Leonardo Torres y Quevedo

Home * People * Leonardo Torres y Quevedo

[.jpg) Leonardo Torres y Quevedo [1] Leonardo Torres y Quevedo, (December 28, 1852 – December 18, 1936)

was an Spanish engineer and mathematician, influenced by the work of the English mathematician Charles Babbage (1791-1871) and his analytical engine. Torres was most famous for the Aero Cable Car on the Canadian side of the Niagara River and analogue calculating machines.

In 1910 he began (other sources state 1890, or 1901) to construct a chess automaton, El Ajedrecista (The Chessplayer). In 1912 it was able to automatically play a white king and rook against the black king. A second, mechanical but not algorithmic improved El Ajedrecista was built by Leonardo Torres Quevedo’s son Gonzalo in 1922, under the direction of his father. At the 1951 Paris Cybernetic Congress the advanced machine was introduced to a greater audience and explained to Norbert Wiener [2].

Publications

Henri Vigneron (1914). Les Automates. La Nature, pdf from cyberneticzoo.com, Translation by David Levy as Robots in David Levy, Monroe Newborn (1982). All About Chess and Computers. Springer, pp. 14-23, also in David Levy (ed.) (1988). Computer Chess Compendium, pp. 273-278.
Brian Randell (1982). From Analytical Engine to Electronic Digital Computer: The Contributions of Ludgate, Torres, and Bush. Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 4, No. 4, pdf [7] [8] [9]
Antonio Pérez Yuste, Magdalena Salazar Palma (2004). The First Wireless Remote-Control: The Telekine of Torres Quevedo. pdf