Mónico Sánchez Moreno

Mónico Sánchez Moreno, (b. Piedrabuena, Ciudad Real, 4 May 1880 - d. Piedrabuena, Ciudad Real, 6 November 1961), was a Spanish electrical engineer, inventor and industrialist, an early developer of high frequency electrical conduction equipment, mobile telephony, radiology, electrotherapy and the first portable x-ray machine in 1909.

Mónico Sánchez Moreno demonstrating his portable x-ray machine to a doctor

Early life

Sánchez's family owned a small tile and brick plant, and his mother took in laundry, which she washed in an area of the river known as the Tabla de la Yedra. He was the youngest of four children and helped his mother with the washing. At that time (data from 1900), Piedrabuena had a population of 3,810, 75% of whom were illiterate, and had a poor rural economy based on unirrigated cereal crops and animal farming.

The teacher at the local school encouraged Mónico to continue his studies and, without finishing the lower level of High School, he left for Madrid with the intention of studying electrical engineering. Madrid in 1901 was in the process of introducing both electric street-lighting and electrified trams, replacing those pulled by animals.

However, the Electrical Engineering school was closed by student strikes, and Sánchez enrolled in a correspondence course in the subject offered by Joseph Wetzle from London. Despite knowing no English at that time, he followed the course diligently for three years. When he finished Joseph Wetzle contacted him and personally recommended him for a position at a company in New York.

United States

In 1904 Mónico Sánchez, at the age of 23, sailed from Cádiz to New York. He worked as assistant to a draughtsman, but then began studies at the Institute of Electrical Engineers, He later took a course at the University of Columbia.

He first worked as an engineer at van Houten and ten Broek, a company which introduced electricity to hospitals. It was there that he invented a portable x-ray machine. It weighed scarcely 10 kg, as opposed to the 400 kg of the normal devices. France purchased 60 units for its field ambulances.

The Collins Wireless Telephone Company hired Sánchez as chief engineer, in order to sell his portable x-ray machine, under the name The Collins Sánchez Portable Device. He was offered $500,000 for his invention.