Leonardo Torres Quevedo
Spanish civil engineer (1852–1936) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Leonardo Torres Quevedo (Spanish: [leoˈnaɾðo ˈtores keˈβeðo]; 28 December 1852 – 18 December 1936) was a Spanish civil engineer, mathematician, and inventor of the late 19th century and early 20th century. A member of the Royal Spanish Academy since 1920, he was also a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences, among other institutions. Torres was a prolific and versatile innovator in various fields of engineering, including mechanics, aeronautics and automatics. One of his greatest achievements was El Ajedrecista (The Chess Player) of 1912,[3] 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.[4]
Leonardo Torres Quevedo | |
---|---|
Born | Leonardo Torres Quevedo (1852-12-28)28 December 1852 Molledo, Spain |
Died | 18 December 1936(1936-12-18) (aged 83) Madrid, Spain |
Burial place | Saint Isidore Cemetery |
Nationality | Spanish |
Education | Official School of the Road Engineers' Corps of Madrid [es] |
Occupations | Inventor, mathematician, engineer, Esperantist |
Years active | 1876–1930 |
Known for | See list
|
Notable work | Essays on Automatics (1914) |
Spouse |
Luz Polanco y Navarro
(m. 1885) |
Children | 8, including Gonzalo Torres Polanco |
Awards | See list
|
Engineering career | |
Discipline | Civil engineering Mechanical engineering Aeronautics Electromechanics Computer science Robotics Naval architecture |
President of the Royal Spanish Mathematical Society | |
In office 4 December 1920 – 2 February 1924 | |
Preceded by | Zoel García de Galdeano |
Succeeded by | Luis Octavio de Toledo y Zulueta |
President of the Spanish Section of the International Committee for Weights and Measures | |
In office 9 February 1921 – 20 June 1929 | |
President of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences | |
In office 2 February 1928 – 31 October 1934 | |
Preceded by | José Rodríguez Carracido [es] |
Succeeded by | Blas Cabrera |
Signature | |
His first major project was the patent for a new cable car system in 1887 to transport people safely, an area that culminated in 1916 with the Whirlpool Aero Car located in Niagara Falls, that carries 35 standing passengers over a one-kilometre trip.[5] In between, he published Sur les machines algébriques (1895) and Machines à calculer (1901), technical works that gave him a notorious reputation in France, carrying out the construction of several analog machines for the resolution of algebraic equations.[6]
From 1902 to 1911, Torres made significant aeronautical contributions, most notably a mooring post with a superior pivoting platform to be able to moor a dirigible outdoors, and the Astra-Torres airship, a trilobed cross section structure that was widely used by the Allied Powers during World War I. He was also a key figure in the development of radio control in 1901 with the Telekine, which he created modern wireless remote-control operation principles.[7]
Torres' pioneering advances included the designs for a special-purpose electromechanical calculator in his 1914 paper Essays on Automatics, which has been qualified by British historian Brian Randell as "a fascinating work which well repays reading even today",[8] where he also proposed an early form of floating point values and automata with discernment capacity.[9] He successfully demonstrated the feasibility of an electromechanical analytical engine by producing a typewriter-controlled calculating machine in 1920.[10]
He continued conceiving original designs until his retirement in 1930, especially in naval engineering, such as the Camp-Vessel (a dirigible-carrying boat), and the Binave (a multihull steel ship). In addition to his inventing work, Torres also stood out in the field of letters, and was a noted speaker and supporter of Esperanto.[11]