veredes, arquitectura y divulgación VADo2 Los Prototipos | Page 98

VAD. 02 | Diciembre 2019 | ISSN 2659-9139 e-ISSN 2659-9198
5 The Historic centre of Evora has
been a World Heritage Site since
1986.
6 In 1918, in order to distribute the
flour, it produced, the factory built
a railway branch that connected
it to the Barreiro-Mora branch,
allowing the company to receive
and ship goods from and to both
the capital and the Northwest
border.
7 Guimarães, Elites e Indústria no
Alentejo (1890-1960), 119.
8 Direcção Regional da Economia de
Évora, Processos de licenciamento,
cancelados, Processo nº 40, refe-
rente a uma Fábrica de Panificação e
Moagem de Cereais ao sítio dos Leões
em Évora, da Sociedade de Moagem
Alentejana Lda.
ISSN 2659-9139 e-ISSN 2659-9198 | Diciembre 2019 | 02.VAD
It is described that the flour mill has three floors 11 whose machinery was
distributed in this way: on the first floor, there were a line of 4-cylinder
mills “diagonal type”, for grinding the cereal, in the second floor the clea-
ning machines, and in third floor, the plansichters, for sifting.
11 It was one of the flour milling
plants whose operation was based
on the modern production sys-
tems that emerged in the 19th
century and were constantly being
perfected: the Austro-Hungarian
flour milling system. This system
replaced stone mills with metal
cylinders, which produced very fine
flour by transforming the part of
the wheat grain known as endos-
perm. The production of flour was
based on a vertical system that
extended the various initial stages
with the following procedures:
controlled heating and cooling of
the grain; compression; opening
and grinding; flour compression;
flour bagging, etc.
The driving force was provided by a steam generator with a 0.25m 2 grid
surface and 10kg pressure, built by “Marcelino Arnaiz house” in Bilbao,
Spain. Besides that, there were two electric motors, both of German ori-
gin (8 and of 3.2Cv). There were five workers.
Although it was supposed that it started using electricity since the begin-
ning, becoming the largest flour production hub in the city, competing
with those located both in the district of Évora and in the rest of the re-
gion, our last research findings show that firstly, it started using steam.
In fact, in the figure 1 we can see the design of a chimney.
Usually, when it came to installing
a system of this magnitude, it was
necessary, not only to have plenty
of capital to invest and a great
technical know-how, but also to
build large multi-storey buildings
to install the various machines that,
integrated into a vertical produc-
tion system, would produce flour.
These large pieces of equipment
required a significant structural
resistance that was only possible to
achieve thanks to the introduction
of new construction materials, such
as reinforced concrete and iron. In
addition, the need for great availa-
bility of energy caused some flour
mill plants to use, initially, steam
energy and, later on, electricity.
9 Decrete 8364 de 25 de Agosto de
1922 referente às Indústrias Insalu-
bres, Incómodas, Perigosas ou Tóxicas.
10 “Especializados no estudo e
execução de centrais eléctricas,
térmicas ou hidráulicas, fábricas
de moagem e massas alimentícias;
padarias mecânicas, fábricas de
chocolate, confeitaria, bolachas,
etc”. A Contemporânea nº 3 (1922):
3. Also, they were agents of various
brand machinery and electric
materials.
Figure 1. “Planta geral do terreno e
suas edificações”. Escala 1:1000. May
1923. Source: Direcção Regional da
Economia de Évora, Processos de licen-
ciamento, cancelados, Processo nº 40,
referente a uma Fábrica de Panificação
e Moagem de Cereais ao sítio dos Leões
em Évora, da Sociedade de Moagem
Alentejana Lda.
The Leões factory was built gradually, according to the economic means
of the capitalist enterprise that was running it andin different stages while
the company diversified and increased its production.
In 1926 it was inaugurated the pasta section (with a capacity of 8,000 kg
of pasta, every 10 hours) where were installed modern manufacturing
systems such as “Trabatti and “Barducci”.
In 1944 developed its first major modification in the flour mill: On the first
floor of the flour mill were installed to produce spun flour, 11 cylinders
Davério “Diagonal” type and the plansichter of the third floor were repla-
ced by 11 more modern ones also of the brand Davério.
At this time, the factory has already installed a power station powered
by the U.E.L, whose cabin had 2 transformers of 225Kva. Its power was
increased with resources of 2 diesel engines S.M.L. of German origin with
power of 350 horses each, an alternator of 125 Kw for driving force and
illumination and still an electric motor of 20 Cv. for cleaning silos.
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ANA CARDOSO DE MATOS | SHEILA PALOMARES ALARCÓN | ARMANDO QUINTAS. The origins of the “Leões” flour and pasta factory [...] pp. 94-106
The fact that the work of the factory was carried out mainly during the
daytime allowed the power plant at night to supply the nearby Tenente
Pereira neighbourhood, which was largely inhabited by its workers.
In 1955 it was built a silo with 15 cylindrical cells arranged in three rows
for storing the wheat that was received, the wheat that had been cleaned
and weighted, and the flour that was being produced. It was designed by
Construções Técnicas, Lda.
In 1972 it was installed a cake shop and the following years the storage
system of the factory was expanded as we can see in different projects.
The designer was Braivanti (Millano, Italy). The new warehouse enlarge-
ment had capacity of 800 tons of breadmaking flour distributed in 10 sea-
led and closed concrete cells and 9 metal cells for meal intended for pasta
with capacity of 720m 3 .
A factory as large as this one, which
produced various tonnes of flour a
day, completely outperformed any
factory based on old, low-profit
production systems, which is why
windmills, treadmills, or watermills
were not able to compete with
these new companies and gradually
closed down.
Figure 2. “Planta geral do terreno e
suas edificações”. Escala 1:1000. 1977.
Source: Direcção Regional da Econo-
mia de Évora, Processos de licencia-
mento, cancelados, Processo nº 40,
referente a uma Fábrica de Panificação
e Moagem de Cereais ao sítio dos Leões
em Évora, da Sociedade de Moagem
Alentejana Lda.
ANA CARDOSO DE MATOS | SHEILA PALOMARES ALARCÓN | ARMANDO QUINTAS. The origins of the “Leões” flour and pasta factory [...] pp. 94-106
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