Ángela Ruiz Robles

Spanish inventor who created the first mechanical ebook precursor in 1949

Decades before Amazon's Kindle, Spanish teacher Ángela Ruiz Robles (1895-1975) invented the "Mechanical Encyclopedia" - a revolutionary device combining mechanical engineering with educational innovation. Her 1949 patent (#190,698) featured:

• Replaceable text spools with zoom capability
• Backlit displays for night reading
• Sound components for audiobooks
• Multilingual content compartments

This Galicia-born pioneer designed her device to "make learning interactive and accessible" during Spain's post-civil war educational crisis. Despite receiving international recognition at Brussels World Fair (1958), Franco's regime denied production funding due to her gender.

Ruiz Robles' prototypes demonstrated holographic projection concepts and modular content delivery decades before digital technology. Her later inventions included:

• Automatic alphabet machines for illiterate students
• Pressure-sensitive educational globes
• Color-coded language learning systems