Explore The Mechanical Encyclopaedia of Doña Angelita: A Visionary Exhibition on Educational Innovation

This exhibition celebrates Ángela Ruiz Robles (Doña Angelita), a Spanish schoolteacher and inventor ahead of her time. It explores her contributions to education, particularly her invention of the Mechanical Encyclopaedia, considered a precursor to the e-book.

This exhibition pays tribute to Ángela Ruiz Robles (Doña Angelita), a Spanish schoolteacher and inventor who lived from the 1920s to the 1960s in Galicia. A visionary ahead of her time, she dedicated a significant portion of her life to enhancing educational methods through innovative publications and technological inventions. Despite societal expectations and personal challenges as a working widow and mother, Doña Angelita pursued her passion, becoming an active inventor with several patents. Her most notable creation, the Mechanical Encyclopaedia, is now recognized as a precursor to the e-book, designed to modernize outdated teaching techniques and foster a more active, individual, and logical learning process for students. Doña Angelita's journey highlights her refusal to conform to the limited roles often imposed on women in early 20th-century Spain, a period marked by high illiteracy rates among females. Her inventions, including a simplified typewriting system, the Grammatical Atlas, and the Mechanical Encyclopaedia, were all geared towards making learning more human, dynamic, and understandable. The Mechanical Encyclopaedia, patented in 1949 and refined in a subsequent patent in 1962, was conceived as an interactive device that could update content, magnify text, and even use luminescent inks. The prototype on display represents a simplified version of her ambitious project. Doña Angelita continued to pay her patent fees until her death in 1975, demonstrating her unwavering belief in a new way of teaching and learning. Her Mechanical Encyclopaedia holds a significant place in the genealogy of electronic books, marking her as a true pioneer.

The exhibition is located at Espacio Fundación Telefónica, C/ Fuencarral, 3, Madrid. Opening hours are Monday to Thursday from 10:00 to 20:00, and Saturday, Sunday, and holidays from 11:00 to 20:00. Admission details are not specified but are implied to be part of the general museum access.