Juan Bautista Medici was an Italian engineer. He was born in Piedmont Italy in 1843 and died in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

in 1903. Three years before his death he was awarded a US patent for construction of navigable channels at the mouth of the Mississippi. Although the patent was never realized, it would have radically reconfigured the

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also re ...

Career

Medici arrived in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

around 1870, after working on Italian railways and works for the provision of potable water to the city

Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, together with the English engineer Newman. In

, Medici surveyed part of the city, commissioned by the national government. He took other jobs, including the construction of a gas manufacturing plant. Together with Newman, he assumed leadership of city sanitation and built the seawall and Catalinas dam. Together with Argentine engineer Lavalle, he surveyed and leveled 175.000 square kilometers of Buenos Aires, accompanying the project work with an extensive network of water management channels; two of those channels were navigable. This project was awarded a gold medal at the it:Esposizione italo-americana. After the city of

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

was founded in 1882, with Lavalle he proposed the leveling and layout of the new capital as well as the provision of water and sanitation. With Lavalle, he initiated construction of the port of La Plata. He finished that work. He only sanitation works of the Federal Capital, which had begun with Newman and had stopped for financial reasons in 1878. His other works, included water purification installations and outbuildings, and the running water palace, located in Cordoba and

Riobamba Riobamba (, full name San Pedro de Riobamba; Quechua: ''Rispampa'') is the capital of Chimborazo Province in central Ecuador, and is located in the Chambo River Valley of the Andes. It is south of Ecuador's capital Quito and located at an eleva ...

. In 1900 he patented a system for construction of navigable channels at the mouth of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. Medici also fostered vineyards the province of San Juan. He died in Buenos Aires in 1903.Petriella, Dionisio. Los italianos en la historia del progreso argentino. Buenos Aires: Asociaci�n Dante Alighieri, 1985.

References

Sources

* * * Petriella, Dionisio. Los italianos en la historia del progreso argentino. Buenos Aires: Asociaci�n Dante Alighieri, 1985. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Medici, Juan Argentine civil engineers 1843 births 1903 deaths Italian emigrants to Argentina