Leonardo Torres y Quevedo demonstrates the Telekino, guiding a boat from the shore, in what is considered to be the first use of a remote control.
Leonardo Torres y Quevedo (Spanish: [le.oˈnaɾðo ˈtores i keˈβeðo]; 28 December 1852 – 18 December 1936) was a Spanish civil engineer and mathematician of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Quevedo was a pioneer in the development of the radio control and automated calculation machines, the inventor of a chess automaton, and a innovative designer of the three-lobed non-rigid Astra-Torres airship and the Whirlpool Aero Car located in Niagara Falls. With his Telekine, Torres-Quevedo created wireless remote-control operation principles. He was also a famous speaker of Esperanto.