Leonardo Torres Quevedo

Leonardo Torres Quevedo
Born
Leonardo Torres Quevedo

(1852-12-28)28 December 1852
Molledo, Spain
Died18 December 1936(1936-12-18) (aged 83)
Madrid, Spain
Burial placeSaint Isidore Cemetery
NationalitySpanish
EducationOfficial School of the Road Engineers' Corps (Technical University of Madrid)
Occupations
Years active1876–1930
Known for
See list
Spouse
Luz Polanco y Navarro
(m. 1885)
Children8, including Gonzalo Torres Polanco
Awards
See list
Seat N of the Real Academia Española
In office
31 October 1920 – 18 December 1936
Preceded byBenito Pérez Galdós
Succeeded byManuel Machado
18th President of the Spanish Royal Physics Society
In office
1920
Preceded byDomingo de Orueta
Succeeded byRicardo Aranaz e Izaguirre
3rd President of the Royal Spanish Mathematical Society
In office
1920–1924
Preceded byZoel García de Galdeano
Succeeded byLuis Octavio de Toledo y Zulueta
7th President of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences
In office
1928–1934
Preceded byJosé Rodríguez Carracido
Succeeded byBlas Cabrera
Signature

Leonardo Torres Quevedo (Spanish: [leoˈnaɾðo ˈtores keˈβeðo]; 28 December 1852 – 18 December 1936) was a Spanish civil engineer, mathematician and inventor, known for his numerous engineering innovations, including aerial trams, airships, catamarans, and remote control. He was also a pioneer in the field of computing and robotics. Torres was a member of several scientific and cultural institutions and held such important positions as the seat N of the Real Academia Española (1920–1936) and the presidency of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences (1928–1934). In 1927 he became a foreign associate of the French Academy of Sciences.[4]

His first groundbreaking invention was a cable car system patented in 1887 for the safe transportation of people, an activity that culminated in 1916 when the Whirlpool Aero Car was opened in Niagara Falls.[5] In the 1890s, Torres focused his efforts on analog computation. He published Sur les machines algébriques (1895) and Machines à calculer (1901), technical studies that gave him recognition in France for his construction of machines to solve real and complex roots of polynomials.[6] He made significant aeronautical contributions at the beginning of the 20th century, becoming the inventor of the non-rigid Astra-Torres airships, a trilobed structure that helped the British and French armies counter Germany's submarine warfare during World War I.[7] These tasks in dirigible engineering led him to be a key figure in the development of radio control systems in 1901–05 with the Telekine, which he laid down modern wireless remote-control operation principles.[8]

From his Laboratory of Automation created in 1907, Torres invented one of his greatest technological achievements, El Ajedrecista (The Chess Player) of 1912,[9] an electromagnetic device capable of playing a limited form of chess that demonstrated the capability of machines to be programmed to follow specified rules (heuristics) and marked the beginnings of research into the development of artificial intelligence.[10] He advanced beyond the work of Charles Babbage in his 1914 paper Essays on Automatics,[11] where he speculated about thinking machines and included the design of a special-purpose electromechanical calculator, introducing concepts still relevant like floating-point arithmetic. British historian Brian Randell called it "a fascinating work which well repays reading even today".[12] Subsequently, Torres demonstrated the feasibility of an electromechanical analytical engine by successfully producing a typewriter-controlled calculating machine in 1920.[13]

He conceived other original designs before his retirement in 1930, some of the most notable were in naval architecture projects, such as the Buque campamento (Camp-Vessel, 1913), a balloon carrier for transporting airships attached to a mooring mast of his creation,[14] and the Binave (Twin Ship, 1916), a multihull steel vessel driven by two propellers powered by marine engines.[15] In addition to his interests in engineering, Torres also stood out in the field of letters and was a prominent speaker and supporter of Esperanto.[16]

  1. ^ "Reales decretos concediendo la Gran Cruz de la Orden civil de Alfonso XII á D. José Malheiro Reyano, D. Francisco Rodríguez Marín y D. Leonardo de Torres Quevedo" (PDF). Gaceta de Madrid (257). Madrid: 1049. 14 September 1906.
  2. ^ "Real decreto nombrando Caballeros Gran Cruz de la Real y distinguida Orden de Carlos III a D. Leonardo Torres Quevedo, D. Fernando Pérez de Barradas, Marqués de Peñaflor; D. José Antonio Azlor-Aragón y Hurtado de Zaldívar, Duque de Villahermosa, y a D. José María de Hoyos y Vinent, Marqués de Hoyos" (PDF). Gaceta de Madrid (4). Madrid: 43. 4 January 1921.
  3. ^ "Torres Quevedo doctor "honoris causa"". La Libertad (in Spanish). 25 November 1923.
  4. ^ "Leonardo Torres Quevedo (1852–1936)" (in Spanish). Complutense University of Madrid. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  5. ^ "Leonardo Torres y Quevedo. The Whirlpool Aero Car". Weebly. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  6. ^ Francisco A. González Redondo. Leonardo Torres Quevedo (1852–1936). 1ª Parte. Las máquinas algébricas., La Gaceta de la RSME, 2004.
  7. ^ González Redondo, Francisco A. The Aeronautical Contribution of Leonardo Torres Quevedo: from World War I to 21st Century. Cockade International Journal (1360-9009) January 2009, 40(3):151–161. ResearchGate.
  8. ^ Alfred, Randy. "Nov. 7, 1905: Remote Control Wows Public". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  9. ^ Williams, Andrew (2017). History of Digital Games: Developments in Art, Design and Interaction. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1317503811.
  10. ^ William L. Hosch (20 March 2009). "Leonardo Torres Quevedo". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  11. ^ Torres Quevedo, L. (1914). "Ensayos sobre Automática – Su definicion. Extension teórica de sus aplicaciones". Revista de la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, 12, pp. 391–418.
  12. ^ Randell 1982, pp. 6, 11–13.
  13. ^ Randell, Brian. Digital Computers, History of Origins, (pdf), p. 545, Digital Computers: Origins, Encyclopedia of Computer Science, January 2003.
  14. ^ Francisco A. González Redondo. Del 'buque-campamento' de Torres Quevedo (1913) al 'Dédalo' (1922) de la Armada Española pp. 645–656, Revista General de Marina, November 2017. ResearchGate.
  15. ^ Rodrigo Pérez Fernández. Francisco A. González Redondo. On the origin, foundational designs and first manufacture of the modern catamaran, International Journal of Maritime History, Sage Publishing, Volume 34, Issue 3, 1 February 2022.
  16. ^ José Antonio del Barrio (2003). "Leonardo Torres Quevedo y el esperanto". Retrieved 23 September 2024.