Bartolomeu Lourenco de Gusm瓊o (1685 - November 18, 1724) was a Portuguese priest, naturalist and inventor. In 1709 he presented a petition to King John V of Portugal, seeking royal favor for his invention of an airship. The contents of this petition have been preserved, together with a picture and description of his airship. Developing the ideas of Francesco Lana de Terzi, he wanted to spread a huge sail over a boat-like body; the boat was to contain tubes through which, when there was no wind, air would be blown into the sail by means of bellows. The vessel was to be propelled by the agency of magnets which were to be encased in two hollow metal balls. It is known that he was working on this principle at the public exhibition he gave on August 8, 1709, in the hall of the Casa da ?ndia in Lisbon, when he propelled a ball to the roof by combustion. The king rewarded the inventor by appointing him to a professorship at Coimbra and made him a canon. Gusm瓊o busied himself with other inventions, but continued his work on his airship schemes. His designs included a ship to sail in the air consisting of a triangular gas-filled pyramid, but he died in 1724 at the age of 39 or 40, without making progress.