This season, Dahimo presents three new models that refer to three different historical periods.
1 Stomachion
The model reproduces an educational tool by Archimedes, which we saw during a trip to Syracuse.
We liked the idea of proposing an object conceived in a different historical phase, from the great thinker and mathematician to the origins of scientific thought, in which even Leonardo developed his own art.
It is a kind of puzzle that allows many configurations and that allowed Archimede, together with his students, to formulate and learn concepts of geometry and applied mathematics.
2 Cardan Pole
One of these models, the one that perhaps required most elaboration, is inspired by Sheet 13V of the Madrid I Code by Leonardo, on the side of which there is the sketch of a suspension ring, today called
“Cardan Suspension” to which Leonardo adds very few words:
“Let a ball be turned for any direction without turning its center.”
This object has long fascinated us, and over time we have made several prototypes, up to the current one, which we consider definitive.
Two are our versions: one of large dimensions, intended for exhibition, which allows you to experiment with the mechanism and interact with it, and a smaller one, in an assembly box.
Otto Lilienthal, normalsegelapparat
This last model, which also had long gestation, was coceived during a direct contact with Bernd Lukasch, director of the Otto-Lilienthal-Museum in Anklam: it is one of the gliders built by the aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal, who, four hundred years after Leonardo’s experiments, managed to hover.
Despite its great complexity, we made it in the spirit of Dahimo, aiming to make it easy for those who want to rebuild it without having any particular experience in the field of model making.
His fine-tuning made use of the precious indications given to us by Lukasch, who followed the construction phases, intervening carefully when necessary.
These new Dahimo models are a further step in the research process in the field of technologies of the past, research that is certainly not finished.
