Blasco de Garay
Blasco de Garay (* 1500 in Toledo, † 1552 in Barcelona ) was a captain of the Spanish Navy and inventor.
De Garay was during the reign of Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, captain of the Spanish Navy. He provided several important contributions to the navigation. The most important was the development of a paddle wheel as a substitute for rowing, as has been recognized by the discovery of documents in the General Archives of Simancas by the scientists Joaquin Rubió i Ors 1880. According to various sources de Garay also made the first attempt to drive a ship with steam power. However, these claims were rejected by the Spanish authorities.
Inventions
Garay himself sent in 1539 to the Emperor a document that aufführte eight inventions:
Although the reviewers the Spanish king gave positive reports on the steamboat experiment, the Finance Minister refused because of cost and because of the practical and safety issues to finance the continuation of the project.
Steam-powered controversial
Blasco de Garay, a trial with a steam engine ascribed, which took place on a ship in the port of Barcelona. The experiment was described in 1825 by Tomás González, director of the royal archives of Simancas, in a letter to the renowned historian Martín Fernández Navarrete. Gonzalez noted that in that Act was a document that advocated a test that was conducted on 17 June 1543 by the ship's captain and engineer of the Navy of the Emperor Charles V, with the ship without sail or oar were moved and a " cauldron of boiling water " mitführte. Navarrete published González ' report in 1826 Baron de Zach's Astronomical Correspondence. The letter from González Navarrete is reproduced below:
Steamboats were introduced in Spain until 1817. The Real Fernando of 1817, which sailed the Guadalquivir between Seville and Sanlucar regularly, was probably the first steamboat, built in Spain. Before there was the PS Hope, built 1813 in Bristol.
The futile search for evidence to this letter led to a controversy between French and Spanish scientists.
The issue gained such popularity that Honoré de Balzac wrote about a play, a comedy with prologue and five acts, entitled Les Ressources de Quinola, which had on 19 March 1842 in Paris Premiere and tended to support the Spanish claim.
However, these claims were rejected by the Spanish authorities.