Leonardo Da Vinci's Bad Ideas

Explore the fascinating genius and human flaws of Leonardo da Vinci! From his ingenious flying machines to his impractical diving suits, discover Da Vinci's lesser-known, unsuccessful inventions. Join us on this captivating journey!
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[@bile73]

Editor please stop the glitch fades

[@jeff4son]

I second this comment

[@Pikkonuos]

Third

[@ratdad48]

Yes Yes. But don't hold your breath.

[@FLPhotoCatcher]

And, is Simon meant to be out of focus?

[@dalewier9735]

My ears! ...My EARS ... (seriously, lose that crap)

[@stuartrobinson1188]

Terry pratchett had the best description of da Vinci with the character Leonard of quirm. Who is constantly unconsciously doodling terrible functional world changing machines in the margins of books without really being conscious of what he had created

[@r.awilliams9815]

"For when you need to move mountains out of the way."

[@remliqa]

Meh, I prefer Bloody Stupid Johnson .

[@intergalactic92]

"I’ve invented this game with tiles covered in letters, and the players scrabble around to collect them and to make words, scoring points based on where they place them on the board. I call it: Making-words-with-letter-covered-tiles." For although Leonard of Quirm is a genius he is lousy at naming things.

[@pooryorick831]

Yes. Lord Vetinari kept him in a room where he had all the playthings he could possibly want. The ultimate idea man. I can't remember if the scorpion pit was one of Leonard's ideas. Might have been.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

I liked at the end of the one book when he stopped and looked at his plans for a _nuclear bomb_ and then rather thoughtfully watched as it was engulfed in flames. The one time he really did understand what he had done, and took care of it before someone else saw.

[@alm5992]

7:28 To quote Fry and professor Farnsworth in Futurama: Fry: "Wow, could that thing really fly!?" Farnsworth: "Of course not, that thing is as aerodynamic as a sofa!"

[@theaxer3751]

I'm fairly certain someone built a couch paraglider, so what exactly are you trying to say?

[@moogle68]

@@theaxer3751 well if what you say is true, OP's point still stands, because it would've been the paraglider that was aerodynamic, not the couch suspended below it.

[@javaks]

He's one Donatello short of Ninja Turtles.

[@joelellis7035]

That's one turtle short of a pizza party!

[@negativeindustrial]

Our host looks a bit like the Ninja Turtle Donatello, now that you mention it. 🤔

[@cwg73160]

@@negativeindustrialNo.

[@The-Sniffer-Fox]

​@@joelellis7035the pizza stunted his lifespan

[@screwthisin]

That's not Cowabunga if him

[@evanr.2586]

In his biography of Leonardo, Walter Isaacson discusses that Leonardo earned most of his income by staging stage plays. Some historians theorize the many of Leonardo's inventions were designs for stage props. Several of the flying machines look like that could be plausible. Of course that's just a theory. But I think it is an interesting one.

[@odysseusrex5908]

Fascinating!

[@RaelNikolaidis]

Great book!

[@missyouwish88]

When he lived in France the last few years of his life, he was supposedly a set designer for plays & dances for Francis I

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

It's also worth recognizing that a lot of these things probably were fundraising for further development. The diving suit in particular wouldn't be useful as a weapon as such, but it could potentially have had some use for salvage operations if a ship did go down in shallower water. Or potentially for helping to install underwater fortifications against ships, sort of like a minefield with debris rather than literal mines. And some wouldn't have worked at the time for the simple reason that the necessary materials hadn't yet been developed. If there had been a need to fall from higher heights, I'm sure they could have worked out a way of making the frame for the parachute lighter as it just needs to maintain enough of the shape to capture the wind and take some of the pressure off of the stitching. He did hit it out of the ballpark a few times, but people tend to forget about just how many bad, or impractical, ideas it can take to generate a few world changing gems.

[@charleschristianson2730]

If he had developed a working diving suit, people would've figured out a use for it. To call it a "bad idea" because it didn't make it past the red tape is simply wrong.

[@ARabidPie]

Exactly. Maybe it wasn't practical for the military at that level of development, but the harbormaster likely would have loved having it on hand to recover goods lost overboard by clumsy dockhands or to do work on the footings of piers and bridges and such.

[@magnemoe1]

This first practical use of diving suits was for salvage. Might be recovering cannons from Vasa It was pretty different however,

[@1112viggo]

Yeah, just of the top of my head I'm thinking pearl diving, shipwreck salvage operations, bridge construction and the study of sea life. I wonder why he pitched it as a military invention of all things.

[@Teaman313]

​@1112viggo 🤔 hmm.. I'm no historian, but I guess that just like it is today, military contracts were extremely lucrative back then. Human nature ensured that war has always been a good business for suppliers and contractors. And since patent offices didn't exist back then, it kind of makes sense that he would try to pitch his inventions to the military. This is just pure conjecture on my side. (Edited grammatical errors)

[@odysseusrex5908]

@@1112viggo Because that was what the various leaders of Italian city states were most interested in.

[@THE-X-Force]

That "digital distortion" effect is annoying af .. bzzzzt!

[@allesklar221]

Thank you, it REALLY is..

[@georgehh2574]

I don't mind it really

[@Black-Sun_Kaiser]

I'm easily annoyed and it didn't bother me at all.

[@ratdad48]

​@@Black-Sun_KaiserYep. I can see how your comment can annoy people.

[@ratdad48]

​@@allesklar221Yes, it is, but it want stop. His producer ( maybe him) thinks it clever.

[@greenredblue]

The most important thing I learned from this is that even da Vinci felt the need to pad his resume.

[@allanshpeley4284]

They should have titled this, "Leonardo Da Vinci's Good Ideas, Most of Which Worked With Some Fine Tuning".

[@missyouwish88]

Came here to say that 😆

[@Sanquinity]

Yea for most of them I thought "he was on the right track though..."

[@missyouwish88]

@@Sanquinity Oh, he 100% was. He just had the bad/good luck of being ahead of his time. I think if he were alive in our time, all his inventions wouldn't be as remarkable. There's this adorable 2009 kids book called Neo Leo that explains all the things he thought up that (technically) could've worked in an easy fun way. It's great.

[@michaeljohnangel6359]

@@missyouwish88 So, if I imagine a rocket ship that can fly through black holes, does that make me an inventor?

[@michaeljohnangel6359]

@@Sanquinity So, if I imagine a rocket ship that can fly through black holes, does that make me an inventor?

[@ZOB4]

Feels weird to hear Simon talk about Da Vinci without telling a story about how thought it was Da Vin-see for the longest time

[@andyaskew1543]

I think the point is that Da Vinci was able to produce concepts so far ahead of their time that the technology necessary to produce them had not even been invented yet. I don't see any of this as a failure.

[@missyouwish88]

Same here. To paraphrase Howard Stark's quote from Iron Man 2, he really was limited by the technology of his time.

[@michaeljohnangel6359]

@@missyouwish88 So, if I imagine a rocket ship that can fly through black holes, does that make me an inventor?

[@michaeljohnangel6359]

So, if I imagine a rocket ship that can fly through black holes, does that make me an inventor?

[@theaxer3751]

​@@michaeljohnangel6359 Yes. Inventors try to make the currently impossible possible, and sometimes they do not immediately succeed.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@michaeljohnangel6359 Only if it is eventually created and you developed some portion of what it eventually required. I think that DaVinci was an inventor in the sense that some of it did work, or was made to work without much additional ideas. However, he's arguably more important as a visionary than as an inventor. One of the issues that folks like DaVinci have is that some of their ideas are so far ahead of their time that it's difficult to establish which ones are ahead of their time and which ones are just fantasy. And sometimes, even the fantasy ideas wind up having some pretty significant real world impact. Nobody knew definitively that it was possible for humans to fly using heavier than air planes until the Wright Brothers built one that did work and could be modified to become practical. It was highly suspected to be possible, and other inventors were close, but people had been trying for quite some time before they got the key components in place to actually do it. Same goes with the space race, people had dreamed of it for as long as there were people to see the moon, but until somebody actually got to space, it was a legitimately open question as to whether it was even possible. Today there are people who still don't believe it's possible, in large part due to the radiation exposure.

[@crichtonbruce4329]

No use for a functional diving suit in the 1500s. Hmm... The primary use for the first successful diving suits was salvage operations. As such, if Leonardo's design worked, it would have found some happy customers.

[@stevejester5658]

Key word being "functional" and not "theorized drawing"

[@jaythompson5102]

Pearl diving maybe?

[@edwardscott3262]

Maybe someone should mention how Aristotle wrote of using primitive dive bells in the 4th century BC. Or how for a very long time ships sinking with extremely valuable stuff worth bringing back up was going on. Throughout all of recorded history a functional diving suit would have found use. One thing I hate about Pop history is the hur der look at dem dum peoples constant throughout.

[@jespado]

Just look at how many cannons they salvaged from the Swedish Wasa ship that sank in 1628.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@stevejester5658 Yes, and keep in mind that he was proposing it to the navy as a weapon rather than as a way of recovering expensive weapons. And he just had a theoretical drawing, he was asking for what is essentially venture capital to see if it could be created.

[@davidponseigo8811]

As brilliant as he was he was entitled to make a few mistakes and bad inventions. Most of us can't say the same thing.

[@Sanquinity]

Most of his supposed bad inventions were still on the right track though. So less bad ideas and more incomplete ideas. Possibly often limited by the technology of his time not being advanced enough to make his ideas a reality yet.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@Sanquinity These are cherry picked examples, but people underestimate just how many bad ideas creative geniuses often go through before they even get to the point of being worth recording. Then of those ones, there's a bunch more that get set aside for one reason or another and it's just a tiny fraction of them that even get any sort of real action taken to create. These all have flaws, but as you note, eventually something similar was created that did work. In several cases, like with the tank, there were other inventions that were required to make it actually work, and in the case of the flying machines, he had most of the necessary elements there, the engineering team made that work mostly with stuff they found in his drawings. Actually taking action to make things real is important, but people underestimate just how hard it is to be a visionary. Just creating ideas that can be acted on isn't necessarily easy, especially if you're more forward thinking than just a simple modification or improvement on what we've got. That's why so many companies are started by duos, one that's better with the vision and the other that's more business savvy.

[@megaflux7144]

the diving suit would have worked well for looting the ships sunk by a cannon ball.

[@Jabbadoor2]

Just some feedback from 1 random viewer. I stumbled over the channel a couple of weeks ago, and ended up bingewatching also most every video dating back 1½ year or so. :-) In other words; I really like your content. However, lately you've started using some sort of "breaking up effect", And I can't say why, but it really gets under my skin. To the point where I don't really want to keep watching, because all i'm thinking about, is preparing myself for the next time it comes. It's like nails at a charkboard. 😞

[@HermanVonPetri]

Yes, thank you! EDITOR: Please stop using the digital glitch noise. It was painfully annoying when CDs would skip and it's still painfully annoying in these videos.

[@simonmeadows7961]

Have you discovered all of Simon's other 387 channels? Or is this just your first foray into the Whistlerverse?

[@THE-X-Force]

Especially bad when you're wearing headphones.

[@Baskinbzier]

​@@simonmeadows7961 Yeah lmaoooo ive been a subscriber for years and years but eventually i was like these guys look a like lmao

[@ratdad48]

I agree with you completely. Never fails when something is going well someone has just got to come up with an idea to "fork" it all up! I quess it kinda clever to someone's juvenile way of thinking. Do you think he will read your comment or mine? I think not. This stupid break away crap and noise will persist.

[@paulheinrich7645]

Wow. No advertisements. This is a first in forever. Thx, Simon.

[@agneslawson9276]

They just auto play in our heads now. Just me??

[@gixxerhoschi]

we thank Squerspace for the Video... or Keeps... or the underwear company

[@BabyMakR]

I could have sworn I saw a keeps ad read!!!

[@DMBVR4]

The sponsors saw all the glitch transitions and opted to sit this one out.

[@ThorParker]

4:20 I get it!!! It was to destroy ships carrying gold and then being able to bring up their valuable resources, for which the army would benefit greatly through reinvesting the income into warfare, damaging the economy of the opposition, or even potentially recovering weapons for reuse.

[@flyflybaby2723]

The fact that he *thought* of diving suits *at that time* is *more than mind-blowing!*

[@killerkraut9179]

Konrad Kyser and Hans Talhoffer hade the diving suit idea earlyer! It wasnt that mind-blowing!

[@davidliskey3553]

There was a show on discovery channel where they built some of his designs, including that tank, pretty cool, most worked, they fixed flaws in some designs and made them work. Really good show

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

I'll need to look into that, because that sounds awesome.

[@katyungodly]

Was it Mythbusters? I know they tested some ancient weapon designs but I don't remember if they did Da Vinci designs.

[@davidliskey3553]

@@katyungodly called doing Da Vinci was on Discovery in 2009

[@mustangiiii]

Simon of Kent, the renaissance man of KZbin

[@AeroGuy07]

Sir Simon of Kent, peasant! 😂

[@jonc-1989]

Is Simon from Kent? I had no idea he is local to me

[@MattCombs-ge7ki]

That has a nice ring to it

[@cleverusername9369]

​@@jonc-1989he's from Kent but lives in Prague

[@TitularHeroine]

I'm gonna make up a character called that. Nice sound!

[@fathertimegaming17]

You say that his flying machines wouldn't have worked without extensive reworks, but I am also quite sure that the Wright flyer was not their first design.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

I think the difference is that the Wright Brothers pursued it to the point where they settled the question about whether or not it was possible to develop a practical flying machine. It's also kind of crazy how less than 70 years later humans weren't just routinely flying around in the air, but we'd already landed people on the Moon. That being said, the Wright Brothers were a lot closer tot he goal than DaVinci was, as there had been a lot of work done on gliders in the centuries in the mean time and the Wright Brothers had access to internal combustion engines to power it. They mostly contributed the control system and put all of the pieces together into something that could be incrementally improved into the aircraft we have today.

[@alexturnbackthearmy1907]

@@SmallSpoonBrigade Not to mention that they had VERY serious competition form europe, which could`ve easily surpassed them if their initial design wasnt just right. Everyone knew that it would be possible at some point in these years - question was who first?

[@erikgranqvist3680]

Da Vinci had nothing over Leonardo of Quirm.

[@joshuastrawser9160]

Leonardo da Vinci had a lot of ideas. Like a lot of men throughout history who had a lot of ideas, some of them were quite good. The social contract dictates that we not mention the others. One day, for example, Elon Musk's flamethrower will join that latter list of things better left forgotten.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

We definitely should mention the others because it's rather informative of how he went about having all those ideas. Walt Disney used a 3 room approach wherein the first room there literally were no ideas too stupid to mention. A second room where they would take that list and cull out the obvious ones that had some sort of significant issues. And a 3rd room where none but the stongest ideas were permitted to survive. People forget just how many ideas there are out there, if people haven't had an idea, it's far morel likely to be a terrible idea than one worth pursuing.

[@vaibanez17]

IMO, being even that close to a working flight apparatus in 1480 is worth praise, even if his exact models wouldn't have worked without changes and modifications.

[@NathanaelNewton]

The glitch sound effect volume is what happens when the editor doesn't wear headphones while editing 😮

[@hesjustthisguyyaknow]

in his defense, he came up with basic ideas and then pitched them to benefactors. if nobody paid him to develop them, he didn't because spending his own money to develop a device that had no buyer wasn't going to feed him. that doesn't necessarily make them bad ideas.

[@killerkraut9179]

he came up with basic ideas extremely debatabel!

[@carloshenriquezimmer7543]

One of the many theories about DaVinci's ideas beying almost always pretty close, but never actually working, is that he was suffering of eyther ADD, OCD or he was maniac-depressive. Sources of the time would always say that he would study something non-stop, not sleeping for days and eating iregularlly, than, all of a sudden, he would give up half-way. And he would never return to his previous notations; if he decided to study the same subject again he would begin everything from scatch, never building from his previous findings. Not that he would hit a road-block on his studies, he would simply stop that work, just to do it all again later. And it is ofthen mentioned that he used to spend a lot of time on doing nothing, while employed by a patron, sunken in a "pesarous" mood, and would isolate himself in his workshops, refusing to talk to people. Also, some mention that he always had a variety of works unfinished, waiting to be continued later (the Monalisa took some years to be finished), in all kinds of arts and sciences, all at the same time. When he felt like working on them, he would work on all of them at the same time, for a while. So much so that many of his paintings and sculptures were never finished or were finished by other artists, like "The Last Supper". Given that those all indicate simptoms of those 3 conditions, it is possible he suffered from at least one of them.

[@killerkraut9179]

Even if leonardo wasnt very special he was mostly just a men of his time!

[@woodhousii2445]

​@@killerkraut9179I want you to consider that maybe Leonardo WASNT a one of a kind renaissance man living in Florence Italy and that MAYBE there might be dozens of Leonardo's walking on earth in the modern day in any country and they just don't have the opportunities, privilege, money, or resources to gain recognition OR that what they're interested in isn't valued by the modern world, and even if we recognized them, we would never consider them a renaissance man, a polymath, or on the same level as Davinci, even if they were.

[@killerkraut9179]

@@woodhousii2445 I could even say many examples before or in his time!

[@RamboVee]

Brilliant! Learned all new stuff today. Thanks Simon and team.

[@goldmemberpb]

Talking about the tank here just gave me ptsd flashback to AC brotherhood and its god forsaken " don't get hit" tank mission. This was fine on my PC with a nice 60 fps but back in the 360, needing to do a 6 min mission first before the tank and 30 fps tank controls made it a nightmare to fully complete it.

[@steveb6386]

A few of what he did invent that are used today: The pawl (Used on gears and is actuated in the transmission on an automatic transmission when 'P' is elected), The tank/armored car. Made Guttenberg's printing press semi automatic. The hang glider. The parachute. Method of using sprockets and chains to drive wheels. A crane that rotated. A type of artillery gun. A cantilever bridge that could be assembled quickly without tools to cross rivers. The diving helmet.

[@richardbrewis436]

Thanks SideProjects. Good video about Leonardo da Vinci and his wacky inventions! A much lighter subject than recent political articles but, then again we all love human history! Keep em' coming!!

[@athena8794]

You do realize this isn't Into the Shadows, right? It's SideProjects. Thus the lighter subject matter.

[@richardbrewis436]

@@athena8794 Oh, my mistake. Somebody take it down...I feel so embarrased !

[@ALA9E]

⁠@@richardbrewis436lol we all do it. You can delete by pressing three dots in right hand corner

[@gamerjaqi7873]

Really thought it was a joke because Simon has 11 channels

[@richardbrewis436]

@@ALA9E ThanksALA9E, I've corrected my comment to clear up my mistake. I hope not too many people read it, ouch!!

[@JesusRN16]

In terms of his resume, he may just have had a knack for words. 1- a single board of wood over a small gap 2- using a bigger rock 3- a miniature motor model Potentially, these things fit the descriptions. It's not his fault the employers misunderstood 😂

[@vernonzehr]

I hate to be "that guy" but seriously, does anyone like those ridiculous annoying, and distracting transitions? They are so annoying it breaks the flow and presentation of the narrative. It adds ZERO, NADA, NOTHING to the content or presentation quality. Other than the transitions the content on this channel is always fantastic.

[@kyle857]

They also need go edit out his quick inhales. They are distracting.

[@RendallRen]

Can you be more specific?

[@triggerlyon9478]

And your information/educational channel is.. ....

[@matthoover3674]

You LOVE being that guy, don't lie.

[@TheMelorino]

​@@triggerlyon9478can't be critical unless you do this. Fax

[@LivingManuscript]

Diving suits seem to have been an idea for at least a little time before Davinci as well, I know Talhoffer had a drawing of something similar and it may (IIRC) have been in copies of Bellefortis. The Middlealdercentret in Denmark tested one out with some success; they lean towards it being used for salvage operations :)

[@cursedfishtanx9087]

I remember watching an IMAX film called Adreline Rush at Boston Science Museum's dome-shaped IMAX theater which featured DaVinci' s parachute design being tested.

[@TitularHeroine]

Could we get videos on Jung & Freud's best & worst ideas? Regardless, thank you for everything!

[@TheScrubExpress]

Still blows my mind that the parachute actually works.

[@allanshpeley4284]

The parachute works, the diving suit works, the tank would have worked and been functional in certain circumstances, the plane designs worked with some modifications. This list is nonsense.

[@tnh723]

You sir are relentless. Your videos are among the very best on the interwebs. If you go on vacation, millions will cheer for your much needed rest and are assured that you will return refreshed and rewarded for all these great videos :-)

[@ALA9E]

And talking even faster

[@nihilistmia]

His parachute design had one major flaw and that was it had no opening in the top

[@rubberduck306]

I remember seeing a documentary maybe 20 years ago where Jacquie Cozens tested the design of Da Vinci's diving suit and found it worked well in shallow water

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

That doesn't surprise me. There's a few things that need to be added if you want to go deeper. Also, keep in mind that the air pumps were a lot less sophisticated than they were in the 19th century, so just pumping the air down with the right bits of diving gear, still likely would have ended badly.

[@killerkraut9179]

@@SmallSpoonBrigade The earlyer Konrad Kyser diving suit idea was tested with 4 men pumping with ballows it did work!

[@nicksokolov6024]

Newton .. Bell .. Marconi.. Turning .. ( ideas do not happen in a vacuum )

[@gorilladisco9108]

Leonardo's diving suit could be used to put stakes around harbors to force hostile ships to break formation which then the defending forces could pick one by one.

[@matekovacs9166]

Got a question for you: Why do our irises have coulour? Not just why the colour differs (all the answers go for originally brown and later lack of melatonin...), .. but whats the reason why we dont all we have white eyes with pupils and black irises? Whats the evolutionary reasoning behind our iris needing colour at the first place?

[@adolfsnape1481]

I'm pretty sure it is caused by melanin concentration it probably differs evolutionary for letting more or less light inside the eye again, I'm not sure and this is just an hypothesis.

[@jackvos8047]

The first thing that you need to know is that having the whites of the eyes (sclera) showing is rare in the animal kingdom. Secondly the iris is a muscle used for focusing so is a totally different tissue to the sclera. Only social animals have irises that contrast to the sclera and it aids in communication. It's much easier to see what someone else is looking at when the iris is in contrast to the rest of the eye.

[@TerryDBlack]

@@jackvos8047 this is all true, but doesn’t answer what is being asked. He’s asking why we have coloured irises at all. What function does the colour itself have; brown, blue, green - Nothing else on the human body is blue or green; so why the eye? Etc

[@Nylak-Otter]

​@@TerryDBlack It's just a mutation that happened. Humans weren't deliberately designed, so a lot of our features don't necessarily have a "reason" for why they are what they are. The mutation of different colors wasn't necessarily a disadvantage, so they remained in some genetic lines, but never randomly appeared in others.

[@alexturnbackthearmy1907]

@@Nylak-Otter Same with hair color. Very very long ago it actually mattered (darker = less visible), but when that stopped being just as relevant with humans socializing...evolution happened and now we had quite a variety of colors.

[@BarryTGash]

Dear editor: please don't use the transition sound effects. Especially the 'coin' one ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/nHesnYKNoLyHqMk ) that sounds like something one might hear in a game when making a purchase in a shop. Distracting and unnecessary. Otherwise, great content as always.

[@ratdad48]

Good luck with that. Some juvenile thinks thinks the breaks and noises are clever so it want stop.

[@jamesmcpherson1590]

Perhaps he got the idea for the pyramid parachute from a source noted in the description itself. Perhaps he had seen a "tent made of linen" as a temporary shelter for a traveler and concluded that the design could be repurposed to arrest a fall if held onto from below by a cross brace.

[@kitcarpo4745]

Simon, this time I played you on "drunk speed" (0.75) in order to watch while painting. It makes you sound drunk, not that I am...

[@Stingray571]

You gotta try it at 0.5 🤣🤣

[@mikchrungBLADES]

Bad ideas leads to improvement and new ideas. It teaches us what works and what doesn't. Without bad ideas there would be no varieties and excitement in the world.

[@kali3665]

Marvel Comics did a What If comic, "What If Nick Fury Fought World War II in Space?" The reality shift was something about how Da Vinci was able to make practical use of his inventions, and that led to speeding up scientific knowledge so that we visited the moon in the 1920s. Oh, and the Dark Ages never happened because of this. Which of course is utterly impossible since the technology was simply not there. There was simply no way to create, say, heavier-than-air flight in the 15th century! That was the problem with Charles Babbage coming up with the first computer. The technology just didn't exist for actual practical development. No vacuum tubes or even the means to actually build the contraption. But it would have made an interesting cyberpunk invention.....

[@BLOXKAFELLARECORDS]

Hope everyone enjoys #johnnyx100 like Da Vinci.

[@alexturnbackthearmy1907]

Last one isnt true. His computer was literally ONE! step away from becoming first modern computer, and was never build only because of budget limitations (he developed it on his own money and stopped it only when his limited funds were unable to keep development afloat). Almost 100 years later similar machine was build, becoming the first modern computer...while being barely more advanced then machine developed decades prior.

[@jasmijnariel]

Imagine if he could return to this age and see his ideas and inventions EVERYWHERE in the world😊❤

[@DoctorX17]

There was an episode of Star Trek: Voyager where they ran with the concept that he was far ahead of his time - they built a glider using one of his designs, but with 24th century frame materials instead 16th century

[@killerkraut9179]

Tv producers usually dont know much about history!

[@Fanatical_Empathy]

Now with my critical comment out of the way I wanted to give you guys some praise. I love hearing that 1 of the most celebrated works and all of humanity is a copy from appear for da Vinci. I think it's so humbling when I was in college and I would be copying other artists work and people would be copying my work to think that something of mine might have been copied at some point that might be valued for some reason is kind of interesting idea.

[@AlexPortRacing]

Great content Simon... Can you check your focus? You are slightly blurry to me and I really notice it 😊 the cactus on the shelf is pin sharp.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:00 - Chapter 1 - Diving suit 5:10 - Chapter 2 - The many flying machines 8:00 - Chapter 3 - Parachute

[@BusyMEOW]

Donatello was my favourite Ninja Turtle, he did machines.

[@chuckz2934]

Tough to watch some of these channels without Simon hosting anymore

[@allanshpeley4284]

Hardly. I've always found Simon irritating.

[@foolonthehill8410]

*breathes* *glitch special effect* "today we will-" *glitch special effect* "-be talking about-" *glitch special effect* "-leonardo-" *glitch special effect* "-da-" *glitch special effect* "-vinci-" *glitch special effect*

[@spendz_stax]

Any type of creator or artist knows that it takes numerous bad ideas to finally get the one that works

[@mozart579]

Leonardo was a genius

[@killerkraut9179]

Mostly just a men of his time! genius debetabel!

[@wittyjoker4631]

So even his bad ideas are revolutionary concepts that work...

[@bobbyolivo9163]

Loved the video. And I learned some new things, like I had never even heard of Taccola before. So thank you, always enjoy a new rabbit hole to go down 🙂 But that's not what "begging the question means". I'm sorry, it's just a pet peeve of mine 🙃 Otherwise awesome video, I'll even subscribe, which I literally never do 😂

[@killerkraut9179]

There where many person like this in the late medieval age and early post medieval Renaissance like Roberto valturio ,Guido da Vigevano with his crank wagon! In the german language areas existed Konrad Kyser with his Bellifortis und Ritters Martin Löffelholz von Kolberg with his Löffelholz-Codex ! Germany hade a big Kriegsbuch (Warbook) and Feuerwerks Buch (Firework Book) tradition in his time!

[@sonjanordahl3158]

😆In da Vinchi's defense, if nobody is paying there is no point in wasting hundreds of man hours debugging designs. But yes, he did have some really bad ideas.

[@norwoodwildlife9849]

Wouldn't call these bad ideas, just bad designs for good ideas

[@timmiller1]

Yes, how are scuba diving suit, airplane, and parachute bad ideas?

[@sarumano884]

An awful lot of "bad designs" from way back were a) OK, here's a thought: How about I sketch this out? or b) Deliberate. You're touting for (paid) work as an inventor/designer, but you don't want the Duke of X pinching your design and cashing in on it. People do that, and did that, you know. So you put in a deliberate mistake, like a crank that turns two wheels in opposite directions, or 'forgetting' to place a trigger on an otherwise perfect crossbow... Apicius, the cook, did this too, by a) "forgetting" to add quantities to most of his recipes, and b) adding pepper to every recipe, needed or not. Yes, I am aware that "Apicius" was about three people.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@sarumano884 That's a solid point. Even today, trade secrets remain a powerful way of protecting your information. It's part of why patents exist. You turn over all the details of your invention to establish that it functions and you're granted exclusive rights to that invention for a fixed period of time. For things that lack similar protections, trade secrets tend to do a similar thing, just far less reliably and you're on your own to ensure that they remain secret. It can be as simple as only a couple people knowing the recipe for a spice blend and them being the only ones to actually mix the batches.

[@kaldo_kaldo]

What if a lot of these bad ideas were just doodles of thoughts he had?

[@4362mont]

If Da Vinci had never had an idea the concept of which could not be proved, or the details made to work out, he really wouldn't have been trying enogh stuff. Sometimes, you have dream it up if only to get it out of the way, or sketch it to get it out of your head, or build it to find out what doesn't work. I think at heart he was using an artist's approach on technical problems some of the time.

[@killerkraut9179]

I think there was work of Otto Lilienthal between!

[@AeroGuy07]

There are remote control birds that fly. Someone had one in one of Cleetus McFarlands recent videos.

[@ilai7893]

The Wright Brothers' first plane design was actually driven by manpower, so Leo's flight design was actually not bad, and in fact ahead of the time

[@LiberatedAmon]

Did Da Vinci actually say to use 220 pounds of wood in the parachute? All you need is support to keep the opening open. I don't think you need 55 pound timbers to do that.

[@seanmalloy7249]

4:12 I'm reminded of a meme image I saved -- 'Give someone a fish and you feed them for a day. Patent "Method and Apparatus for Retrieval of Piscine Life Forms" and you're set for life'

[@davidponseigo8811]

Most of us relieve ourselves in the water with or without something to go into. Seriously we all know we pee in the pool.

[@andrewcarson5850]

That's what I told the lifeguard, but he said most don't do it from the diving board.

[@sarahissersohn5495]

Not while wearing a full diving suit, my dude

[@sekaramochi]

sorry but need to ask? What would you choose 1) Straping a giant fan on your back jumping off a cliff and hope the parachute releases A) jumping out of a plane, with a squirrel suit on and hope the parachute opens 2) jump off a different cliff in a hang glider with No parachute to worry about 3) bungee jump from a helicopter ( don't worry like jumping off a bridge you never return to the place you jumping from ) B) being towed into the air and cut loose, in a glider and gliding back the earth ( parachutes? ) At this point you can skip to C+ please C) a hot air balloon and a basket ( parachutes ' dude seriously shut up about the leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and michė chute in 1485, we're talking about balloons in 1852 and some dudes flying a plane in 1903 ' are the safest way to earth, that's why... Sorry but the you time lines all wrong ' why ' It least one of the tmnt invented planes, helicopters and ti.e travel ' what? ' Time travel ' dude seriously. How many have we said, stop reading dan brown, its all fiction ' C+1) a Hot air balloon with a basket, as the pilot turns to you and says sorry we're out of fuel and have lose some 'ballast' he calls back to me as I throw him out of the basket. Wait a second we're almost above our house, so we can drop the sand bags on neighbors cars ' Don't ' Okeyyy what if we dropped them infront of someone's house and called down to them " there's a flood coming "...' Dzon't ' Okey.... .... what if I wrap the deflating balloon around a Telegraph pole outside our bedroom window, knocked to wake you on one knee in an open casket with a box of milk tray saying ' because the lady lov...' you close, sorry slam the window in my face screaming i fecking hate those ( sorry was previously mentioned, but this is about the forty second attempt to post, try reminder to us , save please as often as...) Don't you have an issue with updating whilst you're writing and we didn't save Sorry where was we? Oh yes hanging from a parachute hooked on overhead power cables, as we rock from side side we tap on the window again ( same window) ' same window ' Again, at this point we don't understand who's actually the poster of this post C-) a Hot air baboon shaped balloon 4 fours ) back captain William ( dude seriously back doesn't rhyme with William, try " jacks back " but dude we wasn't playing Jacks, we was playing liers dice and jacks back front or any part of him was with us when we was listening and someone shouted four thors C+) a good year blimp 4) jumping off broadstairs pier 5) climbing though and jumping out the seven sisters caves Kingsgate 6) Ramsgate caves, never been there since 8) shell grotto and free toys to grab as you walk out, banned from there ' joke Wright? ' C+1+) 37 minutes later, tap on the other window not the once said window but more like a skylight. You ask 'WHAT' Please look under your pillow. we cry out As the cables break and we fall to the ground You cover your pillow to discover an elephant C3-y) kindar eggs actually with a ring within Q1 still waiting for the answer, once you carm

[@andrewcarson5850]

I think you meant Kinder eggs. If you're going to posit such conundrums, please get your spelling rite.

[@NecromancyForKids]

Did you get artificial assistance writing this? Because it's seriously incomprehensible.

[@buinghiathuan4595]

Simon: no one have test Da vinci flying machine Ezio: hold my beer 😂

[@Schander]

There's a theory that he didn't actually event much to begin with. He was a scholar who might've simply copied/borrowed from many ancient manuscripts he came across.

[@allanshpeley4284]

Event huh?

[@killerkraut9179]

In the late medieval age existed Konrad kysers and Guido de Vigevanos work before Leonardo!

[@claywest9528]

Well, everyone has had some bad ideas.

[@story_teller_beats]

I expected a sponsor bit when he said * but before we get to the diving suit* so i started skipping already lol

[@YodaBSith]

Simon's random, drastic volume swings...

[@williamchamberlain2263]

Lenny from Vinci was an okay guy 4:59 who invented the Urbanmech

[@cerboris521]

Dunno how these can be considered bad ideas since we now have functioning and useful versions of all of these. Initial concepts should not be mistaken with completed designs.

[@noelthorley3248]

Talhoffer had a similar design for a diving suit in his Codex. Mike Loads did a as faithful as possible recreation of it and it worked. Albeit a little limited and I certainly would not want to be in it under any body of water. But the individual doing the testing in the suit survived unscathed. Further, I am unsure how m any attempts or tests they carried out prior to the successful deployment, if they got it as good as is was on the first go, that would have been a bloody miracle.

[@killerkraut9179]

Talhoffer works are based of Konrad Kyser Bellifortis ! There was a big Bellifortis tradition!

[@clintonpangburn3698]

Can't think of anything to say because the Temu sunflower swimsuit add is too dang distracting.

[@colonelkurtz2269]

Ever try to close a Temu ad, and it resists?

[@BuzzkillZone]

I wouldn't call concepts bad ideas. Brainstorming and coming up with novel ideas is the point. Then you cull the bad or hard to implement ideas, until you have something you can work with. The fact that these stopped at the concept stage pretty much means Davinci was well aware that the concept wasn't enough.

[@tresverde9646]

The parachute is to hold air for your decent it's shape could only be developed through practice

[@markuhler2664]

"The tank would have been unbearably slow and couldn't operate on rough terrain." Good thing the first actual tanks didn't have problems similar to that. His flying machines were more observations of flight in nature and trying to imitate it than for people to actually use. He did this for both for engineering purposes ss well as his artistic desires. As for the Vitrvian Man, the so-called "golden proportions" had been around since the Greek philosophers discussed things. And as always, something not working isn't failure, it's a way to figure out how not to do something.

[@AlecFlackie]

They're not 'projects' they are thought exercises. The fact that he even thought of these concepts out stretches their practicalities or functionalities.

[@perjohanaxell9862]

I think the last remark is the most important. These sketches are concepts never experimented with and developed. I'm sure Leornado or someone else with more of an engaging mindset could have tested and improved them had there been enough interest and money in it.

[@tremorsfan]

One of his designs for a rapid fire, multi arrow crossbow as actually used in The Lord of the Rings.

[@meeb_consumer]

For every good idea ever had, there's a hundred bad ones. The point of brainstorming is to throw everything at the board and see what sticks.

[@MrJustbrowsing12345]

I'd counter argue that he knew exactly how to make things work, he simply didn't want the exact plans to fall i to.enemy hands

[@danieljeftic6181]

An idea which might look flawed is better then, no idea..... Genius is a genius because of all of his ideas, inventions and creations, including the ones that have not worked........

[@lesliekilgore648]

you missed the show/documentary that tried to build Leo's ... giant arbalest/crossbow out of wood... AND full sized. plus, somebody DID try and build the 'wooden tank' and it kinda sorta did work... just very poorly. that diving suit would have worked great for inspecting the canals and drydocks and shipyards for Venice.

[@killerkraut9179]

Many of the devices wasnt pure leonardos idea ! Leonardos wooden tank hade many ancestors like Guido de vigevanos Crank powered wagon, and Konrad Kyser Horse powered Tank device with canons (more a cat device with blades or Guns)!

[@johnaweiss]

What you call "bad ideas" are concepts which inspired devices in later centuries which DID work. Tanks, flying machines, etc. Your comment "None of his ideas would have worked without extensive development" is true about EVERY invention -- including great ones. So that doesn't make something a "bad idea".

[@Nylak-Otter]

Ah, yes. Where would we be without da Vinci's advancements in the field of alchemy? 😂

[@elvis4182]

Dude made all that stuff in Hudson Hawk...

[@dbbentertainment8134]

All I see is the shine of Simons head and click on the video.

[@TotalDec]

Considering I saw a guy fly with a modified trash bag, I don't know what to believe at this point.

[@dianadavis5002]

I agree with the other comments. Get rid of the glitch transfers. They serve no purpose.

[@klepow]

Couldn't they have tested DaVinci's parachute with a test dummy? Then we could see what the landing would be like. It could even have RC and be controlled.

[@johnoswald9143]

Off topic here but, does Simons glasses have lenses in them ?

[@AaronDennis1111]

The diving suit reminds me of the have gun will travel episode where he stored air in a goat skin

[@chadroberts6344]

Da Vincis Demons is an underrated show that didnt get a real chance to shine

[@zappababe8577]

I wonder how successful Da Vinci would've been if he'd have been born in our times. With access to today's scientific knowledge, plus modern-day computers, I wonder what inventions he would have created? Or, I wonder what great insights he would have had into scientific problems we don't currently understand.

[@killerkraut9179]

There wouldnt be much difference!