Tank Design Not Leonardo’s

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31596, 6 February 1968, Page 19

Tank Design Not Leonardo’s

(N .Z.P. A.-Reuter— Copyright) LONDON, Feb. 4. A Britiih science historian today let out a 450-year-old secret: Leonardo Da Vind, credited with inventinc the tank, stole the idea from another Italian. And, according to Professor A. Rupert Hall, Da Vinci’s design would not have worked, anyway. The exposure arises from an announcement that the February issue of a monthly publication, the “Burlington Magazine,” would list Da Vinci’s library. . Among his possessions was a manuscript called “De Re Militar,” by Robert Valturio

Ariminb, containing a description, and a woodcut, of an armoured.fighting vehicle. According to the experts, “De Re Militar” was first published in 1473, and Da Vinci came up with his design about 1500. “The Times” said today that Da Vinci's library list, containing 116 titles, was found by Dr Ladislao Reti, a Brazilian expert oil Da Vinci, among papers which recently came to light in Spain. “Da Vinci’s design would not have functioned, anyway,” Professor Hall says. “Through error, he arranged the crank in such a way that the front wheels would have rotated one way and the rear ones the opposite way.”