Sevillascope: Inventive minds and creativity. Spanish inventions

I was about to post a series of photographs of the views of Tomares, the town in Seville's metropolitan area I live in, when I clicked on a shot taken a year ago of an odd tuned-up tractor.

Tuned-up tractor. A sign of the manifestation of creativity in Spain?

I have been wondering since then whether or not it was some constant urge of local people to impove things in order to manage in a smarter way that led to such an outcome. Are they seeking souls? Do they have inventive minds? Are they creative enough to make a difference outside their personal domain? That's what I wanted to understand. So, I carried out a research and discovered that according to the Economist, Spain ranked 25 of 82 countries based on its innovation capacity in 2002-2006 (see the references). News site rediff.com also places it number 25 in terms of innovation. And, according to Bloomberg Businessweek, Spain is crowned the 24th World's Most Innovative Country. Well, well, well.

The news site ABC.es came up in 2011 with a list of the Spanish inventions that changed history, including the submarine, the gyroplane, the Chupa Chups, the mop, the boot, the glass wine jar with a long tapered drinking spout, the earthenware water jar with a spout and handle, the Molotov Cocktail, the musket (the first portable cannon in history) and the cigarette. Fransaval had posted on his blog his own list before that, in 2010. You will find some overlaps between the two lists, but there's more than that. This blog post, differently from the news site article, emphasizes the importance of a few other inventions, such as the table football game, the radio, the telekino, the laryngoscope and the quantum computer, and refers to some more great Spanish inventions outside the top 10 list like the digital calculator, the disposable syringe, the classical guitar, the Talgo, the cable car, the stapler, the knife and the pencil sharpener. See!

The Chupachús lollipops of Chupa Chups brand. Image taken from elpodium.org

Now, I share with you all I know about the well-known Spanish inventors and their inventions they are best remembered for. Among the people that have had the great innovative ideas pointed to below, there also are Andalusians.

Alī Ibn Khalaf al-Murādī (11th century) was a Muslim mechanical engineer who lived in Al-Andalus, possibly in Granada or Córdoba, and devised, with the help from al-Zarqali, the astrolabe, a complex power-driven universal geared mechanism used by astronomers. Learn more here.

Abu Muhammad Jabir ibn Aflah (1100-1150), was a Muslim astronomer, mathematician and inventor from Seville who invented an observational instrument known as the torquetum, a mechanical device to transform between spherical coordinate systems.

Blasco de Garay (1500–1552) made several important inventions, including diving apparatus, and introduced the paddle wheel as a substitute for oars. In 1543 he tested in Barcelona his system with no sails or oars containing a steam engine on a ship called the Trinidad.

Repro of the experiment tried on the Trinidad. Image taken from the website Tecnología Obsoleta

Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont (1553-1613) invented the steam-powered water pump for draining mines.

Inventions of Jerónimo de Ayanz. Image taken from a blog

Antonio Barceló y Pont de la Terra (1717-1797) used floating batteries and invented gunboats during the Great Siege of Gibraltar in 1779-1783.

The Great Siege of Gibraltar. Image taken from www.galeon.com

The Spanish gunboat. Image taken from www.galeon.com

Diego Marín Aguilera (1757-1799) devised several labour-saving devices, including the gadget that improved the functionality of a watermill, another that improved the working of a fulling mill, and another used to improve the cutting of marble in the quarries. He also came up with the device with which to whip horses during the process of thereshing and another that made cloth. Above all, he wanted to build the flying machine. In 1793 he managed to fly being the first human being who challanged birds in their natural state.

Diego Marín, the first man flying. Image taken from a blog

Juan José Lerena y Barry (1796-1863), from Cádiz, invented the solar telegraph.

The Lerena's telegraph. Figure by Fernando Fernández de Villegas

Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García (1805–1906) invented the laryngoscope in 1854.

The first laryngoscope by Manuel García. Image taken from a blog

Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol (1819-1885) invented the first air independent and combustion engine driven submarine named Ictineo. The first dive of the Ictineo I took place in 1859 in the harbour of Barcelona.

The Ictineo I. Image taken from the Barcelona blog

Isaac Peral y Caballero (1851-1895) designed the Peral's Submarine torpedo boat that was launched in 1888.

The Peral. Short documentary (in Spanish):

Leonardo Torres y Quevedo (1852-1936) invented the telekino, and projected and constructed the new type of dirigible between 1896 and 1905 that gave the airship rigidity by way of interior pressure.

An Astra-Torres airship built in about 1909. Image taken from the website Biografías y Vidas

Julio Cervera Baviera (1854-c.1929) invented the radio in 1902, and patented it in England, Germany, Belgium and Spain.

Julio Cervera and his radio. Image taken from a blog

Venancio López de Ceballos y Aguirre (1856-1916) developed the semi-automatic pistol Campo Giro in 1905 that was the Spanish army service pistol from 1912 to 1921.

The Campo-Giro. Photo by Roger

Fructuós Gelabert (1874–1955) designed the first films studios in Spain, produced the first animated work (available on YouTube) and the first fiction film in the history of Spanish cinema in 1897 and invented his own cinematograph (the camera-projector Cine-Gar for home use). His short documentary Procesión de las hijas de María de la parroquia de Sans (Procession of the Daughters of the Virgin Mary from the Sants Church), shot in the Rossend Arús Street in Barcelona, is one of the oldest audiovisual materials filmed in Barcelona that still exists. See it here.

The Cine-Gar. Image taken from a culture blog

Celedonio Calatayud Costa (1880-1931) pioneered the use of radiology and electrology in Europe for both diagnostics and therapeutical purposes.

Radiology room in the Radiological Institute of Dr Calatayud. Image taken from www.elsevier.pt

Juan de la Cierva y Codorníu (1895-1936), invented the Autogiro, a single-rotor type of aircraft, in 1920.

Juan de la Cierva and the Autogiro. Image taken from the website Xerbar Forum

Ángela Ruiz Robles (1895-1975) invented the world's first automated reader, precursor to today's ebooks named the Enciclopedia Mecánica (Mechanical Encyclopedia), in 1949. Learn more here.

The Mechanical Encyclopedia. Image taken from ebookfriendly.com

Alejandro Goicoechea Omar (1895-1984) described the train named Talgo composed of articulated triangular structures with independent wheels capable of 100 km/h commercial speeds in 1936. In 1941 a test unit composed of triangular chassis and truck wheels with carriage rims welded on was built and tested successfully up to 75 km/h behind a steam locomotive.

The Talgo. Image taken from the website Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia

Carles Buïgas i Sans (1898-1979) designed the torpedo bomber seaplane in 1914, the device to recover seasand for construction in 1922, the one-person midget submarine in 1932, the remote-controlled torpedo guided by ultrasound in 1931–1933.

Carles Buïgas in the machine room. Image taken from Andreu Salillas i Garcia's website

Emilio Bellvis Montesano (1914-1993) invented a whole set of implements for polishing and washing floors, including mop.

The Bellvis Montesano's mop and other inventions. Images taken from patentados.com

Alexandre Campos Ramírez (1919-2007), known as Alexandre de Fisterra (for being born in Fisterra), invented the first table football game (futbolín) that was patented in 1937.