Firing an arquebus into a hooped barrel
Impact and penetration; gunpowder, and a scheme for sending fire a mile into the air
The verso opens with a note that on uniformly resistant ground a sharp body dropped from twice the height drives twice as deep, whereas a rounded (spherical) body compacts the earth and does not obey the rule. Below, Leonardo sketches a well-hooped barrel and a bowl-shaped vessel each pierced by an arquebus (archibuso), asking whether the report is louder in open air or inside a sealed vessel, and warning that the flame recoils on the gunner. A final passage beside a powder (polvere) label describes a way of sending fire a mile or more into the air by igniting a rocket and an arquebus together.
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Sharp versus rounded bodies striking the ground
On uniformly resistant ground, an equal, sharp body dropped from twice the height makes a doubled penetration. But a spherical or laterally-driven weight breaks the rule, because it condenses the earth beneath it, and the denser the body the more it resists without breaking the ground.
Is the arquebus louder in the air or in a sealed vessel?
Leonardo poses the question of which gives the greater sound or thunder: an arquebus fired in the open air, or one fired inside a well-hooped vessel. A barrel and a bowl-shaped vessel are drawn pierced by the gun-tube.
The flame recoils on the gunner
He warns that the flame will come back upon the one who fires the arquebus, unless the thing struck by the flame should fall to the ground.
Sending fire a mile into the air
Beside a 'powder' label he describes a rocket-and-arquebus scheme: the ball should weigh as much as the rocket, the rocket is fired first and the arquebus immediately after. He notes that a ball driven into the rocket would meet so much resistance from the flame at the start of the motion that it would be thrown out or greatly delayed.
Barrel and bowl pierced by an arquebus
A well-hooped barrel and a bowl-shaped vessel are each drawn with an arquebus (archibuso) thrust through the side, illustrating the firing-in-a-vessel question. A tall lettered gun figure stands at the far left of the leaf.