The inventor of this artifact, secret for now, He was Manuel Daza Gómez, former Carlist Lieutenant captured in Fortuna —Murcia— in 1874 and since then exiled in Yecla where he lived with his family. Mr. Daza —as the newspapers of the time referred to him— was born in Alhama de Murcia in 1853, studied in Lorca and continued his training in Paris, where he was a member of the Society of Inventors. His friendship with Lieutenant Isaac Peral, father of the first torpedo submarine, made him travel half of Spain taking electricity to towns where until then there was only gas or oil lighting, and that is that Mr. Daza was a "remarkable electrician" (General news , 1898a, p. two). Until 1897 he had made eight electrical and three mechanical patents among which was an induced current electrical generator —Daza System — and an electric probe for opening wells.
The idea that he made the Minister of War visit Madrid arose in April 1897 when he was investigating the improvement of an electric battery on which he had been working since 1884; the mixture of "high-energy" substances (Toxpiro , 1898a, p. 2) they took him to by chance discover a powerful explosive that he would later perfect. At first he thought of using it to load artillery shells —as was the case with other explosive substances such as melinite, dynamite or roburite—, but finally he preferred to design a new projectile that would best suit the characteristics of discovering him.
The "Daza rocket"
he arrived in Seville commissioned by the Ministry of War —as we said at the beginning— at the end of the spring of 1897 to make the plans for his projectile with the participation of the 1st class master of Pyrotechnics José Silva León, the optional staff and the Royal Artillery Factory of Seville, where the precision pieces were made. The construction of the artifact was painstaking and difficult, so the work lasted until December under the careful supervision of Daza, who demonstrated "uncommon theoretical and practical knowledge in mechanics" (The Philosopher's Stone , 1898, p. 5). Daza's inventive spirit led him to collaborate, while his project was being concluded, in the Sevillian foundry of José Cobián y Rual where he devised a new way of nickel-plating iron beds and the manufacture of wooden frames for bicycles that would make them much lighter and cheaper.
In December the manufacture of two prototypes had been completed and they were taken to Murcia to be assembled and tested. With shapes and pieces different from any other known projectile, they were based on a conical structure with fins —which gave it stability in mid-flight— and used gas as a driving force to move a flywheel with four solenoid blades that produced a progressive speed, similar to that generated in multi-stage rockets; the ignition originated with an electric starter and its launch was carried out from a container where it was housed.
In its interior a "truly enormous" number of atmospheres was produced and fired at a ship it was said that there was no ship "that could keep its balance due to the great emptiness that in the waters would produce its explosion [...] has the advantages of torpedoes without their drawbacks «, as stated by an employee of the Seville Pyrotechnics who worked on its manufacture (The Philosopher's Stone , 1898, p. 5).
The speed tests were a success for the gunners who directed the experience, and with these good results, Mr. Daza returned to Madrid to meet with Minister Azcárraga. At the Carabanchel shooting range the tests were repeated, but the projectile showed a series of failures of construction that made Daza withdraw the project.
Already in 1898, taking advantage of the recently declared war on the US, Daza presented a different version of his projectile before the Minister of the Navy, Admiral Ramón Auñón. A commission named ex profeso was able to verify the feasibility of the device at the Carabanchel firing range, which, however, lacked precision . The improvement work was carried out at the Trubia Arms Factory —Asturias— and later at the Seville Artillery Maestranza, where the collaboration between Daza and an artillery lieutenant provided "excellent results" (The Daza rocket , 1898a, p. 1).
The new rocket was now made up of two parts:the upper one loaded with 40 kg of explosive and the lower one containing progressive gunpowder that propelled the device. As we can see, this new rocket has little to do with the one that Daza presented at the Ministry of War a year ago. After a detailed study of the documentary sources that are preserved, it is concluded that the transformation of the invention was based exclusively on the remodeling of the casing and the propulsion and not so with the war load, which will disappear in future experiences and will be replaced by any other explosive substance in common use.
The baptism of the toxpiro
The tests of the projectile —still loaded with the explosive discovered by Daza— took place in Cádiz at the end of June and were attended by Minister Ramón Auñón. The sensationalist press echoed the tests and described the results in a way that was disproportionate —which responded to Edison's alleged intentions of spraying Spanish ships and soldiers with high-voltage electrical rain— that could be more related to the war propaganda :«In a barge were placed two horses, four mules and two oxen. The boat where the people who verified the experience were going moved 500 meters away […] the Daza projectile was launched, which was seen to fall about thirty meters from the place […]. After some time the experimenters approached […] and were able to verify that the animals were dead and that their bodies, as well as the barge, remained intact. If this news is true, the explosive Daza must contain a deleterious, dense and diffusible gas» (Daza , 1898, p. two). This was the reason why it was called toxpiro, which means in Greek “poisonous fire” . We can assume the concern of the Americans when the enemy press - in their case the Spanish - warned that the battleship Pelayo , the most advanced in the Spanish fleet, already had toxpiro launchers. The reality was that the only tests that were carried out were carried out by Mr. Daza near Guadix, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, while the newspapers mistakenly located him in Cádiz aboard the Pelayo .
Given the lack of decision on the part of the authorities —which caused some newspapers to describe the invention as «the Sigh» (El toxpiro , 1898b, p. 2) — On Friday, July 8, Mr. Daza visited the Minister of the Navy in Madrid demanding government support to put his invention into practice as soon as possible. The ministerial office was attended by the artillery officer of the Navy Antonio García, the officer of the School of Torpedists José María Chacón y Pery and the officer of the Corps of Engineers of the Navy Sorelló, who were commissioned to compose a commission technique that evaluates the Memory of the invention . Meanwhile, not only the public wondered about the nature of the toxpiro, but so did the Council of Ministers, before whom Ramón Auñón explained the fundamental principles of the device and announced a public demonstration in Carabanchel. The Barcelona newspaper La Dinastía (Single notes, 1898, p. 1) wrote:«Everything is done late in this country. […] when this commission has ruled and the famous invention can be used —if it is useful for something— the war will perhaps be over».
The national and international press kept adding fuel to the fire , fueling the spirit of revenge of many Spaniards moved by the recent naval tragedy in Santiago de Cuba —on July 3, 1898—, describing toxpiros as a "terrible invention", "aerial torpedoes" or "extraordinary rockets", "if the rocket falls on a battleship reduces it to splinters; if it lands near it, it submerges it. A small number of these rockets is enough to destroy an entire city» (El toxpiro , 1898a, p. two). This caused an avalanche of popular subscriptions in support of Daza's invention:the newspaper El Mercantil Valenciano , the owner of a café in Soria, the cigarette companies in Madrid, the authorities in Valencia, Bailén or the Army and Navy Center were some of them.
On Monday the 11th, only three days after being formed, the technical commission met in the office of the Minister of the Navy, reflecting in its report unfavorable reasons for the manufacture of toxpiro that should be explained by Mr. Daza.
Daza received that same day a delegation of army chiefs and officers who lent him their support and, accompanied by the Minister of Finance, Joaquín López Puigcerver, visited the President of the Government, Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, we suppose that to defend how cheap the production of his invention was, since with only 50,000 duros —250,000 pesetas— and in fifteen days of work, all the toxpiros necessary to attack the North American ports on the coast could be manufactured. atlantic "The toxpiro Daza, the salvation of the homeland" were the words of President Sagasta (Don Manuel Daza , 1898a, p. 2).
On Tuesday the technical commission, which had already stated to the media that the Projectile Memory lacked scientific knowledge, limited itself to asking Daza a series of questions about his practical experience because it seemed inconclusive. When Daza drew attention to the type of propulsion of the projectile, one of the members argued that this was indifferent, which sparked a discussion in which Daza encouraged them to refute his theories , which they failed to do. In spite of everything, the commission advised an increase in the explosive charge and that it be built at the Cartagena School of Torpedists to later analyze it at the Torregorda test center —Cádiz—; Daza agreed to the changes and offered his old prototypes for testing in Carabanchel, something the commission took with some disdain.
During the following days he waited in vain for some notice from the Ministry and the only thing he found were opinion articles where the technicians denigrated his invention. This made him write to the Minister of the Navy to formally express his complaints and denounce the incompetence of the commission . The Ministry's response was to return the Memory to him, leaving Mr. Daza with freedom of action on his invention ever since. «The corresponding technical commission has disapproved the Daza projectile. Presumably, because it is an old custom in us to hit everyone who cares about something serious in the nose. Bah! The toxpiro of Mr. Daza!” (Thrown , 1898, p. 3).
The support was given both in Spain and abroad :a factory in Madrid offered to build the toxpiros, they gave it a piece of land to carry out the tests, there were contributions in cash, adhesions of localities, even the Center of the Army and the Navy created a second commission that endorsed the invention but which was finally dissolved by order of the Ministry of War so as not to conflict with the Ministry of the Navy. In a letter addressed to the Bilbao pyrotechnician Juan de Anta, Daza writes:«I have had the misfortune of arriving at this at a time when some believe that we must go to peace at all costs, and that under that idea they consider inopportune the hopes that the advantages of toxpiro can wake up» (Insists Daza, 1898, p. 3).
Toxpiro, without government aid
From this moment on, Mr. Daza developed his invention without the support of the State and autonomously, despite having received offers from two English individuals presented to him in Madrid. At the foundry La Constancia de Linares began the construction of 100 toxpiro carcasses, while Daza lived in Baeza with some relatives, which led to the belief that the tests would be carried out in this town of Gien. The improvement works were carried out during the month of March in a foundry in Alicante, after which the toxpiros were finished.
Daza and his invention remained forgotten for a whole year behind the walls of his home on the outskirts of Yecla until an interview by José Martínez Ruíz — Azorin — returned them to the public scene. The long-awaited tests were going to be carried out finally in this city.
On August 4 and 5, 1901, a technical commission formed by artillery captain Díez Marcilla, engineer captain Gálvez Delgado and the professor of electrical engineering and director of the Scientific Madrid Federico La Fuente —sent by the Count of Romanones, investor of the toxpiro—, correspondents of El Imparcial , The Herald , The Correspondence of Spain and The Liberal , as well as a large group of curious countrymen watched Mr. Daza's rockets with some intrigue.
They consisted of an iron tube that served as a case for a cartridge of similar proportions that housed the slow-combustion gunpowder; the tube was closed with a cone, also made of iron, with a diameter greater than that of the cylinder; both pieces were assembled by means of a crown crossed by small holes that pointed downwards. Gunpowder was ignited through one of these holes, causing the combustion gases to exit through the holes in jets parallel to the axis of the cylinder, propelling the rocket forward—this novel idea of pulling the projectile and not pushing it from behind. the base would be perfected in 1936 with the ALAS anti-aircraft torpedo of artillery captain Félix Sacristán.
The results were disastrous because all the toxpiros described erratic movements, their accuracy was poor and they posed a danger to those who handled them, so the scientists and journalists summoned there tacitly agreed to omit certain hurtful details about this fabulous ingenuity that for five years maintained the illusion of thousands of Spaniards shocked by the disaster of 98.
Manuel Daza moved to Sanlúcar de Barrameda where he continued inventing until his death in 1915. The memory of his Cervantine story, fictionalized by Azorín in The Will , embodied by "Quijano", an extraordinary madman who dreamed of sinking ships at the point of toxpiro.
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