Hands-on history with Leonardo da Vinci

Have you ever thought about an invention that would make life a little easier - or even more fun? Have you ever wondered why something works the way it does, or dreamed about how to fly higher, swim faster, or travel farther?

A boy from Vinci, Italy, did just that more than 500 years ago. He dreamed big - and then went out to see if he could turn those dreams into reality. He is now known as Leonardo da Vinci (which means Leonardo from Vinci).

You might know him as a famous painter. He painted the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper." They're two of the most famous works of Renaissance art. But Leonardo was more than an artist. "He was an incredible thinker, too," says Maxine Anderson, in a phone interview. She's the author of the children's book, "Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself" (Nomad Press; $14.95).

Ms. Anderson points out that Leonardo drew flying machines, armored tanks, and shoes that could walk on water. He thought anything was possible.

Most of what is known about him comes from the notes and drawings he jotted down in journals and notebooks. He filled more than a hundred of them with his mysterious "mirror writing." It's the kind of right-to-left handwriting that you hold up to a mirror to read.

People speculate about why Leonardo did this. "Some say it was to keep his ideas a secret," Ms. Anderson says. Others think it was because he was left-handed and writing right to left didn't smudge the ink.

You can try mirror writing on your own and send a secret message to a friend with our recipe for invisible ink on page 18.

In 2004, an Italian professor read through some of Leonardo's notebooks and discovered a "secret" recipe for a plasticlike substance that he may have used to make chess pieces, knife handles, and candleholders. Leonardo's idea came hundreds of years before real plastic was invented.

In addition to painting and inventing, Leonardo spent some time investigating optics. He wanted to know how the eye worked and why people saw things the way they did.

Using a camera obscura, a dark chamber with an opening that lets light inside, he found that the image projected from the outside world appears upside down.

"Leonardo realized that this is exactly how the human eye sees things," Anderson says. "Light reflects off the object you are viewing, and passes through a small opening on the surface of your eye. That opening, your pupil, flips it upside down."

What Leonardo never answered, however, was how, when we look at it, an image gets turned right side up again. That remained to be discovered many, many years later.

But the boy from Vinci continued to seek answers to his questions all his life. And his inventions, his discoveries, and, of course, his paintings continue to amaze and inspire people today.

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