Don Antonio de Ulloa y de la Torre-Giralt
1716-1795
Commonly known as Antonio de Ulloa, he
was a Spanish mathematician and explorer, who with his colleagues was
commissioned by the French Academy of Sciences in 1735 to travel to
New Granada (northern South America) to measure a degree of meridian
at the equator to determine whether the earth bulged at the poles (as
predicted by Newton) or at the poles (as predicted by Cassini and Descartes).
He stayed in New Granada 1736-1744. He wrote an account of his travels
and described "platina de pinto" (silver of the Pinto River),
a metal which was difficult to work and which was eventually known as
platinum. Since
he was the first to write of this metal and brought samples back to
Europe, he is recognized as the "discoverer" of platinum.
He was responsible for bringing back the first cinnamon and rubber trees
to the Old World. |
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