O INVENTOR PARAENSE VS. O HERÓI DA ARMADA:

A CONTROVÉRSIA ENTRE JOÃO FRANCISCO DE MADUREIRA PARÁ E LUIZ DA CUNHA MOREIRA NO ARSENAL DA MARINHA DO RIO DE JANEIRO-1825-1831

Abstract

This work deals with the controversy between the inventor from Pará, João Francisco de Madureira Pará, and the, at the time, Intendant of the Arsenal da Marinha, Luiz da Cunha Moreira, in Rio de Janeiro, between the years 1825 and 1831. throughout the course of the controversy through the prism of the Actor-Network Theory, created by the French sociologist Bruno Latour, and by the Cartography of Controversies, by the Italian Tommaso Venturini, we seek to discover and understand all the social relations established by the inventor in an attempt to establish himself as a literate , endowed with technical knowledge, trying to convince potential allies that his invention really worked, while facing harsh opposition from the “Hero of the Armada”. In the controversies surrounding the manufacture of the “Machine for the Improvement of Navigation” and also in the personal relationships of its inventor, we can analyze the inventor's various attempts to change his status through favors and patents. We will also talk, in the course of writing, on topics such as science, technology, development, for a better understanding of this case in particular, and in this way, we will be able to better understand the clashes and controversies generated by the chaotic work of João Francisco de Madureira Pará, inventor without training and with little technical knowledge, in their search for something much greater than improving navigation.