Engineering

Consider this geometrical drawing, portrayed with true perspective and a mastery of light and shadow. It comes from a treatise on art and mathematics by Luca Pacioli, yet it was not drawn by Pacioli.

Featuring Galileo's Handwriting. When Galileo heard news of telescopes invented in the Netherlands he worked out the underlying geometry and crafted one of his own design. In this work, Galileo published the first observations of the heavens made with the telescope.

The optics, leather and gold tooling of the telescope suggest how scientific instruments were crafted with a combination of engineering expertise and bookbinding arts. Galileo’s telescope included two lenses, an ocular lens near the eye, and an objective lens at the far end of the tube.

Manuscript copy by Hajime Terai from original written in 1765 by Ise; illustrations copied by Odani.

In a 1611 book published by the Academy of the Lynx, the Jesuit astronomer Christoph Scheiner argued that sunspots are little planets circling the Sun like Venus. Galileo answered Scheiner with this book.

Featuring Galileo's Handwritting. Galileo dedicated the manual for his engineering compass to young Cosimo II de Medici, whom he had tutored in mathematics the previous summer.

This Arabic text of Euclid came from the circle of the Persian astronomer al-Tusi (13th century). Al-Tusi worked in Baghdad and in the observatory of Maragha, in modern northwestern Iran. Printing Arabic with moveable type was a technological challenge.

In this poster-sized work, the first publication of observations made with a microscope, Cesi and Stelluti studied the anatomy of the bee. The text includes classical references to bees as well as new knowledge, integrated in a tabular outline.

Galileo’s engineering compass employed scales of his own innovative design, useful for an astonishing variety of calculations in the field.

Della Porta explored various ideas for steam powered machines following the example of Hero of Alexandria. In antiquity, Hero fashioned marvelous automata using steam, air pressure, and hydraulics.

This work of sports medicine analyzes the physics of bones and muscles. Borelli, a practicing mathematician and engineer as well as a physician, analyzed the musculoskeletal system in terms of the mechanics of the lever and other simple machines.

Galileo kept the design of his engineering compass carefully guarded, yet a dispute over intellectual property rights ensued. In 1607, Baldassar Capra published under his own name a Latin translation of Galileo's Compasso, including instructions for making the instrument.

The ancient philosopher Hero described mechanics as the science of five simple machines: the lever, pulley, wheel, wedge and screw. These simple machines are combined in the complex inventions of Ramelli.

Featuring Galileo's Handwriting. Galileo published his second printed book to establish his priority rights and to inform Cosimo de Medici of the legal judgment against Capra. This copy, bound with the Compasso, is inscribed by Galileo to a Florentine physician.

In this masterwork of physics, Galileo studied the two sciences of tensile strength and motion. The science of tensile strength considers how larger objects must bear more and more weight to perform the same action.

After a century of calculating instrument innovation, Partridge created the slide-rule. Edmund Gunter designed a logarithmic scale in 1620. William Oughtred placed two logarithmic scales side-by-side to perform multiplication and division in 1630.

Galileo’s thermoscope, ancestor to the thermometer: Galileo pioneered scientific investigations with the thermoscope along with his two Paduan friends, Giovanni Sagredo and Santorio Santorio.

The Academy of the Lynx (Accademia dei Lincei) dissolved after the death of its founder, Prince Federigo Cesi. In its place, Grand Duke Ferdinand II established the Academy of Experiment in Florence, which carried further the research program of Galileo.

The slide rule is based on logarithms. With a slide rule, one may quickly and reliably calculate to a precision of about 3 digits. Until the pocket calculator became available in the mid-1970‘s, slide rules were in constant use by scientists and engineers.

This “theater of machines” parades 40 different machines for any kind of purpose, whether a lock on a river, a book press or engraving press, or a device to prevent smoke from filling a room.Unlike the writings of Lorini and Galileo, which included theoretical investigations on the principles of...

The Academy transformed the thermoscope into the thermometer by adding a graduated scale (which had been done by Galileo and his friends) and by sealing the tube to make it independent of air pressure.

Archimedes (d. 212 B.C.) developed the law of the lever with his Treatise on the Balance. He contributed to arithmetic by devising methods for expressing extremely large numbers. He deduced many new geometrical theorems on spheres, cylinders, circles and spirals.

Apollonius (3rd century B.C.E.) examined the properties of conic sections; namely, the: • circle (cuts a cone horizontally, perpendicularly to the axis of the cone) • ellipse (cuts a cone to make a closed curve) • parabola (cuts a cone parallel to a side of the cone) • hyperbola (cuts a cone in...

This book is Orsini’s manual for using a measuring stick instrument which he designed and called a “radio latino.” With its changing angles, multiple sight lines, and various scales, it was useful for making astronomical measurements, surveying uneven topography, measuring a cannon’s bore or...

Galileo’s physics, applied to medicine: Santorio Santorio (also known as Sanctorio or Sanctorius) practiced medicine in Padua, in the Venetian Republic.

Archimedes died defending the ancient city of Syracuse, on the island of Sicily, from the Carthaginian navy. Reports attributed the defense of the city to his ingenuity, including giant mirrors capable of setting attacking ships in the harbor on fire.

The physics of bones and muscles: Borelli, a practicing mathematician and engineer as well as a physician, analyzed the musculoskeletal system in terms of the mechanics of the lever and other simple machines. Borelli studied under Galileo’s student Castelli, along with Torricelli.

In the 6th century, the Greek physicist and theologian Philoponus constructed an anti-Aristotelian theory of motion. For Philoponus, an “impressed incorporeal motive force” explains the motion of a top, a projectile, and falling bodies.

Stevin’s work represents that of a scientist-engineer in the Low Countries, whose major works appeared in Dutch. Like the scientist-engineers of Italy, Stevin maintained water systems and improved fortifications. He investigated the mechanics of motion, falling bodies and hydraulics.

Analyzing the center of gravity of an object was a traditional problem addressed using the methods of Archimedes. Galileo referred to Valerio as “the Archimedes of our age” and recommended him for membership in the Academy of the Lynx.

Kepler, Galileo and Guidobaldo were the leading optical theorists of their generation. Galileo studied with Guidobaldo while he was composing this treatise.

Hero described five simple machines: the lever, pulley, wheel, wedge and screw. In this theoretical investigation of the foundations of mechanics, Guidobaldo demonstrated that all five machines could be deduced from the principle of the lever.

Four leaves of colored, interactive anatomical flaps appear throughout this popular anatomical textbook, which recapitulates the combination of art, engineering and anatomy in Galileo’s world.

Galileo’s mechanics demonstrated that projectiles follow a parabolic path. This is true whether the projectile is a cannonball, an arrow or a football. This set of four Japanese Samurai manuscripts, drawn on rice paper in the mid 1800’s, was copied by hand from mid-16th-century sources.