Madrid Científico (1894-1936): defensa de la ingeniería profesional, instrucción técnica y comunicación científica

Abstract

Madrid Científico was a tecno-scientific communication periodical published between 1894 and 1936 that has so far received almost no attention by historians of science. This comes as a surprise since it was a very successful journal aimed first at professional engineers but which soon became a science popularization journal for larger audiences. The editors managed to continue publishing issues for almost four decades without any institutional support, assuming the role of true advocates for Spanish professional engineers through critical and dissenting evaluation of their profession. This article conducts and analysis of the magazine’s contents and argues that a significant number of its editors and contributors considered themselves not only as specialists in the application of technical knowledge but also as “scientists” in the fullest sense of the term. It is inferred from this that civil and military engineers, both individually and collectively, played a prominent role in shaping public perceptions of science in Spain during the first third of the 20th century.