San Antonio's Witte Museum Hosts The Genius of Leonardo - Machines in Motion

San Antonio's Witte Museum, located in beautiful Brackenridge Park, marks your first opportunity to see the spectacular new exhibit, The Genius of Leonardo--Machines In Motion. This interactive exhibit features over forty of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions, built using materials and methods that would've been used during the brilliant inventor's time. These inventions are divided into sections, dealing with air, water, earth, and fire.

My nine year old son and I were lucky enough to attend a special event the day before the official opening of the exhibit. The inventions are very engaging, mostly full-scale, built with solid wood, canvas, rope, and other period materials. My son is fascinated by how machines work, and he really loved being able to pull the levers, turn the cranks, and generally play with almost all the inventions. The exhibit also features short videos that activate as you walk through the inventions, and these videos feature Leonardo's "apprentices" explaining each invention. The "apprentices" are children, which also greatly appealed to my son. The informational cards at each invention are clear and easy to understand, without being so dry and scientific that children will lose interest. As we walked through the exhibit--we circled around three times to make sure we could play with and read everything!--my son and I both learned things!

Some highlights of the air exhibit are Leonardo's different flight designs, one of which is a very large wood-and-canvas contraption with a lever that controls it. Pump the lever up and down and the wing contracts and rises, then spreads and sweeps down, much like a bird's wing. It wasn't built to full-size because, as the museum steward explained, it would've been too heavy to easily move the lever. It was still very large and impressive. Also featured were different hang-glider-like inventions, one with a decidedly bat-like appearance, and a contraption that Leonardo designed for human-powered flight. A wooden mannequin stood inside the smaller-than-life-size ornithopter model, hooked up to ropes and pulleys on the arms, legs, hands, and even head!

In the water section of the exhibit, visitors can see Leonardo's designs--two of them--for walking on water. Also, water-powered devices are explained, including a water-powered lumbermill (the visitor turns the paddle-wheel to move a saw up and down and cut a log), and a water-screw. One of my son's favorites in this area was Leonardo's bridge. Held together by the principles of physics and using no nails or rope, this bridge was invented to provide armies with quick ways over water. They could retreat rapidly, then tear down this portable bridge to stop their foes from using it to follow. While there isn't any actual water in this exhibit, you can go outside the Witte to see a working water-screw in the garden. Children and adults can take turns turning the handle to move water up to the top of the screw, where it falls down into a small series of locks that can be controlled by gates.

The fire section showcases some of Leonardo da Vinci's war inventions. Devices to aim cannons, a machine-gun, and a full-size battle tank take up much of this exhibit. To be honest, while every invention was incredible, this was my least favorite part of the exhibit, because there were fewer interactive things here. You can move the cannon, but the machine-gun isn't interactive, nor are several other things. The battle tank is very impressive, however, with its doors open to allow visitors inside it. You can see how those inside would move the wheels, but these levers also don't move. There is a ladder inside that you can climb up to look through the top opening, and climbable areas are always a hit with kids!

Our favorite part of the exhibit was the earth section. Explaining the invention and use of ball bearings, load-lifting machinery, and theatrical machines, everything in this section is interactive. There are inventions that show how tall stone pillars are lifted into place, how distances were accurately measured (a device like a wheelbarrow that is pushed or pulled along and drops a stone into a container with each revolution of the wheel), even how concave mirrors were ground--these inventions are simply awesome. Lifting a mock "load" (a stuffed burlap bag) with the crane, turning the crane on its ball-bearing base, then dropping the load somewhere else, kept my son entertained for quite a while. This was probably the busiest section of the exhibit when we were there, because everyone wanted to play with the things there! The handout mentioned that Leonardo da Vinci invented a robot and that it would be in this exhibit, but it was actually outside the exit door. This robot was very cool, but didn't seem to be fully built as it was designed. It only does two movements, while the informational card talks about many more things it was designed to do. I would've liked to have seen it do everything.

Two other sections weren't included on our handout, but definitely bear mentioning. One is the workshop area for children. Kids (and adults) can learn how to build Leonardo's bridge, practice firing projectiles with catapults at a big picture of a castle, test aerodynamics, use an invention that helps the draw an accurate portrait of a model, and build arches and domes. The arches are made with wooden blocks, and while we got the order of the blocks correct, the blocks themselves were so slick that they slid apart rather than staying in the arch shape. The dome, however, was a ton of fun to build. You'll need at least three people (and four is better) to make it, but this was also a very busy area so that shouldn't be a problem. The large foam blocks make a dome big enough for a child to crawl inside. The museum stewards in this area were fantastic, very knowledgeable, friendly, and patient. The only thing that could make it better would be to roughen those wooden blocks to a texture more like stone, and if we could've taken our portrait home. It was drawn on glass, however, and had to be wiped clean between portraits.

Finally, just at the exit door, there is an alcove with benches where you can watch a short film by the Discovery Channel about Leonardo's life. I remember it being around ten minutes in length, and it was very interesting. I wished it were a bit longer, but I'm sure they kept it to that length to keep children's interest. Don't skip this video because it is definitely worth watching.

The Genius of Leonardo--Machines In Motion is an excellent exhibit. It's wonderful for children and adults alike, and the inventions are so much fun to play with. This exhibit is absolutely worth going to see. Take your children and have fun, and learn a few things too!