Portuguese inventions

The Portuguese inventions are the inventions created by the people born in Portugal (continent or overseas), or whose nationality is Portuguese. These inventions were created mainly during the age of Portuguese discoveries, and during modernity.

Relying on trade secret explains, in part, the difficulty often experienced by researchers^[3] in documenting Portuguese inventions, as many are not described in patent documents, or other technical documents. On the other hand, there are cases, like some types of swords, where the inventions themselves or the underlying documents were lost, having been destroyed, for example, during the French invasions. There are as well documentation and objects of Portuguese origin in private collections or museums outside of Portugal.^[4]