Pedro Paulet
Template:Short description Template:Family name hatnote Template:Infobox person Pedro Eleodoro Paulet Mostajo (2 July 1874 or 4 July 1875 – 30 January 1945) was a Peruvian diplomat and engineer. Some early rocket experts described him as a pioneer in aeronautics, saying that he was the first person to build a liquid-propellant rocket engine and modern rocket propulsion system, but his experiments were never independently verified.
Early life and educationEdit
Pedro Eleodoro Paulet Mostajo was born on 2 July 1874, to the well-esteemed family of Pedro Paulet and Antonia Mostajo y Quiroz in Tiabaya, Arequipa, Peru; his father died three years later.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn As a child, Paulet was fascinated with flight and combustion.Template:Sfn<ref name=":6">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> With the steam locomotives traveling through Arequipa, Paulet would try to learn how the large machines were propelled as a child.Template:Sfn He was sent to the San Vicente de Paul School by his mother, with the school being founded by the Lazarist French priest Hippolyte Duhamel.Template:Sfn After Duhamel gifted Paulet the 1865 French novel From the Earth to the Moon, an inspired Paulet would reportedly launch homemade rockets as a youth.<ref name=":6"/> His family reported that Paulet would make rockets by using leftover gunpowder from festivals, filling reeds coated with wax from his family's candles with the gunpowder and then tying it together with hemp string.Template:Sfn Sometimes he would tie the rockets to stones or pieces of metal to gauge their strength or have the rockets travel with live animals placed inside, observing the effects rocket travel had on them.Template:Sfn<ref name=":0" /><ref name="et">Template:Cite book</ref> Despite being scolded by his family due to bothering his neighborhood, Paulet would instead go to open fields where he would experiment on his own.Template:Sfn
By the age of fifteen, Paulet would begin to work with local pyrotechnicians, working with them to larger rockets with longer burn times.Template:Sfn He enrolled at the National University of Saint Augustine when he was seventeen, founding the Patriotic Society and the Artistic Center.Template:Sfn Paulet would show interest in the arts, being recognized as a skilled sculptor and painter, winning awards for his work.Template:Sfn He would and Paulet would graduate with a Bachelor of Science and Arts.Template:Sfn In late 1893, Paulet's mother would die.Template:Sfn Despite his interests in the arts, Paulet would continue to be fixated on the power of rockets and how they could be used for transportation.Template:Sfn
President Remigio Morales Bermúdez, who was personally impressed by the intellect of Paulet, provided a scholarship to him in 1894 to begin studies for a degree in engineering and architecture at the University of Paris.Template:Sfn In 1895, Paulet reportedly began to experiment with his rocket engine, using Panclastite for propulsion, as recommended by Marcellin Berthelot.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn When experimenting with combustible chemicals, Paulet reported he had to do so in secret due to prohibitions enforced by the police due to anarchist attacks in Paris.<ref name=":6" /> In one incident, he ruptured the eardrum in his left ear due to an explosion and was temporarily arrested upon suspicions of being an anarchist, though Berthelot was able to explain that Paulet was a student.Template:Sfn After explosive experiments were prohibited in university laboratories, Paulet was forced to perform experiments in the outskirts of Paris, seeking to find a cheaper and safer alternatives for fueling rockets.Template:Sfn In 1897, he became a member of the Société astronomique de France and reportedly began to experiment with the "Girándula Motriz", or "Power Gyro".<ref name=":6" />Template:Sfn The same year, he reportedly made a more stable rocket engine fueled by nitrogen peroxide and gasoline.Template:Sfn Due to the use of an oxidizing agent, the engine would have had the ability to function in the vacuum environment of outer space where oxygen is not present for combustion.Template:Sfn
Due to his fluency in English, French, German and Spanish, he served as a correspondent for various newspapers, including Le Figaro and La Petite République.Template:Sfn With these funds, Paulet was able to continue his studies and to travel to Northern Africa, the Middle East, Russia and the United States in search of ideas on rocketry.Template:Sfn In 1898, Paulet began his studies of industrial engineering at the Institute of Applied Chemistry at the University of Paris.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref name="life">Template:Cite news</ref> While attending the university, he would study under Charles Friedel, Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, exchanging ideas with them on the best methods to provide rocket propulsion.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Due to funding issues, loss of laboratory access and concerns with neighbors, Paulet ceased his experiments.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
During the Exposition Universelle in 1900, Paulet would serve as the Deputy Commissioner for the Peruvian delegation, designing the pavilion used at the exposition.<ref name=":6" />Template:Sfn He would become a member of the Société chimique de France and be bestowed the title of Officier de l'Instruction Publique of the Ordre des Palmes académiques by France the same year.<ref name=":6" />Template:Sfn The Peruvian government would also commission to create a plan to bring wireless telegraphy to Peruvian Amazonia in 1900, with his recommendations being utilized during the project.Template:Sfn In 1901, he would graduate with High Distinction in industrial engineering from the University of Paris.Template:Sfn
CareerEdit
Diplomatic workEdit
Paulet first served as chancellor of the Consulate of Peru in Paris.Template:Sfn He was named as the Peruvian Counsel in Antwerp in 1902, and served in the role for a few years.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Paulet designed a liquid-fueled "rocket engine" for the Avión Torpedo aircraft, with the proposal being in complete contrast to the intellectual interest in gunpowder rockets at the time.<ref name=":0" /> He would spend decades seeking funds for the project, though he ultimately did not find donors.<ref name=":0" />Template:Sfn
In 1904, he became the first director of the Escuela Nacional de Artes y Oficios, later known as the Instituto Superior Tecnológico Público José Pardo, after returning to Peru.<ref name=":6" />Template:Sfn He would review European institutions to develop a curriculum and purchase equipment for the school.Template:Sfn President José Pardo y Barreda would also task Paulet with constructing the Goyeneche Hospital, directing the El Peruano newspaper and reviewing new ships for the Peruvian Navy.<ref name=":6" />Template:Sfn He wrote about a proposed military submarine in September 1909.Template:Sfn<ref name="life" /> Encouraging Minister of War Pedro Muñíz to create an aviation organization after observing the feats of aircraft in Europe, Paulet would help found the National Pro-Aviation League, which would later be developed into the Peruvian Air Force.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn Paulet would provide a framework to head of the National Pro-Aviation League, Juan Bielovucic, focusing on providing aircraft to defend Peru.Template:Sfn
After knowing that he would not attain his dream of making a space vehicle while living in Peru, he decided to return to Europe.Template:Sfn Leaving Peru in 1910, Paulet married Louise Constance Wilquet Genion, in Brussels after returning to Europe to serve as the Counsel of Peru in Amsterdam.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Paulet and Louise would later have seven children together; Margarita, José, Héctor, Pedro, Cecilia, Luis and Megan.Template:Sfn During World War I, Paulet would mainly live in Paris and the health of his family would struggle due to the war, with two of his children, Margarita and José, dying due to ailments.Template:Sfn
The Paulet family would move to London in 1920 following the deaths of their children in an effort to recover from the tragedy, with Paulet opening a successful toy factory with funding from friends.Template:Sfn President Augusto B. Leguía would then appoint him as the counsel in Dresden, Germany in 1921, with Louise selling all the family's shares for the you company.Template:Sfn He would be moved to Amsterdam in 1923 and a year later in 1924, he was named the Counsel of Peru in Stavanger and Chargé d'Affaires in Oslo.Template:Sfn
Rocketry workEdit
Paulet's work was unknown prior to 27 October 1927, when the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio published a letter he wrote, in which he said that he conceived a "rocket airplane project" nearly 30 years prior.<ref name="McMurran2008">Template:Cite book</ref> Paulet said that his rocket motor was made of vanadium, weighed 2.5 kilos, was fueled by nitrogen peroxide and gasoline, which produced three hundred explosions per minute and had ninety kilograms of thrust.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn
Replying to comments in 1927 by Austrian inventor Max Valier discussing a rocket powered aircraft crossing the Atlantic Ocean faster than Charles Lindbergh, Paulet – the Peruvian counsel in Rotterdam at the time – criticized Valier's proposal and recommended an aircraft powered by liquid-propellant rockets, stating that he had made plans for a rocket-propelled aircraft thirty years prior.Template:Sfn Paulet's recommendation occurred at a time when news of Robert H. Goddard's 1926 liquid-propellant rocket launch was not notable, details about Goddard's work had not reached Europe and in fact, no liquid-propelled rockets had been launched yet in Europe.Template:Sfn A unique feature of Paulet's rocket design was its difference from Goddard's; unlike Goddard's rocket, Paulet's rocket utilized an intermittent fuel injection process that provided more efficiency and stability.Template:Sfn Paulet's description of past experiments would have made him the first person to create a liquid-propelled rocket, nearly three decades ahead of Goddard.<ref name=":3" /> Paulet stated that his experiments were "made, truly, without witnesses" and called on former classmates to defend his work.Template:Sfn<ref name=":3" />
According to the Paulet family, American businessman Henry Ford would also contact Paulet to discuss purchasing his inventions as rocket cars were popular at the time, though Paulet would refuse as he wanted to continue to pursue spaceflight.Template:Sfn Visiting the German rocket association Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR), Paulet's liquid-propelled rocket design was applauded by Valier for its strength.Template:Sfn The VfR would use Paulet's research throughout their publications in Germany<ref name=":3" /> and he would finally gain interest in his work from Nazi Germany.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> The Astronomische Gesellschaft invited Paulet to join the society in order to progress research in rocketry, though once he discovered that the program was primarily for a weapon, he refused to work with the government and never shared the formula to his liquid propellant.<ref name=":0" />
Later lifeEdit
In 1929, he was named Counsel General of Peru in Rotterdam and would continue work on his rocket designs with two Dutch engineers; Hans Doerr and a man named Philip.Template:Sfn Into the 1930s, Paulet promoted the development of Peru on the international stage, publishing an outline on how Germans could migrate to the nation and assist with its development.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He would continue to experiment on aircraft designs, formulating ideas of thermoelectric generators being placed on the exterior aircraft in 1930, focusing on the temperature difference between the cold exterior in the stratosphere and the warm interior of the vehicle.Template:Sfn In 1932, he was named Counsel General in Yokohama where he would write Modern Japan and its Economic Bases.Template:Sfn
He would return to Peru in 1935 with his family, all except for his oldest child Hector who had married a woman in Japan, with Paulet helping with the creation of the Commercial Department of the Chancellery.Template:Sfn He sought funding for creating a jet engine in Peru and the United Kingdom, although he was unsuccessful.Template:Sfn Paulet would be named Counsel General in Buenos Aires in 1941.Template:Sfn When Peru broke diplomatic relations with Japan during World War II, Paulet's engine was lost while in transit between Japan and Peru.Template:Sfn In 1944, Paulet stated that his rocket could fly up to 600 miles per hour in the outer atmosphere.Template:Sfn
Towards the end of his life, Paulet would experience tinnitus and dizziness due to previous damage to his ears, causing him great stress.Template:Sfn On 30 January 1945, upon receiving a telegram from Peru saying that he had reached the age limit of his diplomatic service, Paulet became upset and died of cardiac arrest in Buenos Aires, Argentina; he was found still clutching the telegram according to Ambassador Jacinto Rada.<ref name=":0" />Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
VeracityEdit
Paulet's work was accepted by some prominent experts in rocketry, but it was not independently verified.Template:Sfn Russian aviation writer<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Aleksander B. Sherschevsky supported Paulet, saying "The advent of the space age became a reality with the development of the propulsion engine and spacecraft designed and built by the Peruvian Pedro Paulet between 1899 and 1903."<ref name=":3" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Max Valier stated that Paulet's rocket engine had "amazing power" and that "the work of the Peruvian Paulet is most important for present projects leading to rocket ships, for it proved for the first time, in contrast to powder rockets burning only a few seconds, that by using liquid propellants, the construction of a rocket motor functioning for periods of hours would be feasible."Template:Sfn Some of the principal founders of NASA recognized Paulet as an inspiration according to BBC News.<ref name=":02">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1965, Hermann Oberth would describe Paulet as a pioneer in rocketry.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite book</ref> Frederick I. Ordway III and Wernher von Braun studied the veracity of Paulet's work during the 1960s.Template:Sfn Von Braun wrote that Paulet "is reputed to have experimented with a small, 5-pound rocket motor between 1895 and 1897", though von Braun noted that Paulet "would probably have gone unnoticed" without Scherschevsky's support.Template:Sfn
James H. Wyld would state that "the validity of his claim may be rather doubtful, but it is interesting, nevertheless, ... Paulet's device appears to have been the earliest example of a so-called bipropellant rocket motor ... His use of nitrogen peroxide as oxidizer also foreshadowed certain modern propellants such as nitric acid, and the set-up of his test stand was quite similar to types used in later years."Template:Sfn German science writer Willy Ley was one of the first people to express skepticism of Paulet and stated that "The doubts are obviously correct" in Grundriss einer Geschichte der Rakete, strongly criticizing Scherschevsky, calling him "lazy by nature" and "in favor of the Soviet government", stating that he "uncritically put hearsay into some of his articles, and into his one and only book."Template:Sfn Liquid propellant chemist John D. Clark also raised doubts about Paulet's nineteenth century experiments.<ref>John D. Clark, Ignition! (Rutgers UP: 1972), 7.</ref>
El Comercio published several artist's interpretations<ref name=":2" /> of the Paulet's designs on 10 March 1965, in the article A Peruvian Engineer is the World Forerunner of Jet Propulsion Aircraft.Template:Sfn Another article by El Comercio on 12 December cited Manuel del Castillo, president of the Organismo Nacional de Investigacions Espaciales, said to prove Paulet's work, citing Wyld June 1947 article, while admitting Wyld was simply translating A. B. Scherschevsky's Die Rakete für Fahrt und Flug.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite journal</ref> Noting that Paulet did not publish an account of his work until 1927 in the Lima newspaper, Wyld reiterated that "the validity of his [Paulet] claim is rather doubtful."<ref name=":2" />
LegacyEdit
A statue of Paulet is present in his home district of Tiabaya and in the Parque Domodossola of the Malecón de Miraflores.<ref name=":6" />Template:Sfn In 1995, the Peruvian Air Force constructs a mausoleum for Paulet at the Cementerio Presbítero Matías Maestro.Template:Sfn Paulet's Avión Torpedo was featured in a Google Doodle to commemorate the birthday of Pedro Paulet in 2011.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Peru, the National Commission for Aerospace Research and Development launched a series of rockets bearing Paulet's name.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Beginning in 2016, he was prominently featured on the 100 soles banknote of the Peruvian Nuevo Sol.<ref name=":0" />
AwardsEdit
- Template:Flag
- Officier de l'Instruction Publique of the Ordre des Palmes académiquesTemplate:Sfn
- File:Flag of Trujillo (Peru).svg Trujillo
- Gold Medal for his collaboration with constructing the Freedom MonumentTemplate:Sfn
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See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Works citedEdit
BibliographyEdit
External linksEdit
Template:Authority control [[Category:University of Paris alumni]