Wikinventia — Atlas of discoveries and inventions · Industrial Age

Mechanical Encyclopedia — Ángela Ruiz Robles

1949 AD · Transmission: Silenced
TechnologyInventionHispanic

Ángela Ruiz Robles, a state schoolteacher in Ferrol, patents in 1949 (patent no. 190698) a portable mechanical reading device with interchangeable content spools, adjustable electric lighting, an optical magnification system, and the possibility of adaptation to different languages. In 1962 she obtains funding to build a working prototype. The device lets the user select content by subject, adjust text size, and carry multiple books in a single device. Ruiz Robles designed the invention to reduce the weight of school textbooks and to adapt materials to each student's level. The original prototype is preserved at the National Museum of Science and Technology (MUNCYT) in A Coruña. The invention's trajectory is a documented case of the silencing of female authorship: the canonical narrative of the e-book does not cite Ruiz Robles.

InstitutionNational School of Ferrol
Historical regionSpain — Galicia
Primary sourceRuiz Robles, Á. — Patent no. 190698, Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (1949). Preserved at OEPM, Madrid
Secondary sourceMUNCYT — Collection record: Enciclopedia Mecánica by Ángela Ruiz Robles; García Ruiz, M.J. — "Ángela Ruiz Robles, una inventora adelantada a su tiempo" (Historia de la Educación, 2013)
Original languageSpanish
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