Great Minds

Leonardo da Vinci


Leonardo da Vinci is widely considered as the most talented person of all times. He was an accomplished painter, sculptor, great inventor, military engineer, scientist, botanist, and mathematician.

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in central Italy. At the early age of 14, Leonardo's father recognized what great talent he had with painting. In fact, Leonardo had painted the picture of a dragon that looked so real that it actually scared his father when looking at it. Father and son made a journey to visit Andrea del Verrocchio, a well-known artist, where Leonardo became an apprentice under Verrocchio. This job kept Leonardo very busy.

By the age of 30, Leonardo began sketching and writing daily into notebooks. One of the forms of writing that Leonardo took a fancy to was mirror writing. Some of the famous art works of Leonardo are The Last Supper and Mona Lisa.

He is also credited with inventing or first designed Battleships, Printing Press, Parachute, Flying Machines , Helicopter and Spring-driven Car.

Maybe even more impressive than his artistic work are his detailed studies in anatomy, engineering, and many other areas. He recorded his results in detailed notebooks which combine art and science.



Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison is one of the greatest inventors in history and was responsible for more inventions than any other inventor. Altogether he did 1093 inventions. Some of his inventions developed and improved other peoples’.At school his teacher thought his ideas were crazy and that he might have a learning difficulty. After that, his mother taught him at home. He was full of curiosity and she encouraged him to learn things for himself.

As a child, he grew vegetables and sold them in town. At 12 he got a job selling newspapers on a train, and, at 15, started his own weekly newspaper . He worked as a telegraph operator and in 1869, at 22, he moved to New York where he worked for a gold company. When the machine that printed gold prices broke down, Edison fixed it, then invented a machine that did the job better. This invention made him a lot of money, and with it he set up his own workshop where he manufactured these machines, as well as telegraph machinery.

Edison's favourite invention was the phonograph, first ever instrument to record and playback sounds. Edison worked to discover a way of improving the electric light bulb invented in England by Sir Joseph Swan. He developed a 16 watt bulb that lasted 1500 hours. To make his invention practical for everyday life, he invented ways of producing electricity and distributing it through wires to homes and businesses. In 1882 New York became the first city to be lit by electric lights using generators designed by Thomas Edison. Edison also improved the telephone system that had been invented by Alexander Graham Bell, and sold the Edison telephone system in England. Another Edison invention was the Kinetoscope, a box containing a strip of photographs – world’s first movie camera.