Labor de Andrés Manuel del Río en México: profesor en el Real Seminario de Minería e innovador tecnológico en minas y ferrerías

Abstract

This article analyzes the scientific and technological training of Andrés del Río in Europe and, his professional activities in New Spain at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nine teenth century. I study his scientific practice at Mexico City’s Royal Mining Seminary as a form of culture; therefore, this research examines the «scientific practice» and goals of Andrés del Río from a historicist and cultural perspective. Del Río contributed to forge a scientific culture that became part of the collective imaginary in his new country of residence. However his direction in the draining of the Morán mines in the mining district of Real del Monte and the establishment of the ferrería (pre-industrial iron smelter) of Guadalupe in the Coalcomán highlands, in the former Michoacán Bishopric, allowed him to show his abilities as a technician and his skill in the design, projection and execution of two engineering projects (one hydraulic, the other industrial)—the first of their genre in the New World.