It's not easy being an inventor. It happens that the inventor is visited by a brilliant idea, but it is so unusual that others cannot appreciate it. Sometimes inventions are ahead of their time, and therefore turn out to be invaluable.
Below we will talk about inventions that were ahead of their time and were recognized only many years later.
1. Armored tank by Leonardo da Vinci
The Renaissance tank, considered the main prototype of modern tanks, was to be constructed from wood and metal parts. The mechanism by which the movement was carried out consisted of wheels, toothed gears and handles.
The tank had to move by means of the muscular strength of the crew, presumably eight people. Cannons were to be located along the perimeter of the structure. An observation tower was to be built at the top.
The tank had to be so high that ladders had to be installed inside. Tank Leonardo da Vinci - one of the inventions of the great Italian inventor, artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci.
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Eight people were protected from the battle by the outer shell, so they could deliver such a "hedgehog" on foot directly into the thick of the battle without being wounded.
Weapons firing in all directions from an armored tank could be fatal to the opponent's squad.
2. Car of Ferdinand Verbist, 1672
Ferdinand Verbiest described his typewriter in his book AstronomiaEuropea. Verbiest worked as a diplomat, cartographer and translator as he spoke Latin, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and Hebrew. He has written over thirty books.
Verbiest has developed, according to some statements, the world's first self-propelled vehicle - the prototype of the first automobile.
In 1672 he designed a toy for the Chinese emperor. It was a self-propelled steam-driven wagon.
It was only 65 cm long and therefore not designed to carry a driver or passengers.
In a spherical boiler, water vapor was formed, from where it was directed to the blades of a steam turbine that drove the rear wheels.
3. Bi Sheng movable font, XI century
Bi Sheng was the first in the history of mankind to invent and put into practice printing using movable type.
The movable typeface of the Chinese innovator was made of clay during the reign of Renzong, the fourth emperor of the Song Dynasty.
Bi Sheng was a man of simple descent, so no special details about his life have been preserved. His method was as follows: the master took viscous clay and carved hieroglyphs in it - as thin as the edge of a coin. Each symbol was a separate seal. He then burned the symbols on fire to give them solidity.
Prior to this, Bi Sheng prepared a metal plate and covered it with a mixture of pine resin, wax and paper ash.
When Bi Sheng needed to print something, he took an iron frame, placed it on a metal plate, and placed clay seals with hieroglyphs in the frame, one next to the other.
When the frame was filled, a single stable block of seals was obtained. Then the inventor warmed it up, and when the paste melted slightly, he took a smooth board and pressed it to the surface of the block, which made it smooth like a whetstone.
4. Contact lenses by Rene Descartes, 1636
Rene Descartes suggested using a small tube to correct vision, into one end of which a lens was inserted.
Water was poured inside, which was supposed to become the medium between the lens and the cornea.
In 1801, Thomas Young put Rene Descartes' idea into practice.
However, the prototypes of the lenses, which were called hydroscopes, were not widely used.
5. Trading apparatus in Alexandria, 1st century
The first vending machine was designed by the engineer Heron in the 1st century in Alexandria.
Those entering the temple had to wash their hands with water consecrated by the priests. One consecration of water and its sale took a lot of time, so Heron optimized these processes.
A coin dropped into the slot struck a lever that displaced the valve and allowed some liquid to drain out.
This machine was intended for the distribution of holy water in the temple.
For believers, it was still a miracle, but at the end of the day the coin was simply dropped onto a special platform, which opened for some time an enclosure with water.
It turns out that Heron invented the vending machine 1800 years before its modern equivalent was patented.
6. Baghdad battery
The Baghdad battery is a Mesopotamian artifact of the Parthian or Sassanid periods, which, following its discoverer, the German archaeologist Wilhelm Koenig, director of the National Museum of Iraq, is sometimes considered an ancient galvanic cell, created 2 thousand years before the birth of Alessandro Volta.
Nowadays, the Baghdad battery is in the National Museum of Iraq.
Wilhelm König suggested that a Baghdad battery (more precisely, a "galvanic" cell) filled with acid or alkali could create an electrical voltage of one volt.
7. Central heating
Before the Romans had a heating system for houses, it existed among the Greeks, in particular the Minoans.
The Greeks laid pipes under the floors of their houses through which warm water flowed, heated by divorced hearths.
This system was called hypocaust, which means "heating from below".
During the heyday of Rome, hypocausts provided warmth for the hot rooms of Roman baths (baths) and the premises of private villas (in the cold season).
During excavations in Rome, hypocausts were discovered, which in fact were the prototypes of modern "warm floors".
8. Antikythera mechanism
The Antikythera Mechanism is a mechanical device raised in 1901 from an ancient ship.
The mechanism dates from around 100 BC. e. (possibly before 150 BC or 205 BC). Stored at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
The movement contained no less than 30 bronze gears in a rectangular wooden case, on the bronze front and back panels of which dials with arrows were placed.
Two rectangular bronze protective plates covered the front and rear panels. Assembled approximate dimensions - 31.5 x 17 x 6 cm.
The mechanism was used to calculate the motion of celestial bodies and made it possible to find out the date of 42 astronomical events.
With the help of a specially developed computer program, it was determined that the device was made in the northern latitude 33.3-37. The islands of Rhodes (36.4 N) and Syracuse (37.1 N) are often suggested as places where the Antikythera mechanism was made or used.
Devices similar to the Antikythera mechanism are mentioned in more than a dozen literary works that have been written since 300 BC. e. to 500 AD e.
9. Ancient seismoscope
In 132 A. D. e. in China, the inventor Zhang Heng introduced the first seismoscope believed to be capable of predicting earthquakes with the precision of modern instruments.
Historical records have preserved an accurate description of its appearance and how it functioned, but the exact internal structure is still a mystery.
Scientists have repeatedly attempted to create a model of such a seismoscope, putting forward various theories about the principle of its operation.
The most common of them says that a pendulum inside a copper bulb is set in motion during tremors, even if the epicenter of the earthquake is hundreds of kilometers away.