Balanced bell on its pivot; columns and entablature
Ringing a counter-balanced bell with one pound of force, beside sketched columns
In the upper right Leonardo draws an architectural order — paired column shafts carrying a horizontal entablature, with a separate moulded capital or base. The text below is a mechanical thought-experiment on a bell: if the bell were set right on its pivot and counter-weighted at an equal distance above so that it had no leverage against its own motion, then one pound of force moving through an inch would shift a weight of 746,480 in the same motion and time used to ring an ordinary bell — so lightly that even a dog could ring it for sport by a thin string.
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A counter-balanced bell moved by one pound of force
Leonardo imagines a bell whose pivot has no leverage against its motion, the bell's weight placed on the pivot itself and balanced by an equal weight the same distance above it. With the bell thus in equilibrium, one pound of force acting through an inch would move a weight of 746,480 in the same time as ringing an ordinary bell.
Sketch of columns and an entablature
At the upper right Leonardo draws paired vertical shafts supporting a horizontal entablature, with a separate moulded block that reads as a capital or base — the 'architectural elements' named in the note's heading.