Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão (December 1685 – 18 November 1724) was a Portuguese priest and

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

from

Colonial Brazil Colonial Brazil (), sometimes referred to as Portuguese America, comprises the period from 1500, with the Discovery of Brazil, arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to a United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves ...

who was a pioneer of

lighter-than-air A lifting gas or lighter-than-air gas is a gas that has a density lower than normal atmospheric gases and rises above them as a result, making it useful in lifting lighter-than-air aircraft. Only certain lighter-than-air gases are suitable as lift ...

aerostat design, being among the first scholars at that time to understand the operational principles of the hot air

balloon A balloon is a flexible membrane bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. For special purposes, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), ...

and to build a functional prototype of such device. He is also one of the main characters in Nobel Prize-winning

José Saramago José de Sousa Saramago (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese writer. He was the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony ith which ...

's ''Baltasar and Blimunda''.

Early life

Gusmão was born at Santos, then part of the Colonial Brazil">Portuguese colony of Brazil. He began his novitiate">Colonial_Brazil.html" ;"title="Santos, São Paulo">Santos, then part of the Colonial Brazil">Portuguese colony of Brazil. He began his novitiate in the Society of Jesus at Bahia when he was about fifteen years old, but left the order in 1701. He went to Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal and found a patron at Lisbon in the person of the Marquis of Abrantes. He completed his course of study at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...

, devoting his attention principally to

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

and

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, but received the title of Doctor of Canon Law (related to Theology). He is said to have had a remarkable memory and a great command of languages.

Airship

In 1709, he presented a petition to King João V of Portugal, seeking royal favour for his invention of an airship, in which he expressed the greatest confidence. The contents of this petition have been preserved, together with a picture and description of his

airship An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the ...

. Developing the ideas of

Francesco Lana de Terzi Francesco Lana de Terzi (1631 in Brescia, Lombardy – 22 February 1687, in Brescia, Lombardy) was an Italian Jesuit priest, mathematician, naturalist and aeronautics pioneer. Having been professor of physics and mathematics at Brescia, he fi ...

, S.J., Gusmão wanted to spread a huge sail over a boat-like body like the cover of a transport wagon; the boat itself was to contain tubes through which, when there was no wind, air would be blown into the sail by means of bellows. The vessel was to be propelled by the agency of magnets which were to be encased in two hollow metal balls. The public test of the machine, which was set for 24 June 1709, did not take place. It is known that Gusmão was working on this principle at the public exhibition he gave before the Court on 8 August 1709, in the hall of the

Casa da Índia The Casa da Índia (; English language, English: ''India House'' or ''House of India'') was a Portuguese state-run enterprise, state-run commercial organization during the Age of Discovery. It regulated international trade and the Portuguese Emp ...

in Lisbon, when he propelled a small balloon to the roof using combustion from a flame. The king rewarded the inventor by appointing him to a professorship at

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...

and made him a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

. He was also one of the fifty selected as members of the ''Academia Real de História'', founded in 1720; and in 1722 he was made chaplain to the Court. Gusmão also busied himself with other inventions, but in the meantime continued his work on his airship schemes, the idea for which he is said to have conceived while a novice at Bahia. His designs included a ''ship to sail in the air'' consisting of a triangular gas-filled pyramid, but he died without making progress.

Persecution

One account of Gusmão's work suggests that the

Portuguese Inquisition The Portuguese Inquisition (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Inquisição Portuguesa''), officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal in 15 ...

forbade him to continue his aeronautic investigations and persecuted him because of them, but this is probably a later invention. It dates, however, from at least the end of the 18th century, as the following article in the London ''Daily Universal Register'' (later ''The Times'') of 20 October 1786, makes clear: Contemporary documents do attest that information was laid before the Inquisition against Gusmão, but on quite another charge. The inventor fled to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and fell ill of a fever, of which he died in Toledo. He wrote: ''Manifesto summário para os que ignoram poderse navegar pelo elemento do ar'' (''Short Manifesto for those who are unaware that is possible to sail through the element air'', 1709); and ''Vários modos de esgotar sem gente as naus que fazem água'' (''Several ways of draining, without people, ships that leak water'', 1710); some of his sermons also have been printed.

Legacy

In 1936, the Bartolomeu de Gusmão Airport was built in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, by the

Luftschiffbau Zeppelin Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH is a German aircraft manufacturing company. It is perhaps best known for its leading role in the design and manufacture of rigid airships, commonly referred to as ''Zeppelin, Zeppelins'' due to the company's prominence ...

to operate with the

rigid airship A rigid airship is a type of airship (or dirigible) in which the Aerostat, envelope is supported by an internal framework rather than by being kept in shape by the pressure of the lifting gas within the envelope, as in blimps (also called pres ...

s Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg. In 1941, it was taken over by the

Brazilian Air Force The Brazilian Air Force (, FAB) is the air branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces and one of the three national uniformed services. The FAB was formed when the Brazilian Brazilian Army Aviation (1919–1941), Army and Brazilian Naval Aviation, Nav ...

and renamed Santa Cruz Air Force Base. Presently, the airport serving

Araraquara Araraquara ( ) is a city in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo in Brazil. The population is 250,314 (2022 est.) in an area of . It is also known as "the abode of the sun," because of its impressive sunset and because of its hot atmospher ...

is named Bartolomeu de Gusmão Airport.

In popular culture

* ''Passarola Rising'' by Azhar Abidi * '' Baltasar and Blimunda'' by