Scientific Instruments for Education in Early Twentieth-Century Spain

Summary

1898 marked a crucial point in the end of the nineteenth-century Spanish crisis. The military defeat ending the Spanish-American War was seen as proof that the country was in terminal decline. With the ideals of regeneration spreading throughout Spanish society, the State became more interested in supporting and sponsoring science and technology, as well as in creating a modern educational system. The resulting reforms reflected this strong interest in scientific education, and consequently, the first decades of the twentieth century saw a turning point in the development of science and technology in Spain. Some recent papers have discussed various initiatives taken by Spanish governments, particularly in the creation of new official institutions. Such institutions played an important role in the development of science and technology, but their activity in the promotion of scientific education was very limited. However, other governmental initiatives were taken in order to develop this area, particularly focusing on the acquisition of scientific instruments. Scientific instruments were needed not only to improve Spanish scientific research but also to improve the teaching of experimental sciences. These instruments were specifically adapted for use by students. This paper aims to present some of the lesser-known individuals and firms who, in the new social and cultural context, provided scientific instruments for educational centres in order to meet the increasing demand for this material in Spanish educational institutions during these years.

Notes

¹Sebastian Balfour, ‘War, Nationalism and the Masses in Spain, 1898–1936’, in La transición a la política de masas, edited by E. Acton and I. Saz (Valencia, 2001), 75–91; Juan Pablo Fusi and Jordi Palafox, España: 1808–1996. El desafío de la modernidad (Madrid, 1997).

²See, for instance: Pedro Cerezo Galán, El mal del siglo. El conflicto entre Ilustración y Romanticismo en la crisis finisecular del siglo XIX (Madrid, 2003).

³Fusi and Palafox (note 1).

⁴Sebastian Balfour, El fin del imperio español (1898–1923) (Barcelona, 1997); Juan Pablo Fusi, Un siglo de España: La cultura (Madrid, 1999).

⁵See, for example: Alfredo Baratas Díaz, ‘La cultura científica en la Restauración’, in La cultura española en la Restauración, edited by M. Suárez Cortina (Santander, 1999), 279–95; and José Luis Peset and Elena Hernández-Sandoica, ‘La recepción de la cultura científica en la España del siglo XX: la Universidad’, in Antonio Morales Moya (coord.), Las Claves de la España del siglo XX. La cultura (Madrid, 2001), 127–51.

⁶Victor Guijarro, ‘The Procurement & Manufacture of Scientific Instruments in Spain During the 18th and 19th Centuries’, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, 62 (1999), 7–10.

⁷Gabriel Tortella, The Development of Modern Spain. An Economic History of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000).

⁸See for instance: José Manual Sánchez Ron, Cincel, martillo y piedra. Historia de la ciencia en España (siglos XIX y XX) (Madrid, 1999).

⁹Most intended to purchase scientific material from abroad. See for example: Royal Order of 14 February 1847, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 3 March 1847, núm. 5453. This document provides a description of a trip to France to acquire scientific instruments to be used at Spanish universities.

¹⁰See, for example: Aramburo Hermanos, Catálogo general de instrumentos de precisión de … (Madrid, 1883); Aramburo Hermanos, Catálogo de campanillas eléctricas, tubos acústicos, para-rayos y teléfonos de … ópticos de SS.MM. Proveedores de la Real Casa y de los principales institutos y academias civiles y militares de España (Madrid, 1885). With regard to the company Bastos y Laguna, later known as Amado Laguna de Rins, some information may be found in: Fernando Almarza Laguna, Amado Laguna de Rins: un altoaragonés, militar, ingeniero y alcalde de Zaragoza (Zaragoza, 1967). Several topographical instruments produced by this firm may also be found at the Spanish National Museum of Science and Technology and the Spanish National Geographic Institute in Madrid.

¹¹Leonor González de la Lastra and Rosa M Martín Latorre, ‘La Universidad Central y sus instrumentos científicos. El origen y desarrollo de una colección (1837–1945)’, in Instrumentos científicos para la enseñanza de la física (Madrid: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, 2000); Pedro Ruiz Castell, Josep Simón Castel and José Ramón Bertomeu Sánchez, ‘Los fabricantes de instrumentos de la Universitat de València’, in José Ramón Bertomeu Sánchez and Antonio García Belmar, Abriendo las cajas negras. Colección de instrumentos científicos de la Universitat de València (Valencia, 2002).

¹²See, for instance, Ramón Garrabou and Jesús Sanz (eds.), Historia agraria de la España contemporánea, II. Expansión y crisis (1850–1900) (Barcelona, 1985).

¹³Clara Eugenia Núñez, ‘El Ministerio de Educación y la formación de capital humano en España cien años después’, in La Educación en la España del siglo XX (Madrid, 2001).

¹⁴José Mariano Bernal Martínez, Renovación Pedagógica y Enseñanza de las Ciencias. Medio siglo de propuestas y experiencias escolares (1882–1936) (Madrid, 2001). Note that, however, the German model of instruction was the most influential at a university level.

¹⁵Bernal Martínez (note 14).

¹⁶See, for instance, the Royal Order of 8 June 1906, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 16 June 1906, núm. 167, 1079. This was the first of these resolutions and had a budget of 200,000 pesetas for the acquisition of experimental scientific instruments by Spanish universities.

¹⁷Royal Decree of 17 March 1911, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 18 March 1911, núm. 77, 769–70. The president of this institution was Santiago Ramon y Cajal, while Ignacio Bolívar y Urrutia was its vice-president. The board members were Amelio Gimeno y Cabañas, José Rodríguez Carracido, José Casares Gil, José Muñoz del Castillo, Leonardo Torres Quevedo, Juan Ramón Gómez y Pamo, Federico Oloriz y Aguilera, Juan Pérez Posada, José Gómez Ocaña, Eduardo Mier y Miura, Blás Lázaro e Ibiza, Blas Cabrera y Felipe, and José Rodríguez Mourelo.

¹⁸On the Instituto de Material Científico, see: Ana Romero, ‘Dos políticas de instrumental científico: el Instituto del Material científico y el Torres Quevedo’, Arbor, 160 (1998), 359–86.

¹⁹Royal Decree of 10 November 1911, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 11 November 1911, núm. 315, 325–26.

²⁰José Damián López Martínez, La Enseñanza de la Física y Química en la Educación Secundaria en el Primer Tercio del Siglo XX en España (Ph.D. thesis, University of Murcia, 1999).

²¹See, for instance, the paper by Josep Simón-Castel, José Ramón Bertomeu-Sánchez, and Antonio García-Belmar, ‘Nineteenth-Century Scientific Instruments in Spanish Secondary Schools’, presented at the conference 19th Century Chemistry: Spaces and Collections, held February 2007 and organized by the Museum of Science of the University of Lisbon (Portugal), forthcoming. Other studies on the Spanish scientific heritage at specific secondary schools include: Àngel Vàzquez Alonso, ‘Arqueología científica en el Instituto Balear: la enseñanza experimental de la electrostática’, Revista de ciència, 11 (1992), 9–18; Àngel Vàzquez Alonso, ‘Arqueología científica en el Instituto Balear: la corriente eléctrica’, 11 (1992), 65–72; M José García del Real, ‘Un gran patrimonio al descubierto. Los materiales científicos utilizados para la enseñanza en los institutos andaluces’, Andalucía Educativa, 25 (2001), 18–20; José Abelardo Vidal de Labra (coord.), Conservación, actualización y divulgación del patrimonio histórico-científico-social del Instituto Alfonso X el Sabio de Murcia (Murcia, 2002); and Espiral, Animación de Patrimonio, editor, OCNI. Objetos Científicos no Imaginados/Fisikaren Iraskuntzarako Tresnak Bizkaian (Bilbao, 2002). For a reflection on the importance of studying the scientific heritage still preserved at Spanish secondary schools, see: Josep Simón Castel, Antonio García Belmar and José Ramón Bertomeu, ‘Els instruments científics dels instituts d'ensenyament mitjà: un extraordinari patrimoni cultural que hem de preservar i estudiar’, in Pere Grapí Vilumara and M. Rosa Massa Esteve (coords.), Actes de la I Jornada sobre la Història de la Ciència i l'Ensenyament Antoni Quintana Marí (Barcelona, 2005), 109–14.

²²The work by Rafael Sisto Edreira, O patrimonio histórico- científico do Instituto Xelmírez I (Santiago de Compostela). Inventario e Catalogación. Unha ollada ós gabinetes de ciencias do vello instituto de Santiago (A Coruña: Deputación Provincial da Coruña, 1999), provides very useful information on this issue, particularly on who made the different scientific instruments purchased by this particular school and when they were bought.

²³See, for instance, the Royal Order of 26 October 1912, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 2 November 1912, núm. 307, 324–26, and the Royal Order of 16 September 1918, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 1 October 1913, núm. 274, 5–7.

²⁴Royal Order of 8 August 1916, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 24 August 1916, núm. 237, 417–18.

²⁵Royal Order of 27 March 1919, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 4 April 1919, núm. 94, 45–46.

²⁶Royal Order of 16 October 1920, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 26 October 1920, núm. 300, 376–77.

²⁷Royal Order of 8 August 1916, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 24 August 1916, núm. 237, 417–18.

²⁸Royal Order of 31 March 1918, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 12 April 1918, núm 102, 109.

²⁹Royal Order of 8 August 1916, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 24 August 1916, núm. 237, 417–18.

³⁰Royal Order of 25 June 1920, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 10 July 1920, núm. 192, 139–40. Particularly relevant is the ‘Dictamen a que se refiere la Comisión asesora de material’, 140.

³¹Royal Order of 8 August 1916, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 25 August 1916, núm. 286, 408–9.

³²Royal Order of 8 August 1916, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 25 August 1916, núm. 286, 408–9.

³³See the Royal Order of 16 November 1922, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 22 December 1922, núm. 356, 1231–1232, and the Royal Order of 16 December 1922, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 24 December 1922, núm. 353, 1200.

³⁴See, for instance, the Royal Order of 23 May 1924, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 31 May 1924, núm. 152, 1049–1050, and the Royal Order of 23 May 1924, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 31 May 1924, núm. 152, 1051.

³⁵Royal Order of 4 December 1924, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 13 de diciembre 1924, núm. 348, 1217–1218.

³⁶Royal Order of 21 June 1927, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 13 July 1927, núm. 194, 256. See also the public resolution of 8 July 1931, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 11 Julio 1931, núm. 192, 326, making reference to Felipe Calleja y Alarnes as representative of this firm.

³⁷See, for instance, the Royal Order of 21 June 1927, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 13 Julio 1927, núm. 194, 256, where it is written that the manager of this company is José Barba Porret. See also the public resolution of 8 July 1931, published in the Gaceta de Madrid, 11 Julio 1931, núm. 192, 326, referring to the agent of this firm, Eduardo Barba Gosé.

³⁸See, for example: Max Kohl, Catalogue No. 22. Appareils de Physique (Chemnitz, c.1904), 343–44.

³⁹See, for instance: Sogeresa, Catálogo general de material científico-pedagógico (Madrid, 1950–51), pp. 84–85.

⁴⁰On the importance of trade catalogues for scientific instrument advertising, see: Paolo Brenni, ‘19th century scientific instruments advertising’, Nuncius (2002), 497–513. See also: Robert J. W. Anderson, John Brunett and Brian Gee, Handlist of Scientific Instrument-Makers’ Trade Catalogues 1600–1914 (Edinburgh, 1990).

⁴¹See: E. Leybold's Nachfolger, Catalogue of Physical Apparatus constructed by … (Cologne, c.1907) and Sogeresa (note 39).

⁴²Peter R. de Clercq, editor, Nineteenth-Century Scientific Instruments and their Makers (Leiden, 1985).