Manuel Jalón Corominas
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Manuel Jalón Corominas (
Logroño Logroño ( , , ) is the capital of the autonomous community of La Rioja (Spain), La Rioja, Spain. Located in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, primarily in the right (South) bank of the Ebro River, Logroño has historically been a place of pa ...
, 31 January 1925 –
Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...
, 16 December 2011)"''Manuel Jalón, inventor de la fregona, ha fallecido en Zaragoza''" (Manuel Jalón, inventor of the mop, dies in Zaragoza)
, ''Heraldo de Aragón'', 16 December 2011.
was a Spanish air force officer, aeronautical engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur. He was awarded patents for improvements to the mop and the disposable syringe.


Biography

Born in Logroño, Manuel Jalón Corominas spent most of his life in Zaragoza. He studied
aeronautical engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...
in
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
and completed a doctoral thesis about aeronautical accidents. Following his graduation he spent some time working in the US and in Finland, and for a while he was an officer in the
Spanish Air Force The Spanish Air and Space Force () is the aerial and space warfare branch of the Spanish Armed Forces. History Early stages Hot air balloons have been used with military purposes in Spain as far back as 1896. In 1905, with the help of Al ...
at the air base of Zaragoza. He died of cardiopulmonary arrest on 16 December 2011 in Zaragoza at age 86.Fallece Manuel Jalón, inventor de la fregona
in elmundo.es (in Spanish)
A year before his death he published an autobiographical book titled "Manual para la otra vida" (Manual for the next life).


Contributions


The mop and bucket

During his stay in the US at the
Chanute Air Force Base Chanute Air Force Base is a decommissioned United States Air Force facility, located in Champaign County, Illinois, south of and adjacent to Rantoul, Illinois, about south of Chicago. Its primary mission throughout its existence was Air Force ...
, Jalón observed how
hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...
s were cleaned using a flat mop and a bucket with rollers. He brought this idea back to Spain, where he launched the manufacture of a new design of 'floorcleaners' and buckets with rollers. This design was an improvement upon existing American models, adapted to the Spanish market. In 1958 he founded Manufacturas Rodex, S.A., which obtained patents and adopted the brand name "Rodex" (first registered in 1956). Corominas persuaded Catalan entrepreneurs to invest in his business, in particular Buenaventura and Domingo Rull of the
Lleida Lleida (, ; ; '' see below'') is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital and largest town in Segrià county, the Ponent region and the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It ...
company Casa Rull, who became sole distributors of Rodex products in Catalonia. Jalón remained as chief executive of the company for over 30 years, and his early co-workers Enrique Falcón Morellón and Emilio Bellvis Montesano also became shareholders. Jalón exported his products, the mop particularly, to more than 40 countries, from the United States to China.


Legal claims about invention of the mop

Although some sort of mop has existed for centuries, refinements and variations have been introduced from time to time. For example, American inventor Jacob Howe received U.S. patent #241 for a mop holder in 1837 and Thomas W. Stewart (U.S. patent #499,402) in 1893. Between 1957 and 1958, Manuel Jalón submitted utility models 57.190 and 60.301 for intellectual property on a metal cube incorporating a mechanism with two rollers. In 1964 he obtained an invention patent for "Improvements in compression dryer systems". Some of the novelty claims in this patent were: * The dryer was composed of a single piece, made by plastic
injection molding Injection moulding (U.S. spelling: injection molding) is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting molten material into a mould, or mold. Injection moulding can be performed with a host of materials mainly including metals (for ...
. * The introduction of slots to serve as draining channels. * The gradually-closing shape of the dryer, with a round end. Due to these improvements and the commercial success of the mop sold by his company, Manuel Jalon Corominas is known, mainly in Spain, as the "inventor of the mop". Intellectual property claims over the mop were challenged by his former associate Emilio Bellvis Montesano. This legal controversy ended in 2008 when a Zaragoza tribunal ruled in Jalón's favor.


The disposable syringe

In 1989, after more than 60 million mops had been sold around the world, the company stocks were sold to the Dutch multinational Curver BV. After this, Jalón worked on other designs, notably improvements on the disposable syringe, which was also a success. His model had a plunger less prone to stick, made of plastic instead of glass, and with thin walls making disposal easier. They were first produced by the Fabersanitas factory at
Fraga Fraga (; ) is the major town of the ''comarca'' of Bajo Cinca () in the province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. It is located by the river Cinca. According to the 2014 census, the municipality has a population of 14,926 inhabitants. King Alfonso I ...
(Huesca province) and were exported to over 80 countries. The factory was later bought by the
Becton Dickinson Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD; also Becton Dickinson or Becton) is an American multinational medical technology company that manufactures and sells medical devices, instrument systems, and reagents. BD also provides consulting and analytic ...
group.


Trasmoz castle

Manuel Jalón Corominas had a long association with the Aragonese village of
Trasmoz Trasmoz is a village in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, with an estimated population of 96. The town has given rise to numerous legends about witches and sabbaths, some of which were recreated by the romantic writer Gustavo Adolfo Bécqu ...
, where he purchased the ruins of a medieval castle and partially rebuilt it. Today the castle houses the "Museum of Witchery". In 2004 Manuel Jalón published the book "The dark legend of Trasmoz" about the town's legends of witchcraft.


Honours and awards

In 1991, the local government of Zaragoza granted Jalón their highest business award, the Salduba prize. In 1992 he was named "favourite son" of the City of Zaragoza. The same year he was also named 'Riojano of the year' by popular vote. In 2011 a bronze sculpture to the mop was built near the castle of Trasmoz by sculptor Luigi Maraez, in order to honor Jalón's most famous contribution.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jalon Corominas, Manuel 1925 births 2011 deaths Spanish inventors People from Logroño