Portuguese Inventors

2. Pedro Nunes was a portuguese
mathematician in charge of developing maps
to the kingdom of Portugal. His contributions
are relevant to sailing. He dedicated himself
to solve and to better define maps, based on
mathematics.
He invented several new devices,
including the "anel náutico", the
"instrumento de sombras", and the
popular nónio (nonius,
corresponding to Nunes in latin).
Pedro Nunes solved several
problems related with sea
navigation. For instance, some of the
methods he created introduced
higher precision in determining a
ship's location.
Curiosities: Did you know that Nónio
had its name from Nunes, that in latin
was Nonius? In 1531, D. João III,
King of Portugal, made Pedro Nunes
responsible for the education of the
king's younger brothers Luís and
Henrique. Years later Pedro Nunes
also became the private teacher of D.
João's grandson, D. Sebastião. Did
you know that there is an asteroid
named 5313 Nunes in honour to
Pedro Nunes?

3. Bartolomeu de Gusmão was a catholic priest and a
scientist that is known for one of his inventions, the
“Passarola” (1709). This invention is a predecessor
to the air baloon. The patent that protected this idea
was submitted on 19.04.1709!
The news about this invention spread
quickly all over Europe. Therefore, in
order to protect better this idea, a
student of Bartolomeu, Joaquim
Francisco de Sá Almeida e Meneses,
made a very exotic drawing of the
Passarola, drawing which was really
not the true prototype drawing.
Therefore, some people copied this
forged invention ending up not having
any success, of course.
Curiosities Bartolomeu de Gusmão
started his inventions still in basic school.
Then, with less than 15 years of age he
invented and prototyped a mechanism
that carried water hill above until the
place where his school was. You see, at
the time there was no plumbing and
people had to regularly fetch water with
buckets, from local fountains or rivers.
This invention was protected as "a
mechanism to allow the water to flow up
in any distance and height in 1705.

4. Father Manuel António Gomes, known in
history as Father Hymalaia, was a catholic
priest, a scientist as well as inventor. He
pioneered solar energy! He was the one to
introuce solar energy in Portugal. While he
was studying in a Seminar (in Braga, north
of Portugal), he realized that he loved
aspects concerning the applicability of
technology to farming and to physics.
After classes he used to go to the library
in the Seminar, which had over 7000
books. There. he studied lots of books
about natural sciences
He came from a rural area with a strong farming
tradition, aspect which he remained truthful to all of
his life.
He studied and developed a way to improve
fertilization of soils based on solar energy: he
invented an optical device as a way to create
environments with high temperatures, to improve the
soil quality! This device was named by himself
pireliéforo and is based on mirrors that reflect the
Curiosities Pireliéforo
derivecs from greek and
means something similar to
"Eu trago o fogo do Sol"";
has the Father was very
high his seminars
colleagues nicknamed him
Hymalaia. He was a
vegetarian and believer of
naturopathy, in particular of
fitoterapy (where plants are
used to heal) and of
hydrotherapy.

5. Gago Coutinho was a portuguese navy
officer as well as a great cartographer. He
started drawing maps in 1898, on one of his
first trips to Timor.
Gago Coutinho invented the first sextante with an
artificial horizon. This device was then used in
airplanes to measure the distance between the
horizon line and celestial bodies. Such measure was
then used to compute our position while traveling,
even at night
Gago Coutinho did several aereal trips with his friend
Sacadura Cabral to validate his sextante. One of
such trips was between Lisbon, Portugal, and Brazil.
This trip started in 30.03.1922 and lasted until
17.06.1922. This trip made it in history and
corroborates the value of Gago Coutinho and of his
inventions.
Curiosities Gago
Coutinho made a lot of
maps. Until 1920 he had
covered Timor and
several countries and
regions in Africa such as:
Niassa in Mozambique;
Congo; Zambezia;
Barotze (currently
Zâmbia); São Tomé e
Príncipe. Gago Coutinho
was also one of the
responsibles for the
definition of the border
between Angola and
Zaire. While he was
drawing these maps, he

6. Jaime Octávio de Magalhães Filipe was a
portuguese inventor and the pioneer of
Rehabilitation Engineering in Portugal. He has
also founded the portuguese inventor's
association, in 1970.
Jaimhe created several inventions, all of them
targetting better well-being for impaired citizens. He
invented a tactil vision system for blind people,
which was then commercialized by the american
company Telesensory. Jaime invented several
other mechanisms, for instance, the microphone
protections against wind (1951), the Orquestrola
(1959); an electrical wheelchair elevator (1981); an
electronic cane for blind (1986).
Curiosities: Jaime worked for
long with RTP, the national TV
broadcaster, as a sound
engineer. In 1978, he created
the TV show “Novos
Horizontes” , a programme
dedicated to innovation focused
on improving the life of impaired
citizens. In October 1990, Jaime
Filipe was awarded by the
portuguese government with the
degree of Grande-Oficial da
Ordem do Mérito, due to the
value of his contributions to
Portugal.