Carlos Ibáñez de Ibero was a Spanish engineer, geographer, and divisional general. He was one of the main promoters of geodesy, and also served as a president of the International Association of Geodesy.
Background
Carlos Ibáñez de Ibero was born on April 14, 1825, in Barcelona, Spain. He was the son of Martin Ibdnez de Prado and María del Carmen Ibáñez de Ibero. His father was a soldier and mathematician, and also a national hero for his participation in the sieges of Zaragoza and one of the first postulators of non-Euclidean geometry. In 1832, when Ibanez was barely seven, his father was assassinated for political reasons.
Education
Ibáñez entered the Academy of Army Engineers in 1839, receiving training in both military and scientific subjects. His interest in geodesy was awakened by the practical courses he taught at the Academy.
Career
In 1853 Ibáñez joined the recently created commission for drawing up a national map. As a member, he studied and planned a Geodimeter, known as the “Spanish rule,” to measure the base at Madridejos. In 1859 he devised a method for carrying out the census of rural and urban real property and for its conservation. He was co-founder (1866) and later president (until his death) of the International Geodesic Association. In 1875, as a plenipotentiary envoy of the king, he attended the inauguration of the International Office of Weights and Measures, which he actively promoted in order to achieve a worldwide system of units of measure and decimal currency. He was also its first president.
At Ibáñez’ initiative, the Census and Geographic Institute was created in 1870 - he was its first director, as he was of the Corps of Geodesists (today known as the Geographical Engineers) - and in 1877 he was responsible for creation of the Statistics Corps.
Ibáñez was concerned mainly with precision in measurement and with scientific organization. He obtained a probable error of ±1/5,800,000 in geodesic bases, compared with the ±1/1,200,000 achieved until then. The fifteen-kilometer base measured in La Mancha was of particular note. At the request of the Swiss Confederation he carried out in 1880 the measurement of the central base of Aarberg at 2.4 kilometers.
As a result of Ibáñez’ initiative and eagerness to measure the globe, it was agreed in 1860 to remeasure the arc of meridian from Dunkirk to Formentera. He projected the geodesic union of Europe with Africa, with an interruption of 270 kilometers, from Shetland to the Sahara; this had never been achieved by observations of a geodesic landmark. He carried out these observations in 1878 between the inhospitable peaks of Mulhacen and the Teticas in Spain and the Filhaoussen and the M’Sabiha in Algeria. Measurements of horizontal angles with ±1/10,000 of degree in the centesimal system were achieved through his techniques.
An early advocate of international scientific collaboration, Ibáñez was a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Madrid, as well as the corresponding organizations of Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Belgium, the United States, Buenos Aires, and Egypt.
Connections
Ibáñez was married twice. He married Juana Baboulène Thénié in 1861; in 1878 he married Cecilia Grandchamp y Rosseten.