Bartolomeu de Gusmão

Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão ( * ca December 17, December 19, 1685, baptized in Santos, Brazil, † November 18, 1724 in Toledo, Spain), also called Gusman or Guzman, was a Jesuit priest, scientist and inventor from the former Portuguese colony Brazil, who in 1709 developed the prototype of an airship and as Padre Voador (Portuguese "Flying priest " ) is one of the pioneers of aviation. King John V. Lourenço de Gusmão gave the first detectable airship patent.

Biography

Early years

Gusmão was born as the fourth of twelve children of senior prison doctor ( chirurgien -chief of prisons ), Francisco Lourenco Rodrigues Santos, a port city on the Brazilian Atlantic coast; Bartolomeu was, like his younger brother Alexandre, after the godfather, the Jesuits, Rectors and scientists Alexandre Gusmão (1629-1724) named. The siblings were almost all in the service of the Church (including the Jesuits, Franciscans, Carmelites ). Gusmão began his training at the nearby Colegio São Miguel São Vicente; then he went up to the year 1699 the Jesuit seminary in Belem, district Cachoeira where he by the invention of a water pipe (probably a water ram ) for the College and his good memory caused a stir. In Salvador, the former capital of Brazil, he entered the Society of Jesus, however, left the country in 1701 with the aim of Lisbon, where in the home of the influential courtier and promoter of Sciences, Rodrigo Anes de Sá Almeida e Menezes, Marques de he Fontes (1676-1733), lived, who - as well as King John V. - his spiritual gifts valued and encouraged him in his other visits.

As he handed the first Brazilian in 1705 with the support of his godfather for a patent on his invention of a water pipe, which was granted to him in 1707. In 1708 he again traveled to Portugal to continue at the University of Coimbra with an emphasis on languages ​​and mathematics his studies; it first made in 1720 as a doctor of canon law its conclusion. At 21, he is already the Italian, French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew have dominated and have been one of the best preachers in Lisbon.

Gusmão flying machine, the flight experiments of 1709

In 1709 he received a patent for a "machine, with which you can travel through the air," a kind of balloon or airship better, " Passarola " called (Portuguese large bird ) whose demonstrations in Lisbon - if we are to believe later reports - Volksaufläufe caused and embellished by some fantastic pictures in other European countries caused a stir. For fear of plagiarism and damage received only the firstborn son of the Marquis, the 14 -year-old Joaqim Francisco, access to the aircraft; come from him also - some allegedly intentionally misleading - sketches.

Whether the underlying principle of buoyancy was warm air, which was obtained as in the 80 years later invention by the Montgolfier brothers made ​​by a coupled fire, is ultimately unclear. The details of the function and exact appearance of the aircraft are controversial or unknown to this day; According to the available descriptions and records of the projected balloon should have been like a ship that resembles a bird designed. So it shows the above-mentioned figure, which comes from his patent application in 1709; the visible there balls ( arcanum attractionis continentes, ie, " the secret of the attraction including " ) are by Gusmão words magnet ( magnet sunt inclusi ) have contained the smaller spheres Bernstein ( succinorum repleta ). Of course you remember the 1670 already brought into play by the Italian Jesuit Father Francesco de Lana large, rarefied hollow spheres, which should make the ascent into the air. The illustrated, described in the patent application flight instrument should carry 10-11 people; to a manned flight, it is of course never came.

During the August 1709 Gusmão held in the presence of the court five partially successful flight tests with takeoff, flight and landing of small balloons; on October 3, raised in front of several witnesses in the Casa da Índia a larger aircraft from which, although uncontrolled start, fly and land, but also still could not carry person. However, these attempts were not convincing, because the flying machines were viewed as a gimmick - after all, they could not be controlled - by, or even regarded as dangerous, as could easily fires caused by them. Gusmão therefore decided to build a larger model, this time with a crew to build. To finance the necessary funds, he traveled 1713-1716 Northern Europe; in Holland, he settled in 1713 to register a ship pump, in Paris helped his younger brother Alexandre, who had accompanied him in 1715 to Portugal and now worked in Paris as secretary of the Portuguese ambassador.

More Career, persecution and death

Back in Portugal, Gusmão took off his priestly ordination; although appointed Hofmann, royal chaplain and member of the Academy, he faced a lawsuit by the Inquisition exposed to the sympathies for the so-called New Christians accused him ( to Christianity zwangsbekehrte Jews ), so that he in 1724 to flee to Spain forced, looked up one of his brothers who accompanied him. The accusation of secret favoring Jews, indeed the suspicion of being itself became Jew was, but now made ​​him also in Spain; In addition to holding out against mysticism, messianic sense of mission and megalomania. In Toledo seriously ill, Gusmão died on November 18, 1724 at the age of 38 years in misery in the Hospital of Mercy. His body was interred in the church of San Roman; the remains are transferred in 1856 to Brazil, where they rest in the Cathedral of São Paulo since 2004.

Afterlife, effect

• Although Gusmão experiments belong in the environment of the then flourishing " projects ", but form an important link in the chain of innovations that reverberate to this day; his successful flight tests had on the imagination of contemporaries and will make it up today to become a pioneer of aviation.

• Between 1931-1937 the German Lufthansa flew ( Lufthansa 1933) regularly with airships between Germany and Brazil, the airport 129 Hindenburg built for the airships LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin and LZ contributed 1936-1941 Gusmão name. Today it is the base of Santa Cruz of the Brazilian Air Force.

• In Lisbon is the road that leads from the castle to the city down, named after him in his birthplace Santos a section of the beach promenade.

Bartolomeu de Gusmão as a fictional character

• In the 1982 novel, Memorial do Convento (Eng. The Memorial, 1986) by José Saramago Bartolomeu de Gusmão plays a central role.
• In the romantic - comedy liable verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac (French 1897) by Edmond Rostand ( 1868-1918 ) sounds like the motif of the Moon Schiffer.
• In the novel Passarola Rising by Azhar Abidi from 2006 Gusmão is the main character.

Writings

• Varios modos de esgotar sem gente que as Naus fazem agua. Lisbon 1710. - On Latin and port.