María del Carmen Betancourt y Molina (1758 in

Los Realejos Los Realejos is a town and a municipality in the northern part of the island of Tenerife, which is the biggest of the Canary Islands. It is part of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain. The town is located from the north coast, southw ...

– 1824 in

Puerto de la Cruz Puerto de la Cruz is a city and municipality in the northern part of the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. It was formerly known by its English translation, "Port of the Cross", although now it is known by its Spanish name in all lang ...

) was a Spanish inventor based in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

, best remembered for her first design, an epicyclindrical machine for twining

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...

, developed alongside her brothers

Agustín de Betancourt Agustín de Betancourt y Molina ( rus, Августин Августинович де Бетанкур, r=Avgustin Avgustinovich de Betankur; french: Augustin Bétancourt; 1 February 1758 – 24 July 1824) was a prominent Spanish engineer, who wo ...

and Jose de Betancourt y Castro. The siblings presented her design of the epicylindrical machine to the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country of

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

, in 1778. In addition, she made the first tape of woven velvet on the island. She also worked on a recipe for dyes, betting on the modernization of the silk industry, thanks to her excellent knowledge of silkworms. For all these reasons, she is considered a science pioneer in the Canary Islands.

Biography

María del Carmen Betancourt y Molina was born the third of eleven siblings and she became a research enthusiast as a child. Her parents were Leonor de Molina y Briones, daughter of the Marquises of Villafuerte, and Agustín de Betancourt y Castro, mayorazgo of her house, knight of the

Order of Calatrava The Order of Calatrava ( es, Orden de Calatrava, pt, Ordem de Calatrava) was one of the four Spanish military orders and the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Orde ...

and lieutenant colonel of the Royal Armies. Her family was related to King Jean IV de Béthencourt, who, by participating in the conquest of the Canary Islands, obtained the title of Lord of the Canary Islands. Her father was a founding member of the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country of Tenerife in La Laguna. In 1778, it was precisely in the newly created Society that she presented her first design, an epicylindrical machine for twining silk, made in collaboration with her brother, Agustín de Betancourt y Molina. Despite being separated since the age of twenty, she maintained an ongoing epistolary relationship with her second brother, the prestigious Canarian engineer and inventor Agustín de Betancourt y Molina. They were both born in the same year, 1758, and also both died in the same year, 1824. Throughout her life she lived in the family home, directly involved in the problems generated by the silk manufacturing industry and the attempts to improve the quality and production of this practice. In addition to being co-author of the epicylindrical machine, she also presented to the Sociedad Económica de la Laguna, in 1779, the document entitled ''Economic method for fine crimson dyes'', which includes two recipes for silk dyes together with some samples of fabric dyed following recipe directions. She died unmarried in Puerto de la Cruz.

Questionable research

In practically all the relevant studies on the silk manufacturing industry on the island of Tenerife, María has been considered a Poor Clare Nun from La Orotava, but later evidence has been presented of the error of such an affirmation. Very probably her report on how to obtain the crimson color constitutes the first scientific report signed by a woman in the Canary Islands.

Legacy

In March 2018, the Government of the Canary Islands announced the creation of a line of subsidies that bears her name. The María del Carmen Betancourt y Molina research support program aims to encourage female leadership in this area.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:del Carmen Betancourt y Molina, María 1758 births 1824 deaths Spanish inventors People from Puerto de la Cruz 18th-century Spanish women 18th-century inventors Women inventors Tenerife