TIMELINE

1902

  • An american reported publishes in a bunch of USA newspaper a report about the generator of Figuera. This report is read by Nikola Tesla who make a reference to Figuera´s invention (9th of june of 1902) (link)
  • Figuera filed 4 patents ( 30375, 30376, 30377, 30378 ) in the 20th of september of 1902. Those patents have also as inventor to Pedro Blasberg, in some places written Pedro Blasberge. As anecdote just to note that Blasberg was a young electrician working with Figuera. Years later he got the charge of director of the gas factory in the  Canary Islands. A coincidence or just a way to keep him quiet?
  • A telegram publish in by the director of a local newspaper in the Canary Island is sent by Figuera stating the sale of the patents to a banking union. (25th of september of 1902). Note that Figuera sold in a short time the patent to the banking union. They had probably agreed the sale before, and Figuera just filed to patents to have an official document to be sold in the contract.
  • No further references to this story are available in the next moths or years. Recent research in the bulletin of the patent office shows that those patents were abandoned for lack of answer by the new owner (the banking union) to some requirement by the Patent Office. As the four patents had some formal requirements without being fulfilled, none were published openly for the common public.

1907

  • A document has been found where Figuera makes a contract with two people to get financial support for commercializing his generator in the next years. Figuera sell the 60% of the new generator to those people. This document is attached to the 1908 patent as proof of ownership of the patent by the financial partners who signed the contract.

1908

  • A new patent is filing by Figuera in the 30th of october of 1908 (patent no. 44267) . Although the patent is done by Figuera as inventor, the document is presented in the patent office by Constantino de Buforn.
  • Clemente Figuera died on the 2nd of november of 1908. My personal opinion is that he could be ill, or near to death, and this fact precipitated the filing of the 1908 patent. Probably Figuera was forced to file the patent because of the contract that he signed with those two financial partners in 1907

1910 to 1914

  • Buforn filed 5 more patents as inventor (no. 47706, 50216, 52968, 55411 and 57955). All those 5 patent are almost identical between them and practically a perfect copy of the 1908 patent. Buforn even used the same figure as Figuera in his 1908 and he even used the same text in some of their patents. As proof it is included in this site the translation of his last patent from 1914.

Final thoughts

There are many empty spaces in the story of Clemente Figuera´s invention. What happened to the 1902 patents? (I guess you think the same as me…) Why is not there a working generator among us after passing more than 100 years? There are many questions waiting for answers. What it seems to be a fact is that many witnesses and reporters watched that machine running in 1902 powering his house, and 20 HP motor, and the sparse electricity used to power the streetlights around his house. Also we have a Test of Practical Implementation of the Machine approved by the Patent Office. And finally we have references to a deep involvement on this project at least from 1902 to 1914 . More that 12 long years dealing with the development of this generator. For me this is more that enough to assure that there were a huge invention under all this stories.

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