Wire-drawing machine and the power of percussion
An endless screw turns equal wheels; notes on cutting iron and drawing metal plates
The sheet centres on a wire-drawing machine (a, b) in which equal wheels are turned by a single endless screw, drawn alongside heavy press- and screw-mechanisms, a hammer and an anvil. A short maxim states that percussion exceeds in equal time every other power of nature, and that the great shears which cut iron armour show how a cutting edge enters iron. At the lower left Leonardo describes drawing a metal plate of uniformly varying width and thickness through a die, accompanied by a column of calculation figures. Detached fragments b, c and d carry no writing.
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Wire-drawing machine driven by an endless screw (a, b)
Equal wheels a and b are moved by a single endless screw. To show how a cutting edge enters iron, Leonardo cites the great shears that cut iron armour.
Percussion exceeds every natural power
A brief maxim asserts that percussion, in equal time, exceeds every other power of nature.
A wheeled machine: the menna on the upper surface
Beneath a machine fitted with wheels, a note places the menna on the upper surface.
Drawing an unevenly tapering plate through a die
A plate is to be drawn through the draw-plate so as to be uniformly non-uniform in both width and thickness, with the thickness-guides set in front of or behind the width-guides.
Column of calculation figures
A column of figures (10000, 1000, 300, 244, 83, 996 and others) accompanies the draw-plate note as a working calculation.