Torres Quevedo: Great Inventions from the Automation Pioneer

Leonardo Torres Quevedo was born in 1852 in the Cantabrian town of Santa Cruz de Iguña. When he finished his civil engineering studies in 1876, he decided he would work in the field of science, technology, and invention because of his passion for mathematics.

The image shows Leonardo Torres Quevedo's childhood home in Santa Cruz de Iguña, Cantabria.

He mainly worked on solving mathematical problems through the use of physics.

This meant he was able to overcome the limitations of the period to create machines that could carry out complex tasks akin to artificial intelligence.

In 1922 the Sorbonne named him Doctor Honoris Causa and in 1927 he was chosen as one of the 12 associate members of the Academy.

He was also a member of various academies located both in Spain and elsewhere.

These included the Royal Spanish-American Academy of Cádiz, the Society of Physics and Natural History of Geneva, and the Academies of Sciences in Zaragoza, Buenos Aires, and Paris.

One of his most noteworthy distinctions was the recognition given to him by the IEEE (International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) for his originality in developing remote controls, which eventually led to the invention of what he called the telekino.

In 2007 this distinction was made tangible with the laying of a Milestone at the Torres Quevedo Museum.

Torres Quevedo also received awards such as the Grand Cross of Alfonso XII and the Henri de Parville Prize from the French Academy of Sciences.

In 1953 events were held to commemorate the centenary of his birth, with senior academic, scientific, and university representatives from Spain and elsewhere taking part.

In 1991 the Niagara Parks Commission placed a commemorative plaque at the foot of the Whirlpool Aero Car in memory of its designer, Torres Quevedo.

It's inevitable that a person like Torres Quevedo would have monuments built in his honor.

In 1986 the "Amigos de la Cultura Científica" (Friends of Scientific Culture) encouraged the public to fund a statue of Torres Quevedo in Santa Cruz de Iguña, Cantabria.

On December 28, 2012, Google dedicated its Doodle to Leonardo Torres Quevedo on the 160th anniversary of his birth.

It featured the "Spanish Aero Car" carrying its inventor, some chess pieces in a nod to his chess-playing machines, and a cow symbolizing his first cableway in Molledo.

In 1958 a World's Fair was once again held following a hiatus caused by the Second World War.

This is the brochure on Leonardo Torres Quevedo handed out at the exhibition.

His work is presented as a precursor to automation and tele-mechanics, and his participation in the event meant the engineer was recognized as a key representative of modern Spanish science.

In 1886, while living in Molledo, Cantabria, he built his first cableway. It traversed a 40-meter drop, 400 meters up, and was pulled along by a pair of cows.

In 1887 he patented a funicular with several cables supported by independent counterweights so there was no risk of danger if a cable should break.

The first cableway to transport passengers was installed at Monte Ulía in San Sebastián in 1907, but disappeared in 1912 when the Monte Igueldo amusement park became more popular.

The most famous cableway created by Torres Quevedo is the one at the Niagara Whirlpool.

The Niagara Spanish Aero Car Company Limited was created from the Spanish company "Estudios y Obras de Ingeniería" (Engineering Studies and Works) to build and assemble it.

Torres Quevedo's son Gonzalo managed the cableway construction and assembly process between 1914 and 1916.

The cableway links 2 sites on the Canadian shore of the Niagara River and spans 550 meters.

Between 1910 and 1920 Torres Quevedo demonstrated the advantages of an electromechanical system over mechanical processes.

The inventor's final scientific publication was "Arithmomètre électromécanique" (Electromechanical Arithmometer) presented at the French Academy of Sciences, which will soon reach its 70th anniversary.

Algebraic machines are analog calculators that solve mathematical equations using quantities represented by physical values.

The mathematical process is linked to an operational process involving certain physical values, and the physical result obtained corresponds to the mathematical solution sought.

In 1920 he built the electromechanical arithmometer: the world's first digital calculator. It used relays, was very quick, and could be connected to logic circuits.

In 1905, with the help of Alfredo Kindelán, Torres Quevedo managed the construction of the first Spanish airship at the Army's Military Aeronautics Service in Guadalajara.

The "España" airship carried out numerous exhibition and test flights with great success.

Spain's limited budget and technological deficiencies led Torres Quevedo to turn to the French company Astra in 1909, granting it the worldwide patent exploitation rights.

However, this did not apply in Spain, where the airship could be freely built by any Spaniard.

In 1911 construction began on the "Astra-Torres" airships, which were acquired by the French and English armies from 1913, and used for naval inspection and protection duties during the First World War.

Torres Quevedo helped to improve the way the airships flew.

He devoted himself to improving their dynamic stability and detailed his conclusions in an essay that he presented to the French and Spanish Academies of Sciences.

In 1918 Torres Quevedo designed an airship that he named "Hispania," which he intended to make the first transatlantic flight from Spain.

Ultimately, such a flight could not be undertaken due to a lack of funding for the project.

Three devices of particular note resulted from his automaton designs: the electromechanical arithmometer, the Telekine, and the chess-player.

The Telekine was an automaton that carried out commands transmitted via Hertzian waves and converted these into movement.

The idea of a decision-making machine led Torres Quevedo to come up with an extension of conventional machine theory, which he called "automation." Its aim was to examine "the procedures that can be applied to building automatons with a somewhat complex relational ability."

In 1912 Leonardo Torres Quevedo built a machine that played chess to demonstrate his theories of automation.

He subsequently presented this experimental model in Paris in 1914.

In 1920 he built a second chess-player, introducing significant improvements to which he referred when presenting it.

As an automaton, it offered no real improvement on the first model.

It was more a scientific toy, designed to demonstrate the possibilities of general automation theory.

The Automation Laboratory was founded in the early part of the 20th century, with Torres Quevedo as its director.

It is important to highlight the support the laboratory gave to other scientists (known as the "Generation of 1914"), for whom it produced a range of machines.

The 'Aeronautical Testing Center' was the precursor to what would become the 'Automation Laboratory.'

The name change is evidence of Torres Quevedo's ability to work in different fields. Various members of the scientific community and Spanish universities spent time in the laboratory.

The most extensive collaboration was with Miguel Pérez Santano, who invented a duplex system that improved how Hughes telegraphs operated.

During his lifetime, he built many mathematical devices that paved the way for computer science and automation.

These inventions were ahead of their time.