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 Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath: architect, anatomist, sculptor, engineer, inventor, mathematician, musician, and painter. He has been described as the archetype of the “Renaissance man”, a man infinitely curious and equally inventive. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time.
He was born and raised in Vinci, Italy. Leonardo is famous for his realistic paintings, such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, as well as for influential drawings such as the Vitruvian Man. Heconceived ideas vastly ahead of his own time, notably conceptually inventing a helicopter, a tank, the use of concentrated solar power, a calculator, a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics, the double hull, and many others.  Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were feasible during his lifetime; modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance. In addition, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, astronomy, civil engineering, optics, and the study of water (hydrodynamics). Of his works, only a few paintings survive, together with his notebooks (scattered among various collections) containing drawings, scientific diagrams and notes.
Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense; “da Vinci” simply means “from Vinci”. His full birth name was “Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci”, meaning “Leonardo, son of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci.”Ok enough about Da Vinci,lets talk about his inventions.
 Clock
For greater accuracy, Leonardo designed a clock mechanism with two separate trains, one for minutes and the other for hours, each complete with escapement, gears, and weight. Weight-driven mechanisms had been associated with clocks for so long that they had come to be regarded as exclusively for this purpose, but Leonardo used them for the increased automation of other machines, such as his file cutter. Clocks registering both hours and minutes had become sufficiently accurate during the 15th century so that they were even occasionally used in astronomical observations. It may be that Leonardo had some such purpose in mind when he designed his dual train mechanism. Real accuracy in clocks was not achieved until the use of the pendulum as a regulating device in the 17th century, yet Leonardo made a drawing of just such a device in a form applicable to clockwork.
Camera obscura
“…Here the figures, here the colors, here all the images of every part of the universe are contracted to a point. O what a point is so marvelous!”
- Leonardo da Vinci
In 1490, da Vinci wrote the first detailed description of camera obscura in his ??€?“Atlantic Codex,??€Â? a 1,286 page collection of drawings and writings. The principle of camera obscura is simple, punch a hole in a dark box and put a piece of light-sensitive material on the other side and, voil?? , you have a photograph.
 Anemometer
A device for measuring the force of the wind by reading on the quadrant scale the highest point to which the vane, hinged at the top, is blown. “The air,” Leonardo wrote, “moves like a river and carries the clouds with it, just as running water carries all the things that float upon it.”
Da Vinci’s Tanks
The most dramatic invention of Leonardo da Vinci was an armoured war vehicle capable of moving in any direction and bristling with guns. To be effective, an element of these tanks would probably have had an escort of handgun-armed loose-order infantry, much as the foot troops that accompanied Elephants in Indian armies, or the handgunners and crossbowmen in Hussite armies staying with their Warwagons.
When attacked by enemy cavalry or missile fire, these missile troops could take cover behind or inside the tanks; in an assault they could follow beside or behind the tanks and provide supporting fire. And probably most important, when the tank got stuck, they could help pull it out and get it going again.
 
Flying Machines
Leonardo da Vinci applied his brilliance to flying machines. For many years he attempted to understand flight, the movement of wings, and even to create human-powered flying machines by replicating these motions.
helicopter
His efforts were doomed to failure, mostly because the engines of the time were muscle-powered, and would never generate enough lift. Leonardo’s later efforts in this area seem to have focussed upon gliding rather than powered flight. Still, some of his flying machines are enormously clever, and predict the parachute and the helicopter, technology that would not be developed for nearly 500 years.
Mere speculation is not sufficient to justify an army equipped with more than one or two of these vehicles. They would be passive flyers at best, and would not be able to lift the mass of any useful weaponry. As such they would have no affect on a battle. Armoured vessel
his armoured assault vessel is probably one of the projects that Leonardo presented to Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, in order to obtain a commission as a military engineer.
The drawing on which it is based is for a light vessel fitted with a prow armoured with metal and used to ram the enemy. A rotating covering shield, which opens during the boarding phase of the attack, is also fitted.
The covering shield provided protection against the enemy ships and allowed the vessel to get close to the enemy without the cannon being noticed. Once the vessel rammed the enemy, or got close to it, the shield would open to reveal a huge cannon.
The shields are attached to a system of winches which open very quickly when the brake on the mechanism is released. Once lowered into the water, the shields could also function as a brake for the recoil of the cannon. In order to close the shields the system of winches would be operated manually.
This machine, therefore, is provided with a number of functions: the ram, the cannon, the shields and an ingenious system for operating them.
In his drawing Leonardo presents a number of solutions for the shape of the shield and perhaps he was not sure about its geometry, which in fact is incorrect ??€� the right geometrical form of the shields lies somewhere between all the ones he drew.
Leonardos idea for this machine can be considered revolutionary but, like others, difficult to implement.
Double-deck bridge
 Leonardos idea for a double-deck bridge is surprisingly modern. It recalls the function of bridges in some modern metropolis where the two-way flow of traffic is arranged on different levels.
Leonardo doesn't mention what this project was actually for, but it is clear that it is a way of organising the two-way circulation system in such a way that doesn't create traffic jams or obstructions.
It is likely that Leonardo had an ideal city in mind where the spaces dedicated to work and leisure are separate and realised on different levels. The two levels don't communicate, and can be used for a two-way traffic flow or to differentiate between social classes or trade. At the extremities of the bridge there are two inclined planes that connect the upper and lower levels. This double-decked bridge might have been used also to connect two roads at different levels in the ideal city.
On folio 23r two versions of the bridge are present, with and without the inclined planes. Leonardo also stresses the structural sturdiness of the bridge.
Self-propelled cart - future car
For many years, folio 812r of the Codex Atlanticus was considered as Leonardos famous automobile project. Only recently has it revealed its true nature as a cart devised for use in theatrical settings.
The manuscript page shows two distinct projects, a provisional and preparatory drawing, and a more well-defined one at the centre of the folio. Two large spiral springs underneath the horizontal cogwheels of the cart provide the motive power and set the wheels in motion; they also act as a lever system for theatre puppets. An additional ingenious device serves as a remote control handbrake.
The dimensions of the machine are smaller than an automobile, probably one metre by one metre and no more than one metre high. However, the cart can be considered as one of the first automated mobile devices in history.
There have been many inaccurate reconstructions of this machine which served to do little more than raise doubts as to the real functioning of the cart. In 2004 a functioning model was built by the Istituto di Storia della Scienza, Florence, and Leonardo3, Milan, though inevitably there are aspects of the design that remain speculative. 
Scythed chariots For many years, folio 812r of the Codex Atlanticus was considered as Leonardos famous automobile? project. Only recently has it revealed its true nature as a cart devised for use in theatrical settings.
The manuscript page shows two distinct projects, a provisional and preparatory drawing, and a more well-defined one at the centre of the folio. Two large spiral springs underneath the horizontal cogwheels of the cart provide the motive power and set the wheels in motion; they also act as a lever system for theatre puppets. An additional ingenious device serves as a remote control handbrake.
The dimensions of the machine are smaller than an automobile, probably one metre by one metre and no more than one metre high. However, the cart can be considered as one of the first automated mobile devices in history.
There have been many inaccurate reconstructions of this machine which served to do little more than raise doubts as to the real functioning of the cart. In 2004 a functioning model was built by the Istituto di Storia della Scienza, Florence, and Leonardo3, Milan, though inevitably there are aspects of the design that remain speculative.
Parachute
Leonardo Da Vinci was proved right on Monday, June 26, 2000, some 500 years after he sketched the design for the world’s first known parachute. A British man, Adrian Nicholas, dropped from a hot air balloon 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) above the ground, after ignoring expert advice that the canvas and wood contraption would not fly. Attempts to fully test the parachute in the UK earlier this year failed due problems of wind and safety near populated areas - it weighs a hefty 85 kilograms (187 pounds). But in the wide open spaces of Mpumalanga, South Africa, Mr. Nicholas safely floated down, saying the ride was smoother than with modern parachutes. Beautiful drop Heathcliff O’Malley, who photographed the drop from a helicopter, told BBC News Online: “It was amazing, really beautiful. But none of us knew if it would fold up and Adrian would plummet to Earth.” He added: “It works, and everyone thought it wouldn’t.”
Helicopter
 The first studies on helicopters were well in advance of the first airplanes. Leonardo da Vinci is credited with having first thought of a machine for vertical flight, the “airscrew,” the design for which, dated 1493, was only discovered in the 19th century. It consisted of a platform surmounted by a helical screw driven by a somewhat rudimentary system, not unlike that of rubber-powered model aircraft. The great Tuscan genius wrote that if this instrument in the form of a screw were well made of linen, the pores of which had been stopped with starch, it should, upon being turned sharply, rise into the air in a spiral. However his design was never put to any practical use.
Triple-Tier Machine Gun
There are eleven barrels in each tier. While one is fired, another tier is loaded, and the third cools. This weapon, like others Leonardo designed, shows him constantly attempting to achieve greater fire power.
 Printing Press
Gutenberg is generally credited with the invention of the printing press nearly a half century earlier, in about 1448, but Leonardo seems to have been the first to attempt a basic improvement by making it potentially possible for one man to operate it instead of several. A turn of the screw draws both type bed and paper under the platen and supplies the pressure to print, while a reverse turn releases the bed. The first practical applications of such improvements had to await the early 17th century.
On the end imagine what would be if someone created army with da vinci’s tanks,machine guns,helicopters,Scythed chariots and other his invetions! Thanks wikipedia for short Leonardo Da Vinci informations!!!
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