Da Vinci Better Inventor Than Edison Essay Example
Da Vinci Better Inventor Than Edison Essay Example

Da Vinci Better Inventor Than Edison Essay Example

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  • Pages: 5 (1314 words)
  • Published: October 13, 2016
  • Type: Analysis
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‘’Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. ’’ – Thomas A. Edison. Egyptians, Greeks, Mesopotamian, and others ancient civilizations invented methods or tools of works to survive. In fact, man has been inventing since he has existed. Today, I am going to compare two of the greatest inventors of the world. They lived almost 415 years apart in different cultural periods. One was an engineer, an artist, an architect, a scientist, while the other was a businessman, an engineer, a visioneer: two of the best inventors who had ever existed, Leonardo Da Vinci and Thomas Alva Edison.

I’ll have to choose between a talented artist whose works inspires millions of persons around the world and the person who invented the phonogra

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ph where works connects people around the world. Leonardo Da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci may be most famous for his works as an artist; he actually spent quite a bit more time working on his endeavors in science and technology. His inventions are categorized as flying machines, war machines, architectural innovations, and water and land machines. For me, two of his great inventions were the parachute and the armoured car.

The most famous of da Vinci’s war machines, the armored car was designed to intimidate and scatter an opposing army. Da Vinci’s vehicle has a number of light cannons arranged on a circular platform with wheels that allow for 360-degree range. The platform is covered by a large protective cover (much like a turtle’s shell), reinforced with metal plates, which were to be slanted to better deflect enemy

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fire. There is a sighting turret on top to coordinate the firing of the canons and the steering of the vehicle.

Though credit for the invention of the first practical parachute usually goes to Sebastien Lenormand in 1783, Leonardo da Vinci actually conceived the parachute idea a few hundred years earlier. Da Vinci made a sketch of the invention with this accompanying description: "If a man have a tent made of linen of which the apertures (openings) have all been stopped up, and it be twelve braccia (about 23 feet) across and twelve in depth, he will be able to throw himself down from any great height without suffering any injury. Perhaps the most distinct aspect of Da Vinci’s parachute design was that the canopy was triangular rather than rounded, leading many to question whether it would actually have enough air resistance to float. Since Da Vinci’s parachute was to be made with linen covering a wood frame, the hefty weight of the device also was viewed as an issue. (‘‘Leonardo Da Vinci Inventions. Da Vinci’s Inventions. ) All great inventors have disadvantages; Da Vinci had the worst disadvantage an inventor could have, never testing or building his inventions by himself.

His notes, drawings and sketches provided all the information how the device or the invention would operate, yet when modern scientist try to recreate or construct Da Vinci’s inventions most don’t work out properly meaning that most of his inventions wouldn’t have a real value. Despite this fact, Leonardo Da Vinci was an inventor ahead of his time full with different ideas that definitely with some improvements would create many inventions in

the modern and contemporary world. Thomas A. Edison.

Edison was the first inventor to see invention as far more than simply embodying an idea in a working artifact. His vision encompassed what the twentieth century would call innovation—invention, research, development, and commercialization. In the process, he helped to create a new institution for invention—the industrial research laboratory, which might be considered Edison's greatest invention. Edison's first laboratories were machine shops at his telegraph works in Newark, New Jersey.

Working in these shops between 1870 and 1875, he improved stock ticker technology, developed a system of automatic telegraphy, invented the quadruplex for sending four messages over a single wire, and created his electric pen for making stencil copies of documents. (‘‘The Tomas Edison Papers’’. Rutgers. ) The first great invention developed by Edison in Menlo Park was the tin foil phonograph. While working to improve the efficiency of a telegraph transmitter, he noted that the tape of the machine gave off a noise resembling spoken words when played at a high speed.

This effect caused him to wonder if he could record a telephone message. He began experimenting with the diaphragm of a telephone receiver by attaching a needle to it. He reasoned that the needle could prick paper tape to record a message. His experiments led him to try a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder, which, to his great surprise, played back the short message he recorded, "Mary had a little lamb. " The word phonograph was the trade name for Edison's device, which played cylinders rather than discs. The machine had two needles: one for recording and one for playback.

justify">When one spoke into the mouthpiece, the sound vibrations of one? s voice would be indented onto the cylinder by the recording needle. This cylinder phonograph was the first machine that could record and reproduce sound and created a sensation and brought Edison international fame. (‘‘The Inventions of Thomas Edison’’. Inventors About. ) Thomas A. Edison had a numerous list of inventions as the first successful motion picture camera, developed better phonograph and record technology, created a system for refining low-grade iron ore, invented an alkaline storage battery, and improved cement manufacturing technology.

Thomas Edison was as a famous designer who had people working for him and any great design or invention belongs to Thomas Edison, so he was not exactly a unique inventor. Many of Edison’s improvements and inventions are credited to Nikola Tesla, who worked for Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison exactly didn’t sit by himself working out all his inventions, but he was an intelligent business-man who had a great vision for inventions. Personal Opinion To judge who is a greater inventor when both have great inventions, but also have a crucial disadvantage is very hard.

After analyzing many opinions and reading about all their works, I’d have to choose Leonardo Da Vinci. For me, Leonardo Da Vinci was better than Thomas Edison because when Da Vinci lived there was no great scientific invention or discovery on which he could rely. All the ideas he had came from studying and analyzing different factors by himself. Although he didn’t test or built his inventions, all the procedure and descriptions for them are in his notes and sketches, that are a true treasure

for later inventions and discoveries. I can’t see Thomas A.

Edison as an inventor because many times he used the ideas of other people as Nikola Tesla. For me, Edison was more a visioneer and an entreprenuer than an inventor. For many different reasons, I choose Da Vinci as a better inventor because he lived almost 600 years ago, and he had the idea for guns, helicopters, parachutes, scuba gear and many other things. Leonardo Da Vinci definitely was an inventor ahead of his time. Finally, we lived in the twenty-first century; a century full of technology more technology than these two men could ever think of.

When I look back to these men and see how brilliant they were, I become more amazed on how human mind works and how it could be developed. Thanks to inventors we have all the laptops, cellphones, airplanes, cameras, and we know most of the human anatomy. I think we all need to start researching about past inventors because they are the responsible for all the things around us. ‘‘Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else. ’’ - Leonardo da Vinci.

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