Torres Quevedo invented and built the telekino in order to direct remotely the airships that were his main activity at that time. It is a machine that was able to execute orders transmited by hertzian waves. In 1903 he presented the telekino to the Academy of Sciences in Paris. That same year he got the patent in France, Spain, Great Britain and the United States.
The first telekino was built in the recently created Institute of Aeronautics Tests in 1904 and the first exhibition in Spain was in the Beti-Jai fronton where it moved a tricycle. Afterwards it was trained outside and it moved a small boat in 'Casa de Campo'. In September 6th, 1906 an exhibition in the presence of the King Alfonso XIII and a large crowd in the Port of Bilbao was made that consisted of making a small boat to maneuver from the terrace of the Club Marítimo Abra.