Among Leonardo’s many machines, we
must make a distinction between those destined for actual civil,
military or artistic use and those that were purely theoretical. This apparatus was drawn on one of the most beautiful pages in the
entire Codex Atlanticus (folio 30v) related to mechanics. Its purpose
is to transform the alternating movement of a human being operating a
lever into the rotating and continuous movement of the pivot, which
lifts a weight attached to a rope. Activating the lever causes the
two larger internal wheels to move. Each of these wheels has two
metallic cogs, which alternately engage the external cogged wheels by
pushing them and rotating the small caged gear connected to the
central pivot. This mechanism would later be applied to many of
Leonardo’s machines. We find it for example in the engine complex
of the Paddle Boat and the internal mechanism of the
Harpsichord-Viola.
Machines
Alternate Motion Machine
Codex Atlanticus, folio 30v