Floating a Great Weight onto a Barge by Draining a Canal
A wedge that lifts by a blow, and a meditation on a candle flame
A large drawing of a heavy block on a barge within a narrow, hatched channel accompanies Leonardo's scheme for loading an enormous single weight onto a ship using no windlass, jack, rope or applied force. The weight is dragged to the shore, a water-filled canal is dug beneath it to the barge's dimensions, and when the water is drained the rising ship lifts the load off the ground by itself. Smaller marginal figures show a rod through a wall (a c m d b) and a wedge that, driven by a blow, pulls a pulley cord to raise a weight. A candle at the foot of the page carries a prose meditation: what you see of the flame was not before, and what was is no more.
On this page
Loading a great weight onto a barge by flooding and draining a canal
Drag the very great weight to the seashore, laid with its length along the shore, then dig a water-filled canal beneath it matched to the barge's width and half again its length. Draw the barge under the weight; when the water is drained the ship rises and lifts the load off the ground by itself, ready to be dragged out to sea. The channel and the loaded barge appear in the large upper drawing (marked with the numeral 100000000 for the sea).
A wedge driven by a blow raises a weight through a pulley
A great wedge, penetrating, pulls the cord of a pulley and lifts a load: the blow given upon the wedge makes that wedge move any great weight. The device is sketched in the right margin as a wedge, cord and pulley beside the suspended weight.
Meditation on the candle flame
Look at the light and consider its beauty; blink your eye and look again. What of it you now see was not before, and what was, is no more. Who is it that remakes it, if the maker continually dies? The reflection is set beside a small drawing of a lit candle.