Ángela Ruíz Robles Talks

From her early days as a teacher, she realized that education was lagging behind the technological advances of the time. For that reason, her great ingenuity was focused on innovation, on discovering more creative and visual learning methods for her students.

In 1916 she created her first invention, a shorthand system that she perfected in the 1940s. In 2 of her books published in 1938 and 1941, she describes a shorthand system with which to write and translate faster thanks to a machine with new signs and characters linked in a simple and systematic way.

In 1949 she invented the “mechanical book”. In the patent (190698) it is described as a “mechanical, electrical and air-pressurized procedure for reading books”. It was a device for “intuitive, pleasant teaching and for quickly taking advantage of the moments when the attention could be fixed on a certain point”.

It consisted of plates on which areas could be pressed and, thanks to an electric circuit, illuminated text with explanations. In the patent he intended that the sheet was “luminous” and a magnifying system to facilitate reading. He did not obtain financing for its manufacture and paid the patent religiously until 1961.

From 1952 she was working on the “Encyclopaedia Mechanica”, more ambitious than the mechanical book. In this “encyclopedia” the contents of each subject are developed along strips of paper arranged on interchangeable reels. These rolls moved behind a transparent screen with optical qualities. It included surfaces to make notes and erase writing, alphabets to form syllables, words or small sentences, recorded sounds and from various compartments school drawing material and scientific instruments (clock, compass, thermometer, barometer).

In 1958 she published the Atlas Científico-Gramatical, where Spanish could be learned at the same time that the geography of Spain was known. The contents were shown relating the lessons of spelling, morphology, phonetics and syntax with the geography of the country.

She patented the “Mechanical Encyclopedia” in 1962 (patent 276346) and built her first prototype in the Artillery Park of Ferrol made of bronze (alphabets), wood (coils) and zinc (box).

In 1970 she had a proposal from the USA to manufacture her invention but she rejected it because she wanted it to be usable in Spain. In 1971, the Instituto Técnico de Especialistas en Mecánica Aplicada, S. A. (ITEMASA) made a feasibility plan for the product. It was intended to manufacture 10,000 units in steel and plastic, with a weight of 150 grams and a price between 50-75 pesetas (affordable to all families). But the amount of money (100,000 pesetas) that the inventor had to pay was beyond her means.

Doña Angelita, the pioneer of the electronic book, died in 1975 paying punctually the fees for her invention, which she was unable to develop and distribute.