Assault Covered Cart:
The machine for approaching a wall, moved by an ox that can be seen inside, is placed in a series of early drawings in the Codex Atlanticus. The machine for laying siege to a fortress might even be considered simply the ideal representation, minus the technical details, of the many machines passed down from readings de re militari, Vitruvio, Vegezio, and Valturio, and often illustrated by Leonardo's predecessors. Even the underlying mechanism seems to come from that of a generic machine (a sort of "mill"). At the center of the page is a drawing of a leaf made with metallic points, a glimpse into Leonardo's multiple interests at such an early date, circa 1479-80, as this folio. The interest in and attention to nature is also demonstrated in the amazing definition of the wavy motion of the water in the moat, which serves a prelude to Leonardo's later red and black pencil drawings.
Studies for the Pilot's Cabin of a Flying Machine:
After having pursued the idea of a prone conductor in the early studies for a flying machine, Leonardo began to favour the hypothesis that the pilot was a standing pilot: a path followed with conviction already at the height of Ms. B. Leonardo arrives here at a certainty, which will then turn out, as often for him, to be only provisional and preparatory to new research and possibilities: 'I conclude that standing upright is more useful than lying, because the instrument can never be turned upside down, and on the other hand the habituation made by long use so requires. And the raising and lowering of the motion will arise from the lowering and raising of the two legs, and this is of great strength and the hands remain free. And if one had to stand hunched over, the legs in the thighs would take great effort to support themselves'. The drawings are all related to the pilot's seat.
Study of Transmitting Motion:
This folio shows the study of a cart next to devices for manufacturing concave mirrors: the use of these contraptions harness solar energy and had been adopted in Verrocchio's workshop for joining the eight sections of the copper sphere (cast in September 1468) for the lantern of Santa Maria del Fiore. Leonardo appears to have returned to these studies in the second decade of the sixteenth century, when he was staying in Rome in the context of his attempt to design a burning glass of substantial dimensions to produce energy for textile manufacturing. The drawing on the upper part of the sheet with a cogwheel to "make the wheels of the cart turn"
Olive Press:
The sheet, dating back to the early 1480s, shows several drawings with engineering studies. In the center of the sheet one can see the drawing of a press to extract oil from olives and, immediately to the left, that of a box with an automatically opening lid. At the bottom right are elements for a hydraulic tool. The rest of the sheet is dedicated to the construction of 'screws': at the top center we find a lathe, to the right of which two drawings with captions have been deleted and replaced by drawings placed along the left part of the sheet, from top to bottom. A threaded roller produces a reciprocating motion by pulling or pushing a cork that slides within the thread channel. This channel is numbered from 1 to 23 to indicate the path and direction followed by the stud and is also equipped with a device that opens and closes this or that channel. At the bottom there are two 'screws' or rollers with square and rectangular section threads.