Sunday, August 10, 2014

Juanelo Turriano: An Impressive Engineer of the Renaissance


In 1530, Juanelo was around his late twenties or early thirties and still he wasn't that prominent of an engineer in Italy, at least to the upper class. Yet he was going to be. He was to carry out projects of an incredible kind.
A request was made for a clockmaker who could repair a famous astrarium in Padua. Juanelo accepted it and once examining the clock, he proposed that they build another one instead. He began to be praised for his ingenious mechanical work, becoming popular once and for all. Juanelo accompanied Charles V when the emperor abdicated the throne and went for his retirement in a monastery. In order to entertain Charles, Juanelo made little robot figures.
He would build a life size robot monk which walked and along with another most interesting invention described below in the video.
This video shows Juanleo's invention for
 raising water 'from the Tagus to the Alcazar':
 
If you don't understand Spanish you can watch it on YouTube and translate it through the captions. 
P.S. I love this video!

Check out more from Engineering and Philosophy by Elizabeth King:
Click the image, you know you can.

Sources:
Clockwork Prayer: A Sixteenth Century Mechanical Monk by Elizabeth King http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v1n1/nonfiction/king_e/prayer_toc.htm
Video from YouTube

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