOUD!!

The one device they got done and actually used was the rolling wooden tank. They said yes, it could be built, but firing all the guns from within the structure was so loud anybody's hearing would be destroyed without protection in under a minute!

https://youtu.be/yySwdngN0wM

That's all for now! Have a great weekend!