María del Carmen Betancourt y Molina facts for kids

María del Carmen Betancourt y Molina (born 1758 in Los Realejos – died 1824 in Puerto de la Cruz) was a Spanish inventor. She lived in the Canary Islands. She is best known for her first invention. This was a special machine for twisting silk threads. She created it with her brothers, Agustín de Betancourt and Jose. They showed their machine to a group called the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country of Tenerife in 1778.

María also made the first woven velvet tape on the island. She worked on recipes for dyes too. She wanted to make the silk industry better. She knew a lot about silkworms. Because of all her work, she is seen as a science pioneer in the Canary Islands.

Her Life Story

María del Carmen Betancourt y Molina was the third of eleven children. She loved to research things from a young age. Her parents were Leonor de Molina y Briones and Agustín de Betancourt y Castro. Her father was an important person in his family. He was also a soldier and a founding member of the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country of Tenerife. This group was in La Laguna.

In 1778, María showed her first invention there. It was a machine for twisting silk. She made it with her brother, Agustín de Betancourt y Molina.

María and her brother Agustín were born in the same year, 1758. They also both died in 1824. Even though they lived apart after María was twenty, they wrote many letters to each other. María lived in her family home her whole life. She worked hard to solve problems in the silk industry. She always tried to make silk production better.

Besides helping create the silk twisting machine, María also shared another important paper. In 1779, she presented a document called Economic method for fine crimson dyes. This paper included two recipes for dyeing silk. She also showed samples of fabric dyed with her recipes.

She died in Puerto de la Cruz and never married.

Clearing Up a Mistake

For a long time, many studies said that María was a Poor Clare Nun from La Orotava. But later, people found proof that this was wrong. It is very likely that her report on how to make the color crimson was the first science report signed by a woman in the Canary Islands.

Her Lasting Impact

In March 2018, the Government of the Canary Islands started a new program. It gives money to support research. This program is named after María del Carmen Betancourt y Molina. It aims to help women become leaders in science and research.

See also

In Spanish: María del Carmen Betancourt y Molina para niños