Spanish inventors and scientists

Servetus explained that:

“The vital spirit has its origin in the left ventricle of the heart, and the lungs contribute mostly to its production. It is produced in the lungs when the air inhaled is combined with the elaborated subtle blood that the right ventricle of the heart transmits to the left. But this communication does not take place through the middle wall of the heart as it is usually believed, but rather, by means of a great contrivance, the subtle blood is pumped forward from the right ventricle of the heart to a large circuit through the lungs. In the lungs [blood] is elaborated and becomes red, and it is transfused from the pulmonary artery (arterial vein) to the pulmonary vein (venous artery). Later, in the same pulmonary vein it mingles with the air inspired and through expiration it is purified again of the dark vapors... Thus, not only air is sent from the lungs to the heart, but air mixed with blood through the pulmonary artery. Therefore, the mixture takes place in the lungs. The red color is given to it in the lungs, and not in the heart. There is not enough room in the left ventricle of the heart for such a big and abundant mixture, nor the mechanism to give blood its red color. Finally, the ventricular partition, since it is lacking in vessels and mechanisms, it is not permeable to the blood though something may possibly sweat through.” (Christianismi Restitutio, p. 169-170).

More info:

http://www.servetus.org/en/michael-servetus/biography/bio4.htm

 

The findings, outlined in the magazine History Today, suggest the telescope's creator could have been a spectacle-maker based in Gerona, Spain.

The first refracting telescopes were thought to have appeared in the Netherlands in 1608.

But the first examples may actually have been made for Spanish merchants.

The inventor, according to historian Nick Pelling, could have been a man called Juan Roget, who died between 1617 and 1624.

The idea subsequently travelled north to the Netherlands, where, in 1608, three separate individuals claimed the invention as their own.

Patently false?

The Dutch spectacle-maker Hans Lipperhey submitted his application for a patent on 2 October 1608.

On 14 October, reports of another man demonstrating a telescope surfaced in the Netherlands.

And on 17 October 1608, another spectacle-maker, Jacob Metius of Alkmaar, put in an independent patent for a telescope.

But Mr Pelling finds the traditional account lacking: "Throughout history, there have been cases of people inventing things all at the same time. But generally, there's a good reason for that. It's because someone had put down a challenge.

He told BBC News: "In 1608, no one had presented a challenge - there's no perception of a challenge. It doesn't make any sense. Three people did not invent the telescope in the space of two weeks."

More recently, other historians have suggested the telescope was first invented in Italy.

Mr Pelling got involved in the area when he came across a reference on the internet to a research paper published in 1959 by a Spanish optometrist and amateur historian by the name of Simon de Guilleuma.

De Guilleuma investigated a reference in a book published in 1609 by the Italian Girolamo Sirtori.

In the book, Sirtori describes a meeting with an aged spectacle maker called Juan Roget in Gerona who he described as the real inventor of the telescope.

Death register

Telescope historians have considered Roget - who hailed from Burgundy in France - too marginal to pursue. But de Guilleuma discovered a reference to the death of his wife in an official register.

He also found official listings for many of Roget's relatives in Barcelona, many of whom were also spectacle-makers. They matched the descriptions detailed by Sirtori, and existed in exactly the places and dates he described.

De Guilleuma did not stop there; he looked for "ulleras" - a Catalan word originally meaning eyeglass, but later used for telescope - in inventories of goods from contemporary deaths in Barcelona.

The earliest was from 10 April 1593 when a Don Pedro de Carolona passed down "a long eyeglass decorated with brass" to his wife.

However, Mr Pelling accepts in his article that this item could have referred to a magnifying lens with a long handle.

But he says a subsequent reference to an "eyeglass/telescope for long sight" from 1608 sounds like a Roget telescope.

Later improvement

According to Mr Pelling, Roget - and his customers - may simply have failed to see the potential for the invention.

"It's a bit like golf courses. The people who make golf courses often go bust. It's the person who buys the course who makes money," said Mr Pelling.

He said in his article in History Today: "Even at the time, I think it was clear that all the Dutch claimants were lying, misleading, misremembering and concealing to various degrees."

Mr Pelling said he had been in contact with de Guilleuma's family and now hoped to be able to view other, unpublished research left by the historian after he died.

The Tuscan astronomer Galileo Galilei would greatly improve on the Dutch designs.

These refracting telescopes used lenses to form an image. In 1616, Galileo's compatriot Nicolo Zucchi developed the first reflecting telescope - which used an arrangement of mirrors to create an image.

Early examples

• 1: Hero of Alexandria describes the aeolipile, as an example of the power of heated air or water. The device consists of a rotating ball spun by steam jets; it produced little power and had no practical application, but is nevertheless the first known device moved by steam pressure. He also describes a way transferring water from one vessel to another using pressure, filling a bucket the weight of which worked tackle to open temple doors, closed again by a deadweight once the water in the bucket had been drawn out by a vacuum caused by cooling of the initial vessel.
• 1551: Taqi al-Din describes a steam turbine-like device for rotating a spit.
• 1601: Giovanni Battista della Porta performs experiments on using steam to create pressure or a vacuum.
• 1606: Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont patents a steam-powered device for pumping water out of deep mines.
• 1615: Salomon de Caus, who had been an engineer and architect under Louis XIII, publishes a book showing a device similar to that of Porta.
• 1629: Giovanni Branca suggests using a steam turbine device similar to that described by Taqi al-Din but intended to be used to power a series of pestles working in mortars.
• 1630: David Ramsey is granted a patent for various steam applications, although no description is given and the patent also covers a number of unrelated inventions. He refers to a "fire engine", and this term is used for many years.

Una aplicación didáctico-práctica

Para terminar y dado que seguramente muchos de los lectores del libro sobre Ayanz tendrán la curiosidad de elaborar ellos mismos una sencilla máquina térmica (como fue el caso del que subscribe), aquí van unas pequeñas sugerencias para que con unos mínimos medios podamos desarrollar tal proyecto. Un proyecto, como se ve en los gráficos contrapuestos, reproduce el modelo de Ayanz, posteriormente copiado por Savery.

En nuestro caso, el diseño lo hemos realizado con la colaboración del Profesor de Física y Química del IES Estelas de Cantabria D. Álvaro Roldan; el trabajo de cuatro abnegados alumnos de Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad (Ángel Buenaga, Victor Martínez, Alberto Castillo y Alejandro Ruíz), las acertadas matizaciones de Nuria Suárez y el modelo de máquina del Director del Departamento de Física aplicada de la Universidad de Cantabria D. Julio Güemez.

Dicho modelo consta de un matraz con salida lateral y manómetro (generador de vapor), una cámara intermedia, un recipiente inferior, un depósito superior, tubos de conexión y tres válvulas. Mediante el vapor de agua producido en el matraz calentado mediante la combustión de butano –valvula A abierta–, se evacua todo el aire de una cámara conectada mediante un tubo con el recipiente inferior que contiene el agua a subir –válvula B abierta y válvula C cerrada–. Una vez evacuado el aire se cierra la válvula A, que controla el paso del vapor a la cámara y ésta se enfría mediante un chorro externo de agua fría. Al disminuir la temperatura el vapor de agua condensa, se hace un vacío parcial y la presión atmosférica hace subir el agua desde el recipiente inferior hasta la cámara superior. Una vez llena la cámara intermedia se conecta de nuevo el chorro de vapor (válvula A abierta), se abre la válvula C y cerrando la B se impulsa el agua hacia el recipiente superior.

Dependiendo de la altura a la que se encuentre el depósito superior, la presión del vapor de agua en el matraz debe ser mayor (1 atmósfera –10⁵ Pa– por cada 10 metros de altura).

La altura a la que se puede encontrar el depósito superior viene determinada por la presión que pueda soportar el conjunto de la máquina. Sin embargo, la profundidad a la que se encuentra el recipiente inferior no puede ser mayor de los 10 m, pues la presión atmosférica sólo puede elevar una columna de agua esa altura (o una columna de mercurio de 76 cm, pues el mercurio es algo más de 13 veces más denso que el agua).

Bibliografía sobre el autor

García Tapia, Nicolás: Técnica y poder en Castilla durante los siglos XVI y XVII, Salamanca 1989.

— Ingeniería y Arquitectura en el Renacimiento español, Valladolid 1990.

— Patentes de invención españolas en el Siglo de Oro, Madrid 1990.

— Del dios del fuego a la máquina de vapor. La introducción de la técnica en Hispanoamérica, Valladolid 1992.

— «Some designs of Jerónimo de Ayanz. Relating to Mining, Metallurgy and Steam Pumps», History of Technology, 14, 1992, págs. 135-150.

— «Les premières applications de la vapeur: le cas de Jerónimo de Ayanz», Relations Science-Technique, San Francisco 1993, págs. 279-285.

— «Nobleza, pintura e invención. ¿Jerónimo de Ayanz pintor?», Estudios de Arte. Homenaje al profesor Martín González, Valladolid 1995, págs. 499-504.

García Tapia, Nicolás y Jesús Carrillo Castillo: Tecnología e Imperio. Ingenios y leyendas del Siglo de Oro. Turriano, Lastanosa, Herrera, Ayanz, Madrid 2002.

Bibliografía sobre la Máquina de Savery

(Gracias a la colaboración del Profesor J. Güemez de la Universidad de Cantabria.)

W. Taylor, Physics, The Pioneer Science, Volumen 1: Mechanics Heat, Sound, Dover Publications, Nueva York 1959.

R. Porter, M. Ogilvie, Cons. Eds., The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 3ª ed., Helicon Publishing, Oxford (UK) 2000, vols. I y II.

I. Kolin, The evolution of the heat engine, Longman, Londres 1972.

J. McGahan, «Collapsing soda cans and efficiency», The Physics Teacher, vol. 28, págs. 550-551 (1990).

A. P. Feldman, «A model of the Savery steam engine», The Physics Teacher, 19, 414 (1981).

A. A., «An improved Franklin's flask and simplified cryosphorus», Am. J. Phys., 1, 86 (1933)

B. A. Smith, «Wollaston's cryophorus-precursor of the heat pipe», Phys. Educ., 15, 310, (1980)

D. F. Channell, «The problem of two back-pressures: the development of Watt's separate condenser», Am. J. Phys., 42 65 (1974); H. S. Leff, Heat engines and the performance of external work, Am. J. Phys. 46, 218 (1978).

A. Rupert Hall, From Galileo to Newton, Dover Publications, Nueva York 1981, pág. 320.

Ll. W. Taylor, A History of Mechanical Inventions, Dover Publications, Nueva York 1982, págs. 345-346