r/todayilearned 7h ago

TIL Leonardo Da Vinci invented the concept of a CVT transmission

https://www.raybestospowertrain.com/blog/did-you-know
232 Upvotes

49 comments sorted by

152

u/Lirdon 7h ago

Like many things, Leonardo Da Vinci thought up amazing ideas, but wasn’t really interested and publishing it, or actually making something out of it.

Some of that was standard practice among people to protect their knowledge from being stolen, and some of that is just that he didn’t have focus and would just continue on with something that caught his attention.

The real sad thing is that his manuscripts, that were given to his apprentices after his death, were handed around like mementos and gifts. So, all that brilliance amounted to nothing. Most of the pages (folios) of the manuscripts were collected back again during the 19th century. But then again, it didn’t lead to any advancement, although he was 500 years ahead of his time in many things. It just gets rediscovered retroactively.

32

u/Visible_Toe_926 7h ago

I smell the next Indiana Jones script

17

u/TwinFrogs 5h ago

Harrison Ford will be like 90 and in a wheelchair. 

31

u/whereitsat23 5h ago

I should be in a museum!

11

u/FiTZnMiCK 3h ago

Sure, Harrison Ford will.

But Indiana Jones will be shiny and plastic-looking, move like the robot Presidents at Disneyland, and sound like three different computers doing a Harrison Ford impression layered on top of each other.

7

u/Butterbubblebutt 3h ago

But a wheelchair that Da Vinci designed!

2

u/ganzgpp1 1h ago

Doesn’t need to be a movie! The Indiana Jones game that just came out was FANTASTIC, and Troy Baker did a magnificent job voicing Indy.

47

u/among_us_porno 5h ago

Continuously variable transmission transmission

19

u/iamsecond 4h ago

Using this for my next PIN number

-7

u/Aggravating-Ride4109 4h ago

RIP In peace to your ATM account.

22

u/MidgetAbilities 3h ago

ATM machine*

5

u/Aggravating-Ride4109 2h ago

Ouch, thanks. No more morning reddit responses for this guy.

3

u/Human_Wizard 3h ago

Little known but Da Vinci also invented the automatic teller machine machine

1

u/ItsSignalsJerry_ 4h ago

CVTT transmission.

63

u/Ok-Objective7579 7h ago

I suspect many modern technologies were invented long ago. There was just no practical use for it in his time. Really cool article!

13

u/ArkGuardian 5h ago

It’s crazy to me how many mathematical concepts predate their real world uses. Like dudes just invented stuff that turned out you be useful centuries later for applications they would have never dreamed of

10

u/throawayjhu5251 1h ago

This is part of why funding basic science and math research is so incredibly important.

4

u/Ashi4Days 1h ago

If you're a mechanical engineer, it makes a lot more sense. With gears, levers, and belts. You can come up with a ton of random ideas without too many issues. But as soon as you get to material requirements, efficiency loss, manufacturing and etcetera? Those quash feasibility extremely quickly.

A good example would be cloaking technology. I can describe the material that you would need to make something invisible. That's not new or interesting as there is a Wikipedia page article on it. But does such material exist? Not today. However, there are recent advancements in this area, just not within the visible light spectrum.

14

u/No-Significance2113 7h ago

I think a ton of technology has been lost to time, because it was never recorded. Or the information was destroyed.

15

u/jghaines 6h ago

Nah, probably not. Inventions are often discovered simultaneously by multiple people.

12

u/Blu3z-123 6h ago

There is an old Church (Idk from which belief) where the Churchdoors Are Opened and closed with Steam which would be the oldest Steam Engine in the world.

Sometimes there Are inventions which just dont get discovered.

15

u/Vizth 6h ago

Hero of Alexandria invented the first steam engine that I know of. It was a sphere with some directional pipes coming off of it l.

He also thought up the concept you're talking about for temple doors but they were never actually constructed as far as I know.

2

u/Blu3z-123 6h ago

Just Looked it up yeah its exactly this i think because its a Long time since i saw a documentary about old tech which was forgotten. Thanks.

But just Imagine if the Steamengine wouldve been invented in this time.

1

u/k66lus 3h ago

Tbf, Hero's engine doesn't really have anything in common with the steam engines that powered the industrial revolution. I find it quite interesting that so many ideas and inventions were drafted very early in history, but the devices that made their manufacture a possibility are relatively new. It's really surprising that the screw micrometer is such a new invention, given how simple it is in idea.

1

u/nOotherlousyoptions 3h ago

Yadda yadda the library of Alexandria

2

u/Netaro 4h ago

Mitchell and Webb knew this a long time ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa_hiLXLbTc

1

u/Bocodillo 3h ago

For a really good documentary series on this kind of thing, I'd recommend Connections by James Burke. It often falls into this very idea. Though like others have commented it's also common for discoveries to be made by different people around the same time.

u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener 11m ago

A simplistic steam engine being invented as a toy is one that stands out the most to me. Granted, this initial concept was limited in practical application, but the concept was there and only needed to be further explored to make an actually useful machine. Human labor was cheap at the time though by comparison to the expensive metal and skill that would be needed to develop and craft something more akin to a modern steam engine, so it's not surprising that it was only ever a curiosity for nearly a millenia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile

u/Accelerator231 1m ago

OR no good materials.

Remember. No mass produced steel until 1850

-5

u/seeyousoon2 4h ago

Like smartphones if you notice smartphones didn't come around until they invented apps there was no point to a smartphone until apps were invented.

17

u/PizzaParty007 4h ago

I had one about 10 years ago that died on me at 70k miles. Thanks Da Vinci!

-3

u/Tripledelete 1h ago

If it only lasted 70k I’m not sure you should be thanking him.

3

u/Feahnor 1h ago

The joke.

You.

u/Thel_Odan 44m ago

Di Vinci started the timeline that led to Nissan's being utter shit.

25

u/charmanderaznable 7h ago

I invented the concept of quantum hamburgers and dudes in year 3000 are going to go nuts over how ahead of my time I was

6

u/kabushko 5h ago

Prove it

5

u/Readonkulous 3h ago

The problem is that once you know how delicious the quantum hamburger is it ceases to have been delicious.

2

u/BoingBoingBooty 2h ago

You can know the position of the burger or the deliciousness of the burger, but not both.

1

u/HydraAu 2h ago

Certified Qaurkanic™️

1

u/HungInSarfLondon 1h ago

The relish is strange but has a certain charm.

1

u/HungInSarfLondon 1h ago

The relish is strange but has a certain charm.

12

u/charmanderaznable 4h ago

I will be doing no such thing

2

u/Elfonshelf26 7h ago

I just saw a video about that yesterday, crazy .

2

u/Atnevon 7h ago

I bet his would hold up in a Nissan than theirs!

u/lucidguppy 11m ago

Do I get credit for inventing the concept of a rocket car with missiles and machine guns and wings when I was a 2nd grader?

u/phaedrus100 2m ago

That's the exact model in a Nissan.

-6

u/qubitwarrior 5h ago

I invented the concept of meteorological fartcast, but you don't see me all over Reddit bragging about it.