Leonardo’s Anemometer

Within the frame of his studies about the flight, Leonardo designed an instrument for measuring the wind intensity and direction. In the so called “thin sheet anemometer”, the wind intensity is proportional to the shift of the thin sheet, measured along a graduated scale. The wind direction is shown by the position taken by the wind vane.

In the original Leonardo’s drawing (between 1483 and 1486), on folio 675 of the Codex Atlanticus Leonardo annotates: “A misurare quanta via si vada per ora col corso di un vento. Qui bisogna un orilogio che mostri l’ore, punti e minuti” (for measuring distance traversed per hour with the force of the wind. Here a clock for showing hours, points and minutes is required).

The model, originally released in 2007, is made up with 21 pre-built parts, that can be assembled together without glue by means of the Removable Interlocking Pin System (RIPS). The complete set, inclusive of the assembling instructions, can be contained in an elegant kit box (to build).

4 Responses to Leonardo’s Anemometer

Ryan F says:

October 20, 2016 at 15:49

hello i am 3D printing this Anemometer for a high school project, and i am making this to scale and my teacher said that the wind flap (part 13) should be a certain weight. so i was wondering if you knew what the weight of this part should roughly be?

- paperpino says:
  
  October 26, 2016 at 18:50
  
  Unfortunately, Leonardo did not write anything about your issue, on the Codex Atlanticus. What I can suggest you is to prepare some wind flaps and glue them in sequence, looking any time at the reaction against the wind. Of course, in order to calibrate the anemomenter, you need a source of wind (for example a fan with two or three speed) and a (modern) anemometer for reference.
  
Alan McGrew says:

May 19, 2015 at 01:38

Nice work on the model and texturing!

Jac says:

February 3, 2015 at 22:57

This is fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing your work. I will certainly have a go at building this. Amazing!