Federico Cantero Villamil facts for kids
Federico Cantero Villamil (born June 22, 1874, in Madrid – died 1946) was a famous Spanish civil engineer. He is best known for building and planning many dams along the Duero river. He also did important research in aviation, which led to him building his own helicopter called the Libélula española.
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Early Life and Career
Federico Cantero Villamil came from a family of engineers. His father, Federico Cantero Seirullo, was also a civil engineer.
Federico became an engineer on September 30, 1896, and he was the top student in his class. He started working in Zamora in 1897. By 1900, he was working for the Public Works department in Zamora. He soon decided to focus on hydraulics, which is the study of how water moves and how to use its power. At this time, Spain and Portugal were looking for ways to use the Duero river's power to make electricity.
Building Big Dams
In 1899, Federico Cantero Villamil started a group called "El porvenir de Zamora" (The Prospect of Zamora). Their goal was to get money and build the San Roman dam near Zamora. This dam was finished in 1903.
The San Roman dam used a natural bend in the Duero river, which was about 11.2 kilometers long. Cantero built a 1.5-kilometer tunnel to connect the river on one side of the bend to the other. This clever design created a 14-meter drop in water level for the turbines, even though the dam itself was only 5 meters high. This allowed them to generate a lot of power.
He also designed a big plan called the "Solución española de los Saltos del Duero" (Spanish Solution for the Duero Falls). This plan showed where all the dams on the Spanish side of the Duero river should be built. He then oversaw the actual building of some of these dams. He also designed other dams on the Duratón and Eresma rivers.
In 1945, he even got a patent for a new type of gate for dams. These gates could be opened and closed using the water from the canal or dam itself.
Connecting Cities by Rail
In 1913, Federico Cantero Villamil suggested building a railway line connecting Zamora and Ourense. This railway would pass through Puebla de Sanabria. It was a very difficult engineering project for its time.
The plan included more than 100 tunnels! One of the most famous was the Padornelo tunnel, which was 6 kilometers long. The railway was built between 1921 and 1957. It was designed to have two tracks, but only one was built.
Flying Machines: The Helicopter
Even though dams were his main work, Federico Cantero Villamil was also very interested in flying. Since 1908, he had been getting patents for inventions in aeronautics. He wanted to solve the problem of how to make things fly.
In 1910, he patented an "idea to hold bodies in the air, and, if wanted, propulsion." Over the years, he got 34 more patents related to flight. His last patents were for the helicopter he built, which he called the Libélula española (Spanish Dragonfly).
Cantero started building this helicopter in 1936, hoping to be one of the first to successfully fly a helicopter. At the same time, Igor Sikorsky was also working on his own helicopter. Unfortunately, the Spanish Civil War started that year. Cantero was in Zamora, but his helicopter stayed in Madrid, which was in a different zone of the war.
By October 1941, the helicopter was ready for testing. However, the results of these tests were lost. As Sikorsky successfully tested his helicopter in 1938, Cantero's dream of being the first to fly a helicopter slowly faded.
See also
In Spanish: Federico Cantero para niños
