Francesco Lana

Seventeenth-century inventions and drawings in the Francesco Lana’s works Emilio Chirone, Luca Dassa Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department – University of Brescia Via Branze 38, 25123 Brescia (Italy) [email protected], [email protected] Abstract In Europe, the commonly named “scientific revolution” reached its maximum development in 17th century, with the complete overtaking of one of the most heavy heritages of the classic age, the separation between theory and practice. In this context, it is necessary to underline the connection between graphic description and mechanics development: in the 16th century Tartaglia formerly bore witness to the fundamental role of the drawing, on one side an instrument for evaluating and developing projects, on the other a tool for modelling and studying physical phenomena. Galileo and his apprentices, protagonists of the subsequent development of the theoretical studies, completed their written dissertations with very precise and clear drawings, in comparison with the drawings in the older scientific texts. The technical drawings of the 19th century are still far away, but it is interesting to find drawings with technical value, in representing devices and machines, also in the treatises of the 17th century scientists. In this paper the attention is paid to padre Francesco Lana, a researcher of the half of the 17th century, well known among the aeronautics precursors but also involved in many other scientific activities. The design of a flying ship has directly placed him at the source of the human flight, thanks to the theoretical description of the aerostatics fundamentals. But in his work it is possible to find many other topics: small devices with practical applications (clocks, odometers), scientific devices (microscopes, telescopes, thermoscopes ...), calculus procedures and observation of the natural sciences. Other interesting topics in the communication field are suggestions for a ciphered writing, writing ways for blind people, ways to communicate from a distance, discussions on some drawing aspects. Briefly if it is possible to find in his works images and descriptions of objects developed in the future, this paper contributes by way of images to deepen the knowledge about this scientist and the technique of his age. Keywords: history of the technology, history of the technical drawing, Francesco Lana INTRODUCTION The 17th century is characterized by the complete success of the commonly named “scientific revolution”, even if it is possible to already find in the previous century some exempla of the overtaking of one of the most heavy heritages of the classic age, the separation between theoretical elaborations and practical applications. [1] In this period, as previously shown by Tartaglia in the 16th century, the technical applications are more and more characterized by the need of a proper mathematical support, while the same applications were previously founded only on traditions and empirical observations. [2] In this context, since the relation between graphical drawing and mechanics development in the 16th century is clear, it is necessary to underline the basilar contribution of the drawing, such as an instrument for evaluating and developing a project and such as a tool for modelling and studying physical phenomena. [3] The subsequent development of theoretical studies, performed by Galileo and his apprentices, presents, besides written dissertations, drawings characterized by precision and clarity, that it is impossible to find in the pictures of previous scientific texts. The way to arrive at the technical drawings of the 19th century will be long, but

it is interesting to still observe the drawings from treatises of the 17th century, with some technical value. In this paper the attention will be paid to Francesco Lana, a researcher who lived around the half 17th century, known in the world among the aeronautics precursors, but industrious in many fields of the applied science. Fig. 1. Francesco Lana among the precursors of the human flight 1.

FRANCESCO LANA

Fig. 2. On the left, a picture of Francesco Lana; on the right, the tile pages of his major works With regard to Tartaglia, some historians are polemic about his scientific study and his engineering applications, placing him with difficulty among the main parts of the technique history. The analysis is less laborious if they consider Francesco Lana. As previously said, he has a very important place among the flight precursors thanks to his design of a flying ship and the theoretical foundation of the aerostatics (see Fig. 1, where in a stamp concerning the exaltation of the human flight Lana is associated to Leonardo and Otto Lilienthal) But in his publications it is possible to find also small devices with practical applications (clocks, odometer), scientific devices (microscopes, telescopes, thermoscopes ...), calculus procedures and observation of the natural sciences. Other Lana’s works can be very interesting for the researchers in communication or graphics field: suggestions for a ciphered writing, writing ways for blind people, methods to communicate from a distance, discussions on some drawing aspects Before analyzing his works, it is opportune to briefly describe his life. Francesco Lana Terzi (or de Terzi) was born in Brescia in 1631, after almost one century after Tartaglia but in the same town. Since he is a noble, he can attend the Collegio dei Nobili (Noble College), led by the Jesuits: when he is 16 years old, he decides to enter the Society of Jesus and goes to study in Rome. This is the beginning of an intense activity in the study and in research about different fields of the human knowledge. He visits and lives in many Italian towns and then comes back to Brescia, where he devotes himself to an intense activity in teaching, observing and deepening the sciences and the mathematics until the death (1687). In 1670 he published his most well know work: the “Prodromo, overo saggio di alcune invenzioni nuove premesso all'Arte Maestra”. In 1671 he became a member of the London Royal Society. In 1686, inspired by that society, he established the “Accademia dei Filesotici”: in the Acta of this Italian society he collected the results of numerous physical, electrical and magnetic tests. In 1684-1686 he published the first two volumes of Magisterium naturae et artis; the third volume was published posthumous. 2. LANA AND THE SCIENCE OF THE 17TH CENTURY The period spent in Rome contributes to his growth not only spiritual but also scientific. At that time the science was in progress, with some innovative aspects, but also with relapses into the imaginary tradition (see the work of the Lana’s master Athanasius Kircher and his almost contemporary Kaspar Schott, two members of the Society of Jesus). In fact it is significant to find in the Schott’s works a Magia universalis naturae et artis, together with a Mechanica Hydraulico-Pneumatica and a Technica curiosa, where he describes, besides some experiments on vacuum and on air pressure, spectacular baroque fountains, futuristic boats, diving suits for the exploration of the sea depths, also devices for the perpetual motion, strange mechanisms measuring the time, mysteries hidden into the Jewish alphabet.

Fig. 3. On the left, the Kircher’s pantometer, on the right an image from the Scott’s Physica Curiosa The common features of this primordial science are the curiosity, the desire for the knowledge growth, the research of the prodigious and the imaginary aspects of the world, as it is possible to observe in two opposite images: in Fig. 3 on the left there is the pantometer, an instrument for measuring the distances and the heights – Kircher used it to measure the Vesuvio crater – and on the right there are some imaginary creatures, fancifully depicted in different drawings from the olden ages. In the Lana’s works the imaginary aspects take a backseat, while his principal interests are the mechanics and the physics, based on mathematical analysis and experimental validations, in order to obtain practical knowledge and useful devices. It is reductive to linger on this aspects since the Lana’s work, a very ample treatise about the physics and the mathematics sciences, conforms to the culture of his age and to the polemic – typical among the Jesuits [5] – against Galileo and his mechanics vision. It is important to remind that the Magisterium had to collect in an encyclopaedic work in 9 volumes (he had the time to write only 3 volumes before his death), the results of the twenty-year experimental research and to completely arrange his knowledge, characterized by a rational and organic harmony between theoretical science and practical science, the Arte Maestra, using Lana’s definition. [6] Because of the work dimension, Lana decided, 15 years before the first volume, to publish the Prodromo, a partial anticipation of the practical contents of the major work. Since this volume was written in Italian, it was addressed to a limited public, while the Magisterium was written in Latin and addressed to a public composed by international scientists: this goal was reached, if one considers that the first volumes were at once positively reviewed in France and Germany. The analysis of the contents has to be performed by the science historians, while this paper only shows and describes some devices and machines by way of Lana’s drawings. 3.

MACHINES AND INSTRU-MENTS

Fig. 4. The flying ship Fig. 5. Sandglass with automatic overturning In the Prodromo, the author shows some inventions and practical applications: it is odd to find, after 23 chapters about various topics and 8 chapters about optical devices, 4 chapters about the painting and drawing art. The 6th chapter, where Lana talks about the manufacturing of a ship able to walk suspended in air, has made him famous and contains the famous image present in many publications about the human flight. In the original image, it is possible to see not only the ship suspended by four hollow spheres (the vacuum into the spheres makes them lighter than the air and allows them to glide, in accord with the Archimede’s principle) but also the procedure to obtain the vacuum into the spheres. (Fig. 4) With the point of view of an engineer, he develops calculations to evaluate the required suspending force and doesn’t neglect the objections that the other scientist will rise about the possible crushing of the empty spheres by the atmospheric pressure. He is also worried about the possibility to transform his flying boat in a terrible mass weapon, able to destroy entire towns. Other inventions described in the Prodromo are noteworthy, intentionally neglecting the study on perpetual motion, the research of the philosopher’s stone and the research of a universal medicament (topics frequently discussed in scientific treatises not only in that age but also in the previous and in the following centuries). This paper doesn’t touch on either the communication aspects of the Lana’s research, such as the way to cipher a writing, the way to communicate from a distance, the language for the deaf-mutes, the way to teach the blind people to write and to read (two centuries before Braille).

In Fig. 5 it is possible to see a device making continuous the functioning of a sandglass. Lana writes that the sandglass has a big disadvantage: very often the researchers, involved in the study, don’t notice that the sand is finished and don’t turn it in time or in another way they have to spend a lot of time to control the sandglass. The suggested solution is the following: the sandglass, linked to a shaft, can be moved around the shaft axis by two weights. A friction catch on the top side with the task to prevent the rotation is maintained in position by way of a counterbalance calibrated in such a way as to be null when all the sand is in the bottom chamber of the sandglass. At this moment the rotation turns upside down the sandglass lower part and the sandglass is locked by the counterbalance, and so on. A gear coaxial with the shaft shows the revolution number, i.e. the passed time. The Fig. 6 shows a kind of hygrometer where the fluctuations in length of the horizontal ropes, due to humidity fluctuations, cause the rotation of the pulleys (each pulley is moved by a weight): the phenomena can be traced by way of an index on the pulley or by way of an hummer acting on a small bell. Fig. 6. Humidity indicator Concerning the optics and the devices for optical applications, the dissertation delivered upon telescopes and microscopes clearly shows his way to approach their problems and their use (remind that these instruments were relatively new). After an ample treatment about the optical properties and the use of the telescopes, Lana deals with the problem of manufacturing lens with proper precision and completes the descriptions with drawings of the needed instruments. (Fig. 7) Fig. 7. Tools for manufacturing lens In Fig. 8 it is possible to see three kinds of telescopes, even if the first two are simple lens modified with the goal to be simpler to use. The third foresees a system with two lens (and a third to turn the image, if necessary) with the possibility to select the distance between lens and eyepiece by way of a relative motion of the two cardboard pipes. Other small devices useful for the daily life (as reported by the author) are shown in Fig. 9: from the top to the bottom it is possible to see a device for rationalizing the sowing, a version of the path recorder (odometer), already described by Vitruvio, an oil light with clock (since the oil into the reservoir burns out in order to feed the flame, the cork ball cock descends and the wire linked to the ball cock gives rise to the rotation of the pulley coaxial with the time indicator) Fig. 8. Microscopes Fig. 9. Devices for daily life The already mentioned four chapters about practical rules for painting and drawing have a particular place into the Prodromo, evidence not only of Lana’s eclecticism but also of the wide interest of the physical sciences in that age. In these chapters there are precepts and advises in placing objects to be depicted, in choosing the ratios to be respected, in drawing and in choosing the colours. The discovery in Mexico of a Spanish translation of the 18th century shows the interest excited by this part of Lana’s work. [7] Fig. 10. spring cannon The Magisterium obviously expands the Prodromo and adds ample theoretical discussions and numerous practical applications with drawings, with an impressive variety in the contents. Some inventions are quite curious, such as the spring cannon in Fig. 10, used in a similar version until the 1st World War. Notice in the right bottom the idea to use a telescope such as a foresight for firearms.

Fig. 11. manual blade wheels Fig. 12 shows manual boat engine, Fig. 13 shows an adjusting device for clocks (with reference to the Huygens work). Fig. 12. Adjusting device for clock 4. FINAL REMARKS Is it possible to place these remarks in the history of the technical drawing? The definition of “technical drawing” is not very clear. [8] If “technical drawing” is the portrayal addressed to the documentation, the drawing itself can concern the design, the information and can support the scientific knowledge and inquiry. In this case it is possible to place in “technical drawing” class the pictures often agreeable but not very functional and the following codifications, produced by the need to have a clear and fast communication in developing the industrial products (presumably the stages of the way covered today in using the new communication methods). The discussion could be concern the term “drawing”, on one side the portrayal of something existing and to be depicted, on the other the portrayal of something existing only in the designer mind: on one side on objective paper, that everyone can made observing the object, on the other side a subjective object indissolubly linked to his inventor. If the drawing is defined “technical”, it acquires the following meaning: a portrayal on a 2-dimensional plane of objects to be manufactured or already manufactured. It should be possible to distinguish between “History of the machine Drawing” and “History of the Technical Drawing”. The History of the Mechanical Drawing is related to the portrayal of the design, to the functioning of the machines and mechanisms; the History of the Technical Drawing pays attention to the graphical language use in technical and industrial context. In the History of the Machine Drawings the drawings are documents showing shapes, structures and details with the goal to clarify the ability, the functioning, the innovative value of the depicted objects, but always with respect to the specific age. The History of the Technical Drawing studies the images, evaluating their portrayal ability, with respect to the previous aspects and following the evolution of methods, techniques, instruments and drawing rules. This introduction to the Lana’s drawings can be placed in the History of the Machine Drawing but it should be possible to review the same works deepening the aspects concerning the graphical language. Fig. 13. Two pages of the Magisterium Naturae et Artis ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We address our special thanks to Prof. Pierluigi Pizzamiglio, the Director of Biblioteca di Storia delle Scienze “Carlo Viganò” (Università Cattolica di Brescia), who has made available the material and has supported the paper drafting. REFERENCES [1] B.Gille, “L’evolution de la civilisation technique”, in “ Histoire generale des techniques “ , a cura di M.Daumas, P.U.F., Paris, 1964 [2] E.Chirone,: " Tecnologia e disegno ad inizio ‘500 nelle opere di Niccolò Tartaglia”, Actas XX Congreso Internacional INGEGRAF, (Valencia, 4-6 Jun. 2008) [3] E. Chirone, D. Cambiaghi, “Meccanica e Macchine nella rappresentazione grafica fra Medioevo e Rivoluzione Industriale”, Atti del Convegno Internazionale XVI ADM-XIX INGEGRAPH (Perugia, 6-8 giugno 2007) [4] Francesco Lana Terzi S.J, “Scritti scientifici”, originali riprodotti su

CD a cura di P. Pizzamiglio, Biblioteca di Storia delle Scienze “Carlo Viganò”, Brescia, 1999 [5] U. Baldini, “L’attività scientifica nel primo Settecento”, in “Scienza e Tecnica, Annali della Storia di’Italia 3”, Torino, Einaudi, 1982 [6] P.Pizzamiglio, ”Il “Magisterium Naturae et Artis” tra autore e lettori”, Atti del Convegno “Francesco Lana Terzi (1631-1687): la scuola gesuitica e la scienza moderna” (Brescia, 8 ottobre 1987) [7] P.Mues Ort , “El Arte Maestra: traduccion novohispana de un tratado pitorico italiano”, in “Estudios en torno al arte”, 1, 2006, Museo de la Basilica de Guadalupe, Mexico [8] W.Lefevre, ed., “Picturing Machines, 1400-1700”, M.I.T., 2004