Drawn on sheet number 812r of the Atlantic Codex in 1478, when Leonardo was 24 years old, the sketch has been translated into a one-third scale model at the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence.
Amazingly, the wooden 5-foot by 5-foot, 6-inch model, on display at the museum until June 5, has proved what has been doubted for centuries: the machine actually moves.
“It is the world’s first self-propelled vehicle. It was designed to operate as a robot and could travel for about 40 meters. It featured a programmable steering and a brake that could be released at distance by an operator with a hidden rope,” Paolo Galluzzi, director of the museum, told Discovery News…
(Found on DiePunyHuman.com)