This blog doesn’t usually mention science-museum exhibits because there are too many of them but this one at Montshire Museum in Norwich, Vermont, sounds intriguing*:
Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion is a interactive experience with full-size machines, using the same items available during the Renaissance and the ones proposed by da Vinci. It runs through September.
Da Vinci’s legacy of innovation is studied in the machines, drawings, and designs he left for us to construct and decode. Montshire visitors will have the chance to see the early forms of da Vinci’s machines up close, touch them, and set them in motion during this international exhibition’s first visit to Northern New England.
This exhibition is organized into four parts, based on da Vinci’s study of the elements of nature: earth, water, air and fire.
| Earth | Includes da Vinci’s early renditions of a printing press, a gear wheel, and even a working robot, invented centuries before the technological revolution. |
| Water | Includes the hydraulic water saw and the webbed glove, intended to accelerate swimming and resembling today’s flipper. |
| Air | Includes models of flying machines designed centuries before people soared through the skies, such as an ornithopter — a device with mechanical wings that enabled a person to fly and also served as the precursor of today’s hang glider. |
| Fire | Includes machines powered by fire or motion, such as the mortar gun and the flywheel. |
*also, summertime doldrums are approaching and news is getting scarce. Finding high-quality filler is one of my jobs as a reporter.
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