Born in Campeche (Mexico) and educated in Spain, he was an outstanding scientist in the fields of mathematics and mechanics. After studying at one of the best Spanish centres, the Royal Seminary of Vergara, he entered the Spanish Royal Navy beginning the classical professional life of an enlightened sailor.

In 1783, while Betancourt released an aerostatic balloon before the Court, Lanz conducted in Yucatan, a report on the fibre called henequén or sisal, of great importance for the manufacture of rigging for the Navy. His reputation grew and Lanz participated in various scientific committees within the Navy.

Later, he joined the group of scientists convened by Vicente Tofino to develop the maritime Atlas of Spain. This was followed by his enrolment, under Joseph Mendoza Rios for industrial espionage in Paris, which allowed him to get in touch with the French Revolution and meet who would be his wife, Teresa Bennland.

In the winter of 1789/90, Lanz met in Paris the group of Spanish scholars who worked in the service of the Spanish Crown. Thus began a fruitful relationship with Agustin de Betancourt, Juan López de Peñalver and Joseph Chaix.

Lanz left the Navy without permission, despite this his superiors treated him with great kindness, knowing his worth, and tried to avoid his loss. He was finally discharged from the Navy in 1794.

For years, Lanz lives in France, where he again maintains relations with Betancourt and his friend Breguet, while they try to market and publicize their telegraph.

In 1802, Betancourt calls him back to Madrid as a professor at the newly founded School of Roads and Canals. In Madrid, between 1802 and 1805, the two scientists mature a textbook of great importance that Lanz will finally prepare for editing in Paris, and that will be reviewed by both authors in this city in 1807.

In 1808, when Betancourt had finally joined the service of tsar Alexander I, the Essai sur la composition des machines came out, published by the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique of Paris and composed and printed at the Imprenta Real (the Spanish Royal Press).

In its first edition, the book of Lanz and Betancourt included the Programme du cours élémentaire des machines, by Jean-Nicolas Hachette, teacher of the Ecole Polytechnique.

The Essai of Lanz and Betancourt, which was very well received in France, was the first industrial cinematic work in the history of European engineering and figures among the great classics of mechanics.

The book was republished, with additions made by Lanz, and without the Programme of Hachette in 1819. Subsequently, in 1840, there was a third French edition, by then both of the authors had died. The work of Lanz and Betancourt was also translated into English, having two editions in 1820 and 1822. It was later published in German in 1829. Significantly, there was no translation into Spanish, the language spoken by both the Canarian engineer and the Mexican Lanz.

This treaty of machines for half a century was a textbook in many technical schools and the best technological centres in Europe, probably due to its systematic and clear presentation, based on the transformation of movement.

From 1808 the fate of Betancourt and Lanz diverge forever. The first was devoted, until his death in 1824, to work on the modernization of Russia. While Lanz, after a new and short stay in Paris, returned as director of the First Division of the Ministry of Interior, where he mingled with people so celebrated as Francisco Antonio Zea, Cristóbal Cladera, José Antonio Conde, José María Carnerero and Leandro Fernández de Moratín. Among his functions, the direction of the Depósito Hidrográfico (Hydrographical Office), the direction of the Conservatorio de Artes y Oficios (Conservatory of Arts and Crafts) and the drafting of Reglamento de gobierno y policía interior del Cuerpo de Ingenieros Civiles (Regulation of government and internal police of Civil Engineers Corps), which included a section devoted to the School of Civil Engineering, but was never implemented, although the corps continued to operate under its former organization that dated from the beginning of the century. Running the prefecture of Córdoba at the end of 1811 was his last service to José I, because in October the following year he moved back to France in political exile. Widowed in 1827, he lived well known and died in 1839 at the home of his friends, the Breguet watchmakers, symptomatically at number 79 of the Quai de l'Horloge.