Beams, pulleys and counterweights; weighing the blow
Truss experiments with 8-lb loads, a beam that acts as a balance, and a mallet-struck timber.
The page is crowded with small truss and beam experiments, most loaded with an 8-lb weight through pulleys. One round beam with weights on opposite sides is likened to a balance, and a central figure where a blow is 'weighed' shows a timber struck by a mallet and forced between a wall and a 100-lb weight. Another arrangement uses three weights and pulleys to push two beams upward, labelled a and b, and is called a way of experimenting. A final study of beams forced to push against weights (n, m, o) argues that at every degree of motion the pushing beams and the counterweights gain degrees of force.
On this page
A round beam that works like a balance
A round beam bearing weights on its opposite sides is noted to behave like a balance, testing how opposed loads hold one another.
Weighing the blow of a mallet-struck beam
A central figure marked 'here the blow is weighed' shows a beam struck by a mallet and forced between a wall and a weight of 100, studying the force of impact.
Three weights lifting two beams through pulleys (a, b)
Three weights, acting through pulleys, push two beams upward; the arrangement carries the labels a and b and is described as a way of experimenting.
Beams and counterweights gaining force (n, m, o)
In beams forced to push against weights, Leonardo writes that at every degree of motion made by the weight, the pushing beams and the counterweights n m acquire degrees of force.