Roy Neal (right)
WPTZ, Channel 3
1950

(Click on the photo to see a larger version)

While at WPTZ (1947-1952), Channel 3 in Philadelphia, Delaware Valley native Roy Neal had a show called "Open House," which aired Wednesdays from 7 to 7:30 pm.

An expert (on left) on Leonardo Da Vinci explains how things were planned to work with designs of the first machine gun, grandfather clock and parachute, all invented by Da Vinci. WPTZ's Roy Neal is on the right. Roy's guest built the items shown on the show from Da Vinci sketches.

The triple tier machine gun had eleven barrels in each tier. While one is fired, another is loaded and the third cools. This design, like other weapons Leonardo designed, shows him constantly attempting to achieve greater fire power.

Da Vinci's clock was among the first to measure minutes as well as hours. For greater accuracy he designed a mechanism with two separate trains, one for minutes and the other for hours each with independent weight and escapements. Clocks registering both hours and minutes had become sufficiently accurate during the 15th century that they were even occasionally used in astronomical observations.

In his notes, Leonardo remarks that, with a linen curtain shaped into a pyramid having a base 12 yards (about 7 metres) across andequally deep, if it is stiffly held open, "ognuno si potrà gettare da qualsiasi altezza senza alcun rischio" (anyone can jump from no matter what height without any risk whatsoever).

From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
Photo originally donated by Roy Neal
© 2006, All Rights Reserved

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