Maria de Betancourt y Molina

Life & Legacy

María del Carmen Betancourt y Molina (1758 in Los Realejos – 1824 in Puerto de la Cruz) was a Spanish inventor based in the Canary Islands, best remembered for her first design, an epicyclindrical machine for twining silk, developed alongside her brothers Agustín de Betancourt and Jose de Betancourt y Castro. The siblings presented her design of the epicylindrical machine to the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country of Tenerife, in 1778.
In addition, she made the first tape of woven velvet on the island. She also worked on a recipe for dyes, betting on the modernization of the silk industry, thanks to her excellent knowledge of silkworms. For all these reasons, she is considered a science pioneer in the Canary Islands.