To be fair, Leonardo did design the device, as opposed to Niven just describing his hulls.
I realized that after I posted.
And it is possible that one was actually built by Leonardo. I recall that some of Leonardo's designs have actually been built and that they worked. IIRC a pump is the best example.
How far do you have to take an idea along the road to a finished product before it could be considered an "invention"?
Don't think there's any hard-and-fast rule. More than a sketch, I suppose, and less than a fully working model. Schematics, a real sense of the physical principles involved, something that would enable an engineer to figure out how to build it. Anything along those lines, up to and including a prototype and/or a patent application?
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Tom Beck
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"I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I never thought I'd see the last." - Dr. Jerry Pournelle
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