Pedro Ruiz Gallo

 

Pedro Ruiz Gallo

Oil painting in the Aeronautical Museum of Peru

Born   June 24, 1838

Biography

Etén, Chiclayo, Peru

Died    April 24, 1880 (aged 41)

Callao, Peru

Years of service         1848–1880

Known for     Several inventions, including the Great Clock of Lima

Battles/wars 

Chincha Islands War

War of the Pacific

Pedro Ruiz Gallo (Etén, June 24, 1838 – Callao, April 24, 1880) was a Peruvian polymath, serving as a soldier and inventor, also working as a watchmaker, mechanic, musician, painter, researcher, doctor, and explorer,[1] nationally considered one of the forerunners of modern aeronautics[2] and patron of the Peruvian Army's engineering branch.[3] He was the creator of the monumental clock that was located in the Parque de la Exposición, which was looted by Chilean troops during the War of the Pacific.

 

Early life

He was born in the then Villa de Eten in 1838, his parents were the Spanish colonel Pedro Manuel Ruiz and Juliana Gallo,[4] when he was still a very young boy he lost his father and shortly after when he was just 11 years old his mother, this situation forced him to leave his small hometown to go to the city of Chiclayo where he began working as a watchmaker's assistant, a hobby that would interest him for the rest of his life.

 

Military career

Since his childhood Ruiz had felt attracted to mechanics but moved by his military vocation, he moved to Lima at the age of 15 to enlist in the army, entering in 1854.[4] Due to his merits and recognized intelligence, he quickly rose in rank. the arms race being that in 1855 he already held the rank of captain serving as an assistant in the prefecture of the department of Amazonas, where he carried out many explorations and studies in the still unknown Peruvian jungle, even exploring the Pongo de Manseriche.[4] He also mapped the course of the Marañón River and one of its tributaries, the Cahuapanas River. During this period he also dabbled in medicine, achieving the discovery of bovine fluid against smallpox with which he managed to create an efficient vaccine.[5] During his stay in Chachapoyas he built a public clock that he donated to the main church of that city.

 

In 1865 he was promoted to major graduate and when the revolution of General Mariano Ignacio Prado began that same year, and which would later lead to the war against Spain, he joined the restorative army that marched to Lima and overthrew President Juan Antonio Pezet, to then fight in the combat of May 2[4] against the Spanish squadron; after this action he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

After the war ended with the withdrawal of the Spanish squadron from South American waters, Ruiz was able to dedicate himself entirely to his engineering projects,[4] including his ambitious project of building a great clock for the Peruvian capital, which he achieved under the patronage of then-President José Balta who appointed him attached to the General Staff and financed his work, despite the opposition and criticism that his work received, the inventor continued serene and persevering, being that on December 6, 1870, a few days before celebrating a new anniversary of the Battle of Ayacucho and before the admiration in general, its monumental clock was inaugurated in the gardens of the Exhibition in front of the Palace of the same name.[5]

 

The Pedro Ruiz Gallo clock was for many years one of the biggest attractions in Lima. Despite successfully completing his greatest work, the already famous inventor never abandoned his scientific studies, now turning to aeronautics, publishing in 1878 Estudios Generales sobre la Navegación Aérea y Resolución de este importante problema, a work in which he raised the construction of a flying machine moved by mechanical propulsion that would allow man to conquer the skies,[2] imitating the way that birds fly.[4] However, these studies would have to be cut short when on April 5, 1879, the Chilean government declared war on Peru, beginning the so-called War of the Pacific.

Pedro Ruiz Gallo created an ingenious watch in 1870 that told time in intricate detail. Over 11 meters tall and 16 meters wide, the watch displayed the days, months, years, moon phases, and seasons. It also hoisted the Peruvian flag at 5am and 5pm while playing the national anthem. However, after being displayed in Lima for over 10 years, the Chilean army dismantled the complex watch during their 1881 occupation and took it as a war prize, though nobody in Chile could repair its mechanisms.

Great Clock of Lima

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Great Clock of Lima

 

1872 photograph by Eugenio Courret

The Great Clock of Lima (Spanish: Gran Reloj de Lima),[1] also known as the Pedro Ruiz Gallo clock (Spanish: Reloj de Pedro Ruiz Gallo) after its inventor, was a monumental clock created by Pedro Ruiz Gallo, and which was installed in the Parque de la Exposición in 1870 for the celebration of the Exhibition of 1872. The watch disappeared during the occupation of Lima by the Chilean Army in the War of the Pacific.[2]

 

History

 

The clock (far right) in the park.

After the Spanish-South American War, colonel and inventor Pedro Ruiz Gallo was able to dedicate himself entirely to the ambitious project of building a great clock for the Peruvian capital, which he achieved under the patronage of then-President José Balta, who appointed him attached to the General Staff and financed his work. To carry out the mechanism, he obtained a budget of S/.31,000 from the Peruvian State, to which he added some S/.10,000 from his own pocket.[1][3]

 

Despite the opposition and criticism that his work received, after 6 years of work he was able to inaugurate his mechanical work on December 6, 1870, at 00:00, a few days before the anniversary of the Battle of Ayacucho was celebrated, before the admiration of the public gathered in the gardens in front of the Palacio de la Exposición.[3][4][5][6]

 

The clock was one of the main attractions of the International Exhibition of 1872 held in Lima, where various representative objects of the Andean country were exhibited, as well as machinery that indicated the Peruvian progress generated from the economic boom for the export of guano.[7] It remained at the Palace of the Exhibition, which served as its location for ten years, until the War of the Pacific led to the occupation of Lima in 1881.

 

Theories about its destruction

The clock was exposed in the park for about 10 years. During the occupation of Lima by the Chilean Army, various facilities such as the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos, the National Library or the Palacio de la Exposición were used as barracks by the invading troops. One of the theories about the fate of the watch suggests that after being disassembled it was taken as war booty by order of Patricio Lynch, however once in Chile it could not be put into operation.[5] According to Jorge Basadre, its inventor removed essential parts of the mechanism to render it useless so that the enemy could not rebuild it once it was transferred to Santiago de Chile.[6][2]

 

Another theory suggests that the clock was not transferred to Chile, but that its machinery was destroyed by the victorious army and its structure used as a home for the officers of the troops stationed in the Parque de la Exposición. Once the troops withdrew, they reduced the invention to ashes.[1][3]

 

 

Later life and death

In 1879, Pedro Ruiz Gallo returned to the arms race and after the loss of the Huáscar monitor in the naval combat of Angamos and obtained control of the sea by the Chilean squadron, he directed his efforts to the manufacture of torpedoes to be used against the blocking squad that had already appeared in front of Callao.

 

Thus, he died on April 24, 1880, when an explosion ended his life, caused due to an accident while working on an experimental torpedo in a workshop in the Ancón balneario, north of Callao.[4]

 

His body was buried in the Baquíjano del Callao Cemetery, where it remained until April 24, 1940, when, during the government of Manuel Prado Ugarteche, it was ordered that it be transferred to the Crypt of the Heroes of the War of the Pacific, where it currently rests.

With affection,

Ruben