Inventors

Leonardo Da Vinci Leonardo was not just an artist but also a great scientist, an engineer, botanist and musician. He painted many famous paintings, the most famous "Mona Lisa". He began many grand paintings but finished very few. He jumped from project to project. He dissected human bodies, examined how plants and trees grow. He also suggested that the sun stood still, not circling around the earth. He invented weapons. And diverted rivers and constructed canals.

ThomasThelford Telford started as a stonemason but after a while he went to London to become an architect. He was asigned to many projects such as building a new prison in Shrewsbury and he restored castles and churches in Shropshire. But after some time he began his building of bridges and canals.

Christopher Polhem Polhem did a lot of things in Sweden. In addition to his mining appointment, he took charge of an experimental mechanical laboratory and also established his own manufacturing works at Stjärnsund in Dalarna. During this period Polhem's numerous designs included hoisting devices, mine pumps, burglar-proof locks, pendulum clocks, sluices, shipbuilding docks, the Polhemsknut (a flexible shaft coupling), and a wide range of textile and agricultural machinery. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Polhem built his own machines and he carried out his own experimental projects.