France, Centre-Val de Loire, Indre et Loire, Amboise, Clos-Luce castle, exhibition of machines

France, Centre-Val de Loire, Indre et Loire, Amboise, Clos-Luce castle, self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci

The painting "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci at the exhibition Renaissance Faces in Berlin, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011. Berlin's Bode Museum is presenting the exhibition of early Italian Renaissance portraits, produced in collaboration with New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, until Nov. 20, 2011. The painting Lady with an Ermine borrowed by the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow will stay in Berlin until Oct. 31, and will move further to London for a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition. (Photo/Markus Schreiber)

A sketch for Leonardo da Vinci's self-propelling car, which he designed in 1478. It worked loosely on the model of a wind-up toy.

A spring motor sketched by Leonardo da Vinci. A spring motor is a device for regulating the force of a spring concealed in a drum. These sketches show the system of imparting motion to the rack and the top of the spindle driven by the winding cone-shaped gear.

Leonardo da Vinci, italian painter, sculptor, architect and engineer (1452-1519)

Leonardo Da Vinci's

These are two of the 700 pages of manuscript by Leonardo Da Vinci which were found in the National Library of Madrid and show a variety of his inventions. At right are links and chain drivers, much like those on bicycles. Escapement, upper left, is used to convert linear into rotary motion as plunger is pushed down. At left center are two simple release mechanisms, like those in cranes. The manuscript pages had been lost for almost two centuries. February 14, 1967 photo. (AP Photo)

A page of Leonardo Da Vinci's manuscripts is shown after discovery in Madrid, Spain, in a photo released February 1967. Lifting device uses log as a lever to bring stone pillar into upright position. The wagon is turned over with the pillar, then rope pulls log back to lift wagon and pillar. (AP Photo)

Self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, Florentine artist, sculptor, engineer. Photo provided February 14, 1967. (AP Photo)

View of the house, left, part of a block of country houses at Vinci, Italy, where Leonardo Da Vinci, one of the world's greatest geniuses, was born on April 15, 1452. The house is now being restored and will be converted into a small museum. Celebrations of the fifth centenary of his birth will be held all over Italy. Photo taken March 26, 1952. (AP Photo)