Mechanical Drum - Codex Atlanticus Folio 837r

Leonardo’s Mechanical Drum is clearly based on a 2 wheeled cart with a large drum mounted at the rear and played with two groups of 5 drum sticks mounted to the sides of the cart and driven by the motion of the wheels through a lantern gear arrangement. The gear turns two barrels fitted with pegs that that push on the ends of the drum sticks against a spring to a point of release when the spring forces the drumstick back to beat the drum.

The beat pattern can be altered by moving the pegs to different positions around the drum.

The Drum is probably intended to be a large tambour, constructed from a wooden tube with animal skins stretched over both ends, laced through a hoop and tensioned by loop rope. A gut snare may even have been fitted beneath the heads.