Agustín de Betancourt y Molina was born on February 1, 1758, and died on July 24, 1824. He was a Spanish engineer who worked in Spain, France, and Russia. His projects included steam engines, balloons, structural engineering, and urban planning. As an educator, Betancourt founded and managed the Spanish Corps of Civil Engineers and the Saint Petersburg Institute of Communications Engineers. As an urban planner and construction manager, he helped plan and build cities such as Saint Petersburg, Kronstadt, Nizhny Novgorod, and other Russian cities.
Childhood and education
De Betancourt was born on February 1, 1758, in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain. The Betancourt family in Tenerife can trace their family name back to Jean de Béthencourt, who started the colonization of the Canary Islands in 1402. However, Jean de Béthencourt himself had no children, and the family name was later carried by Native Canarians who were baptized with his name. Augustín’s father, also named Augustín de Betancourt y Castro, was a well-educated businessman who worked with textile machinery. His sister, Maria del Carmen Betancourt y Molina, was the first woman known to publish a scientific article in Tenerife, which was related to textile dyes.
In 1778, Augustín moved to Madrid to study engineering at the San Isidro Royal College and did not return to Tenerife again. After graduating in 1783, his first jobs involved work on the Aragon Canal and mining in Almadén. In 1784, he traveled to Paris to study hydraulics and mechanics at the School of Bridges and Roads.
Career in Spain and France
In France, Betancourt wrote books about engineering, such as those about coal mining. However, his main job was to look for new technologies to help Spain and to collect modern machines for a future Cabinet of Machinery in Madrid, which was planned by Chief Minister Floridablanca. In 1788, he traveled to England, where he visited James Watt and Matthew Boulton, who were important inventors of steam engines. Watt did not want to share his trade secrets, but Betancourt observed Watt's engines working in London mills. After returning to Paris, Betancourt wrote a book about steam engines and designed a steam-powered pump and a mechanical loom. He also sent a collection of machinery to Madrid. In 1791, he focused on naval technologies, such as harbor dredging and making gun barrels. His dredge design was used twenty years later in Kronstadt. Soon before the French monarchy fell, Betancourt returned to Madrid with his discoveries.
In 1792, Betancourt was named Director of the Royal Cabinet of Machinery. He organized hundreds of exhibits he had collected from France, England, and the Netherlands. From 1793 to 1795, he continued his work in England. This work stopped when Spain joined forces with revolutionary France in 1796. In Paris, Betancourt worked with Abraham-Louis Breguet to improve their version of an optical telegraph. However, the French later chose a different design by Claude Chappe. Betancourt built his own telegraph in Spain, connecting Madrid and Cádiz in 1798. In 1783, he helped launch Spain's first hot-air balloon, an event shown in a painting by A. Carnicero at the Prado National Museum.
In 1797, Betancourt was honored with several important roles, including Chief Inspector of Ports and Communications in Spain, Chief of the Corps of Engineers of the Spanish military, and other responsibilities. In 1802, he founded Spain's first civil engineering college, the School of the Corps of Engineers, and led the institution until 1807.
After the École Polytechnique opened in Paris in 1794, Gaspard Monge suggested a class on analyzing machines and shared the idea with other teachers. When the class began in 1806, taught by Hachette, Betancourt was one of the students. Another student was José María Lanz, whose notes were revised and published with Betancourt as Essai sur la composition des machines (1808; 2nd ed. 1819; 3rd ed. 1840). Monge and Hachette encouraged this work. The textbook became widely used in European universities and was translated into English as Analytical Essay of the Construction of Machines (1820) and into German as Versuch über die Zusammensetzung der Maschinen (1829).
In 1807, Betancourt left Spain for Paris, where he was admitted to the French Academy of Sciences. Interestingly, James Watt was also admitted at the same time. Betancourt was recruited by Ivan Muravyov-Apostol, a Russian ambassador to Spain until 1806, and moved to Saint Petersburg in 1808.
Career in Russia
Betancourt joined the Russian military as a Major General and was assigned to the Directorate of Communications. His first known work was the famous fountain in Tsarskoye Selo, completed in 1810. The fountain’s sculpture was created by Pavel Sokolov, and Alexander Pushkin later wrote poetry about it. In 1816, Betancourt was promoted to lead the Commission for Construction and Hydraulics, a national organization focused on developing Saint Petersburg. He also headed the Directorate of Communications starting in 1819. During this time, he trained and hired architects such as Auguste de Montferrand and Leo Carboniere.
Between 1811 and 1813, Betancourt built Saint Petersburg’s first bridge across the Malaya Nevka River, connecting Kamenny Island to Aptekarsky Island. This bridge, now called the Kamennoostrovsky Bridge, was made of wood and had seven spans. It was named after Betancourt and remained standing for 50 years, surviving the 1824 flood, which destroyed other wooden bridges. He designed similar bridges in Warsaw, Tula, and Peterhof.
In 1816, Emperor Alexander I of Russia asked Betancourt to find an architect to rebuild Saint Isaac’s Cathedral. Betancourt recommended Montferrand, and in February 1818, the Tsar approved Montferrand’s fifth design for the cathedral. Betancourt helped create a dome design using three connected steel domes without any stone vaults. Construction of the cathedral was delayed until Betancourt’s death, and the dome was completed in 1841.
In Moscow, Betancourt oversaw the construction of the Moscow Manege, finished in 1817. The building, which is 166 meters long and 44.7 meters wide, required a roof with no internal support columns. Betancourt personally designed the wooden roof trusses and completed the project in six months. By 1824, the roof needed replacement, and new trusses were installed in 1824–1825. These trusses remained until a fire in 2004.
In 1816, a fire destroyed the Makaryev Fair. The fair was moved to Nizhny Novgorod, where temporary wooden buildings were used. Betancourt visited the site in 1817 and proposed a four-year, six-million-ruble plan to rebuild the fair in stone. He managed the overall planning and funding, while Montferrand designed individual buildings and groups of structures. Betancourt traveled to Nizhny Novgorod annually to check on progress. The Saviour Cathedral, also called the Old Fair Cathedral, was designed by Betancourt and Montferrand together. It was completed in 1822, the same year the Nizhny Novgorod Fair opened. The fair operated until 1930.
Betancourt also designed other buildings in Nizhny Novgorod, including the city jail, three brick foundries, and helped preserve two old churches. His master plan guided the development of the left bank of the Oka River throughout the 19th century.
In 1815, Betancourt and Charles Baird jointly designed Russia’s first steamship, the Yelizaveta. In 1810, Betancourt completed a steam-powered dredge, which was used to deepen the waters around Kronstadt and build a canal connecting the island to Izhorsky foundries on the mainland. He could not immediately patent the dredge because Russian patent laws were not created until 1812. Eventually, the patent was given to someone else.
After the French invasion of Russia in 1812, the Russian money system was damaged by war costs and fake bills. Dmitry Guriev, the Minister of Finance, asked Betancourt to create a modern currency printing facility. By 1816, Betancourt studied existing printshops and convinced the government to build a new factory with steam-powered machines. He designed the buildings, machines, and production process, using his childhood experience in textile mills. The new printshop, now called Saint Petersburg Goznak, opened in 1818.
Betancourt is credited with designing Russia’s first modern highway between Saint Petersburg and Moscow, as well as many industrial projects, such as the Tula and Kazan armouries. In 1809, he founded the Saint Petersburg Institute of Communications Engineers, the nation’s first engineering college, and led the institute until 1824.
Final years
In 1822, Betancourt was no longer in a favorable position at the court and lost his role as Director of Communications, but he kept other government jobs. In 1823, he suffered the death of his only daughter and never fully recovered from this loss. In February 1824, he finally resigned from his positions and died on July 14, 1824, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He was buried at the Smolensk Lutheran cemetery in Saint Petersburg. His tomb, a 6.85-meter iron column, was created by Auguste de Montferrand and funded by a merchant group from Nizhny Novgorod. In 1979, his remains were moved to the Lazarevskoe Cemetery in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Saint Petersburg has three monuments honoring Betancourt: one on University Embankment, one at the Communications University, and one inside the Goznak currency printshop. Betancourt's Medal is an annual award started in 1997 by Russian Railways to recognize outstanding achievements in science and education.