Da Vinci's Tank

"“I can make armored cars, safe and unassailable, which will enter the close ranks of the enemy with their artillery, and no company of soldiers is so great that it will not break through them. And behind these the infantry will be able to follow quite unharmed and without any opposition.”"

- Leonardo Da Vinci, letter Ludovico Sforza, 1487

One of the many military inventions designed in the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci was a armored vehicle intended to be employed similar to a modern tank. The vehicle was covered in wooden armor (and possible metal plates) sloped at an angle, designed to protect the vehicle from projectiles such as musket balls and crossbow bolts. The vehicle was powered by four men turning cranks inside the vehicle, which drove four large wheels, allowing the vehicle to slowly roll across the battlefield, firing its cannon, arranged in a ring around the tank to allow it to fire in all directions. Da Vinci's "tank" was directed by a commander in the upper turret, which housed a number of vision ports. It is also might have been possible to fire a smaller weapon, such as a musket or crossbow, from these ports. The blueprint for the "tank" in da Vinci's notebook, however, is flawed, with the gears arranged in such a manner that any motion on one crank would cancel out the other, making the vehicle immobile. It is believed by many da Vinci scholars that Leonardo intentionally sabotaged the "tank", as he was pacifist at heart and realized all to well the terrifying potential of his invention.