Rosario López

La idea de publicar este suplemento surgióen el tercer taller internacional del proyecto de investigación Civic Constellation que fue organizado en el Instituto para la Paz de las Islas Åland (Mariehamn, Finlandia) en septiembre de 2013. El Suplemento 20 de Contrastes. Revista Internacional de Filosofía reúne una selección de artículos reelaborados y revisados a partir de las comunicaciones inéditas que se presentaron en dicho taller, cuyo objetivo es reflexionar sobre los retos de la teoría democrática y los estudios de la ciudadanía.

Abstract“The Book of Secrets in the Results of Ideas”, usually called “The Book of Secrets” is a codex containing drawings and descriptions of thirty-one artifacts attributed to the engineer Alī Ibn Khalaf al-Murādī, who lived in Andalusia in southern Spain at the beginning of the 11th century. This manuscript is one of the first written testimonies that describe medieval mechanisms with complex precision. The aim of this work is to reconstruct and study from a historical and technological point of view two of the ancient artifacts contained in the “Book of Secrets”, the “Fortress Demolisher” and the “Magic Well”. The “Fortress Demolisher” is a war machine designed to demolish the upper part of the walls or towers and consists of a battering ram mounted on a platform that can be raised several meters above the ground using a scissor mechanism. The “Magic Well” is a mechanism with several pulleys whose purpose is to raise water several meters from the bottom of a well by collecting a small portion of rope. To reconstruct the two artifacts, a digital model and a detailed study of the geometry and operation of the mechanisms, were first carried out. 3D printing, using the Fused Deposition Modelling technology, made the physical reproduction. The digitization and physical reproduction by 3D printing of the mechanisms represent an update of the traditional ways of transmitting knowledge. The use of these new technologies makes the knowledge more accessible, understandable and attractive.

The first European settlements in the new world faced technical issues with the help of the XVI century scientific advances. Besides briefly exposing the scientific and technological situation, this paper explores, with the help of reverse engineering, two singular mechanical wits representative of the technological advances introduced in America to overcome different problems. Firstly, a pump, based on an alternative movement system through crankshafts and pistons used against the continuous flooding suffered in the Ciudad de México valley. Although flooding remained a problem (it was solved in the XX century), hydraulic pumps were essential for continuous soil drainage. Secondly, a port crane for handling cannons, military devices, and construction materials during the Lima fortification in the XVII century. For both cases, reverse engineering, through engineering methods, Computer-Aided Design CAD programs, and additive manufacturing, provides virtual and/or tangible mockups that help to analyze and improve our knowledge about the dimensions, materials, and functions of used (and currently lost) mechanical systems during the American colonization.

SummaryThis article presents a transcription of three brief unpublished essays written by Richard Cobden on Spain, Russia and Venice, along with a critical introduction. These three essays were written during Cobden's European tour, between 1846–47. Excluded from Miles Taylor's edition of the European Diaries, published in 1994, they have escaped scholarly attention. In the introduction I argue that the three essays deserve further study, either by themselves or as part of the European Diaries. Going beyond an anecdotal record of Cobden's activities, the essays concerning Spain, Venice, and Russia examine different economic and political issues of each context. Particularly since Cobden planned to write a theoretical work about free trade as linked to other aspects of society and politics, they can help to revise some interpretations of Cobden's liberalism where his ideas on free trade are overpowering.