Julio Cervera Bavaria

Julio Cervera Baviera (Segorbe, January 26, 1854 - Madrid, June 24, 1927) was an engineer and commander who studied Physical Sciences at the University of Valencia. He was a cavalry cadet in Valladolid, joining the Guadalajara School of Military Engineers in 1878.

In 1877 he traveled to Morocco and published a book titled "Military Geography of Morocco" (1884). The Navy commissioned him to continue exploring the area and he published the work "Geographic-Military Expedition to the Interior and Coasts of Morocco" (1885).

In 1886, with the sponsorship of the Spanish Society of Commercial Geography, Cervera led the scientific expedition to Western Sahara together with the geologist Francisco Quiroga and the interpreter Felipe Rizzo.

During the Spanish-American War of 1898, he was charged with the defense of Guamaní, a hill that dominates the road between Cayey and Guayama, having its climax in the battle of the same name (August 9, 1898), in the who managed to move to Aibonito to the Asomante neighborhood to strengthen the communications facilities and repel an attack by North American troops, this event becoming known as "combate of Asomante". The town of Aibonito, with its plaza and church, is the one with the highest altitude above sea level in Puerto Rico, allowing a strategic position for greater visibility of the northern coast (Atlantic Ocean) in San Juan and that of Ponce (Caribbean Sea).) to the south of the Island. At this point, a heliograph was established in the sector known as La Torre to maintain communication between San Juan and Ponce. After the war he became famous by publishing a pamphlet, The Defense of Puerto Rico , in which, with the intention of favoring General Macías, he attacked the Puerto Rican volunteers.

In 1899, once the war was over and he was already focusing on his role as an engineer, he worked for 3 months with Guillermo Marconi and his assistant, George Kemp. He obtained his first patents in wireless telegraphy before the end of the year.

According to the professor at the University of Navarra, Ángel Faus, one of the most notable patents is that of remote control of equipment and systems, the predecessor of the remote control. Ángel Faus, in his work The Radio in Spain. 1896-1977, attributes the invention of the first technical system of radio to Julio Cervera.

Julio Cervera, according to the latest research, developed radio eleven years before Marconi. It is true that the Italian invented wireless telegraphy before Cervera, but to transmit signals, not sound. Cervera transmitted the human voice - and not signals - wirelessly between Javea (Alicante) and Ibiza in 1902, which meant the connection of two points about 85 kilometers apart.

However, it must be taken into account that 15 years before Marconi and 4 years before Julio Cervera, Nikola Tesla had already made several demonstrations and publications of the principles of radio. After Marconi's usurpation in the patent, Nikola Tesla took Marconi to court, winning the lawsuit before the US Supreme Court and remaining the true inventor of the radio.

Another notable contribution was the creation in 1903 of the International Electrotechnical Institution in Valencia, which gave degrees of mechanical engineer, electrician and mechanical-electrician, called free. It was one of the first distance education experiences in the world. In 1908 it was renamed Technical Education Institution offering courses on disk. He published the magazine Electricity and Mechanics from 1905 until at least 1920.

He was also the creator of the design of the old Tenerife tram.

In addition, he wrote a book about two territories of African Spain, "La Isla del Perejil and Santa Cruz de Mar Pequena", his opinions being prophetic.

Private life

In 1883 she married Desamparados Giménez Baviera with whom she had three children, two girls - Amparo and Pilar - and a boy who died prematurely.

Cervera was a liberal republican, personal friend of Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla. In 1881 he was a Republican candidate for the Segorbe district in the Cortes, but suffered an arrest that prevented his effective participation. After several attempts, in 1908, he obtained a deputy's certificate for Valencia as a member of the Radical Republican Party.

An illustrious Mason, he founded a lodge in his native Segorbe. In 1890, he established a Masonic obedience in Morocco that eventually had 12 lodges and two hundred members. A year later this organization was integrated into the Gran Oriente Español.

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