âLet others do the inventing!â wrote the novelist and philosopher Miguel de Unamuno, about what he perceived as his fellow Spaniardsâ lack of scientific and innovative spirit in the early 20th century. But Unamunoâs criticism was somewhat wide of the mark as, in fact, much has been invented in Spain, and at times so brilliantly that the result has been adopted globally.
Many of these innovations can now be viewed in a curious virtual museum, the Museum of Comfort, launched by the French carmaker Citroën â its new model, the C4, was designed in Spain â and accessible on Instagram. The exhibition is divided into four sections: comfort, design, technology and electricity â and takes the viewer back several centuries, presenting objects that are now perfectly familiar to us such as the lollipop, the mop, the guitar, the stapler, the penknife, foosball, the submarine, the spacesuit and the fan, to mention a few. The museum is the brainchild of design