Leonardo Torres Quevedo

Common card · No. 255613

Leonardo Torres Quevedo (Spanish: [leoˈnaɾðo ˈtores keˈβeðo]; 28 December 1852 – 18 December 1936) was a Spanish civil engineer, mathematician, and inventor who developed numerous engineering innovations related to aerial trams, airships, catamarans, and remote control. He was also a pioneer in the fields of computing and robotics, while maintaining an active role in several scientific and cultural institutions. He held prominent positions, such as 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. His first innovative design was a cableway system patented in 1887 for the safe transport of passengers, an endeavor that led to the Mount Ulia aerial ropeway in 1907 and culminated in 1916 with the opening of the Whirlpool Aero Car at Niagara Falls. In the 1890s, Torres focused his efforts on analog computation. He published Sur les machines algébriques...

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