Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont (1553 - 1613) was known as the "Knight of the Bronze Fingers" due to his enormous strength, which helped him to achieve outstanding military feats in favor of the King of Spain, as well as to obtain the titles of knight of the Order of Calatrava and governor. But the fame of this multifaceted Spaniard, who was also a singer, painter and bullfighter, comes more from his wit.
After assuming the position of mine manager, essential for the maintenance of the Spanish empire, he set out to improve the extraction of metals by developing the first steam engine for industrial use and an air conditioning system, all this in the early 17th century, long before the industrial revolution. In addition, he invented a diving equipment with air renewal. With this invention, he managed to submerge a man for more than an hour in the first prolonged immersion in recorded history, in the Pisuerga River in Valladolid, in August 1602.
Rationally and using instruments designed by him, Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont demonstrated that fire is not matter (as was believed until the 19th century), but energy. He also investigated the production of the impulse that sets bodies in motion and demonstrated the impossibility of perpetual motion by making a machine that made it possible to measure the loss of force, almost two centuries ahead of Prony and Smeaton.
In addition to his scientific achievements, Ayanz y Beaumont was a man of great human values, concerned about his family and deeply religious. In his last moments, he invoked his faith in God and in the dogmas of Holy Mother Church, commending himself to St. Jerome "my advocate" and to all the saints, begging forgiveness and intercession for his sins. Upon his death, he arranged for his body to be deposited in the convent of the Discalced Carmelites in Madrid, and then in Murcia with his children, in a chapel of the cathedral.
Public University of Navarra.
Society of Catholic Scientists of Spain
