Engineer, Artist. Regarded by many historians to be the Spanish Leonardo da Vinci. He studied at the École des Ponts et Chaussées (School of Bridges and Roadways) in Paris and founded the Escuela de Ingenieros de Caminos y Canales (School of Road and Canal Engineering) in Madrid and the Corps of Civil Engineering in St. Petersburg. He travelled to England, and visited the Watt & Boulton company in Birmirgham, which marketed the new steam engine which was however not shown to him. On his way back to London, from a distance he saw a double-acting steam engine working in a flour mill. From its external appearance he deduced how it worked and Watt’s innovations. He then returned to the continent, where he put into practice the knowledge he had gained, thus contributing to the spread of the Industrial Revolution throughout Europe. He built Spain’s first optical telegraphy system connecting Madrid and Aranjuez; and he was also the first to fly a hot-air balloon in Spain. On the eve of the French invasion of Spain, he went to Russia where he gained the confidence of Czar Alexander I. In Russia he contributed decisively to the modernization of the country with a large number of civil engineering works.