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Buzaglo

BUZAGLO, Anglo-Moroccan family, sons of Moses Buzaglo, rabbi in *Mogador. ABRAHAM BUZAGLO (1710–1782), after an adventurous career, settled about 1762 in *England, and in 1765 was granted a patent for a new type of stove, known after him as "buzaglo." Making use of this invention, he introduced a new method of physical therapy whereby muscular exercise is undertaken after the body has been thrown into a profuse sweat; he recommended this method especially for gout. For a time it had great success, and is widely referred to in the literature of that period. He also invented a carriage warmer. JOSEPH BUZAGLO (d. 1767), who called himself De Paz, had a lively career in *France, during which he was condemned to the galleys, invented an incendiary bullet, and was imprisoned in the Bastille on a charge of spying for England. On his release from the Bastille he negotiated a commercial treaty between *Denmark and *Morocco, but when difficulties ensued, the sultan condemned him to death by burning and he again spent a long time in prison. Released through the intercession of the Danish authorities, he followed his brothers to England, and died in St. Eustatius (West Indies) on a fruitless journey to trace his son, who had become a soldier. Joseph's other brother was SHALOM *BUZAGLO.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

A. Rubens, Anglo-Jewish Portraits (1935), 19–20; Loewe, in: JHSET, 16 (1945–51), 35–45; Zimmels, ibid., 117 (1953), 290–2; ESN, 107–8; Castries, in: Hespéris 6 (1926), 330–9; Hartog, in: AJA, 19 (1967), 74.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.