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When an ancient three-barreled cannon was discovered by schoolchildren, museum officials would have known they had stumbled on a rare find. But now, 40 years after the discovery of the unique weapon, they have learned just how important it is - the gun is a prototype designed by Leonardo Da Vinci himself.
The cannon was discovered in a Croatian fort, but only now has it been confirmed it was designed more than 500 years ago by the artist and inventor. Invention the multi-barrelled machine gun was a weapon with remarkable firepower. Da Vinci sketched this rolling artillery battery around 1480.
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A spokesman for the Benkovac museum said: 'We have only recently confirmed the age of our cannon and that it was one designed by Da Vinci. 'As far as we know this is the only original cannon designed by [him] left in the world.' The Da Vinci bronze triple barrel canon will now be exhibited in in Benkovac. The archaeologists believe it was probably brought to the Croatian area of Dalmatia from Venice as Venetians ruled the area at that time and fought Turks for control. A typical cannon of Da Vinci's age was cast iron or bronze, had a short barrel, a short range and fired cannonballs which fitted very approximately. The first thing he did was to design breech-loading cannons as against muzzle-loading.They required a fast means of being cooled before another firing and he calculated that a vat of water would do the trick.
The cannon was discovered in a Croatian fort, but only now has it been confirmed it was designed more than 500 years ago by the artist and inventor. Invention the multi-barrelled machine gun was a weapon with remarkable firepower. Da Vinci sketched this rolling artillery battery around 1480.
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A spokesman for the Benkovac museum said: 'We have only recently confirmed the age of our cannon and that it was one designed by Da Vinci. 'As far as we know this is the only original cannon designed by [him] left in the world.' The Da Vinci bronze triple barrel canon will now be exhibited in in Benkovac. The archaeologists believe it was probably brought to the Croatian area of Dalmatia from Venice as Venetians ruled the area at that time and fought Turks for control. A typical cannon of Da Vinci's age was cast iron or bronze, had a short barrel, a short range and fired cannonballs which fitted very approximately. The first thing he did was to design breech-loading cannons as against muzzle-loading.They required a fast means of being cooled before another firing and he calculated that a vat of water would do the trick.
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When the water turned to steam it would drive the ball out under pressure. Given that Da Vinci even quoted how large a cannonball this weapon could fire, and how far it would travel, it is quite feasible that it was actually built and test-fired. He wanted to increase the rate of firing weapons and so designed machines with multiple cannons, so they could be fired successively or all together. Two of these used racks of eleven or fourteen guns.
While the top row was being fired the next rack was loaded; at the same time, a third rack was cooling off. Leonardo da Vinci's de' Benci, this is a painting of a young Florentine lady, it is the Renaissance master only painting on permanent display in the United States. It was purchased by the national gallery in 1967 for the staggering amount $5 million it was a record price for an artwork for its time.
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