The poom-poom

What do you think the poom-poom is? An Adrianian word, or the most deadly weapon created on our ancient planet. Wrong! It is neither. HAHAHAHA! The poom-poom, our way of calling the tank, was one of the twenty-five inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. if you are searching for it, do not search for a colossal monument, you can find it in two ways: find the original plans of Leonardo, or enter one of the many military tanks and admire the modern copies of the Italian genius. This tank looks like a small building on four wheels. It can turn in any direction and if you admire its full circumference, you will find cannons emerging from every side, which is really one, because it is a circle. There were no engines, in fact the wheels moved in the same way the bicycle works. People turned giant cranks which produced motion. Leonardo developed this new war machine between the years of 1485-1490 when he also created the majority of his inventions. We think Leonardo's tank is a work of art because it shows the technological and engineering abilities of the modern, found five hundred years ago. It is incredible that in so ancient times a single person was already creating machines that would not be used in his own times, but they would be used centuries after, in the FUTURE.

There are two famous aspects of the poom-poom. Nobody, in Leonardo's times, had thought that arms could move feet (wheels). How is it possible that turning a simple crank, you can move wheels, which are distant from the crank itself. This concept had only been used in the draw bridges, but in this case a rope was pulled, but where was the rope in the tank? In fact, there were no ropes! There was a system of cogs (like in clocks) that people put to motion by moving the cranks. The platform did not contain, like in normal siege weapons, a single cannon, there were many, and they were placed all around the tank. This concept was new, and it meant that the tank could shoot in every direction, and also move while shooting. These are the aspects of Leonardo's tank we liked best. This famous Art work has no famous aspects because; and do not tell Leonardo da Vinci, he might get angry; the tank is not very famous itself. You can discover it only by studying Leonardo da Vinci, and many people know nothing but his name. The majority of the world thinks it was Britain who invented tanks. Puah, only jealous!

This invention was first made as a sketch about six thousand years ago, which makes it extraordinary. The weapon shown in the sketch contained technology which had never been seen before. This person, known by the name of Leonardo Da Vinci, planned many other inventions. The tank is one of the most famous because his sketches were later used in the building of future tanks. It also has a funny shape, which surely makes it an art work. It looks like a heavy armed UFO! The tank was also never built, and the drawing is the only thing which exist, and everybody knows that drawings are works of art; wink, wink, wink. People on Earth may not call it a work of art because it is more an invention, but from our point of view it is an art work, and will be seen as such forever.

Other two creations that we consider a work of art are: Leonardo's helicopter, and Leonardo's parachute. Leonardo's helicopter is so strange and unique, that it can be considered a work of art. Leonardo's helicopter could never work, it would never even lift from ground. It is not an invention, it is an abstract painting. Also the parachute is very strange. The victim was attached to a cloth pyramid without the base. The pyramid had also a hole in the middle for aerodynamics. The poor creature who had dared having faith in Leonardo probably would fall like a rock, creating the perfect work of art.

Works of art are an opinion, and our opinion is strange. We think that Leonardo's tank is not only the best work of art in the whole universe, but we also think that Leonardo is the only genius who can build war machines which kill the people who use them and not the enemies. Leonardo's tank had a lot of aspects which may not have worked, but these aspects were copied by the scientists who planned the modern tanks. The tank is a drawing which we will always remember as UMO, an unknown moving object.

by: Adriano Zanini Astaldi and Vladimir Gorovicov