It is no secret that many ingenious discoveries were recognized and appreciated after many years and even centuries, and their authors did not know about their triumph. This fully applies to inventors, whose ideas were ahead of their time and turned out to be invaluable.

Among such inventions is the armored tank of the great Italian artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci. Of course, the Renaissance tank, which is considered the main prototype of modern tanks, was noticeably different from it. It was to be built from wood and metal parts. The mechanism through which the movement was carried out consisted of wheels, gears and handles. The tank was supposed to move through the muscular strength of the crew, presumably in the number of eight people. Guns were supposed to be located along the perimeter of the structure, and an observation tower was to be located at the top.

The work of Ferdinand Verbiest, who in his book AstronomiaEuropea described the world's first self-propelled vehicle - the prototype of the car, was not appreciated at the time. In 1672, he designed a toy for the Chinese emperor. It was a self-propelled steam-powered wagon only 65 cm long.

The XI century Chinese innovator Bi Sheng was the first in the history of mankind to invent and put into practice movable type printing. It was made of clay during the reign of Renzong, the fourth emperor of the Song Dynasty.

Among the promising discoveries are the lenses of Rene Descartes, who proposed to use a small tube for vision correction, at one end of which a lens was inserted. Water was poured inside, which was supposed to become a medium between the lens and the cornea.

In 1801, Thomas Young brought the idea of René Descartes to life. But these hydroscope lenses are not widely used.

The prototype of the modern trading apparatus can be considered the original invention of the engineer Heron, who invented a machine for distributing holy water in the temple back in the 1st century in Alexandria.

Those entering the temple had to wash their hands with water consecrated by the priests. However, the consecration of water and its sale took a lot of time, so Geron optimized these processes. A coin dropped into the slot struck a lever, which displaced the valve and permitted some liquid to flow out. For believers, this was another miracle, but in fact the coin simply fell onto a special platform that opened the damper with water for some time.

It turns out that Heron invented the vending machine 1800 years before its modern equivalent was patented.

And finally, the mobile phone we use also has its “ungrateful” history. The first mobile phone was not Motorola, as is commonly believed, but the Soviet “Altai”, created long before its Western counterpart, in 1963. As soon as the device appeared, it fell into the hands of the highest government officials. Over time, the circle of use of the phone has expanded. Ambulance crews, as well as police officers, became its users. Particularly actively mobile phones “Altai” were used during the organization and holding of the Olympics-80.

These and other facts described on the pages of various online publications illustrate the well-known expression – “Everything new is well forgotten old”.

Resources: www.stena.ee; lifehacker.ru; back-in-ussr.com

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• 3D printer: how it works and what it consists of