From 1568-1617 Toledo had a wonderful hydraulic machine, unique in the world, then doubled in another similar benefits at the time, designed and built by engineer Juanelo Turriano (1501? -1585), Cremona and Toledo, because large not only are men are born but also where they die. This famous wit managed to climb 17,000 liters of water a day from the river Tagus to the impressive Alcázar saving a distance of 306 meters horizontally and 96 meters vertically inclined path by using only the driving force of water flow. The very few data that history has left us still do the researchers discuss what it was and how it worked exactly but we know from the inventory of 1639, that construction was used 192 metal buckets weighing 17 pounds with two elbows each an overhead trusses arranged and grouped in 24 intermediate units and turrets. The driving force transmitting rods through reciprocating motion. In his installation hundred cars were used for timber and more than half pounds of metal. This internal mechanism for it of course had to construct large masonry at its base and the rest to cover and protection from inclement weather. This photomontage that I present is done with an engraving of Toledo Ladislao Reti on 1650 data and that there are at least two other similar versions. The building has no roof at the bottom because since 1617 the device had stopped working, however it appears that the rest is fully roofed to the end of his entry into the NE tower of the Alcazar, the palace of the king of Spain, through the passage of the Convento del Carmen disappeared footwear whose grandeur testifies to this print and five intermediate stations were more like the raft of the aqueduct, the door of the Forge, the above passage of Caramel, the plain of Santiago, the pen Pavones and the esplanade of the Alcazar. Unfortunately, in 1617, had yet two centuries for Nicephorus Joseph Niepce occurred to him to invent photography, despite the solidity of its construction withstood the vicissitudes long time, some important remains of the beautiful building of the base resisted 300 years time for the cameras Laurent, Clifford, Hauser and Menet and some more glass plates impress your less likely to hand the imagination of artists. A magnificent collection of them by Eduardo Sanchez can be seen in http://toledoolvidado.blogspot.com/2008/09/el-artificio-de-juanelo.html Butragueño Source: Luis Moreno Nieto and Angel Moreno Santiago "Juanelo and Artifice" DB Publishing ISBN 84-611-3484-2