“Of Uncommon Size and Robust Elegance”: The Pirelli Factory in Via Ponte Seveso, Milan
G.B. Pirelli & C., a limited partnership for the manufacture and sale of elastic rubber items, was brought into being before the notary public Stefano Allocchio on 28 January 1872. As we read in the notarial deed of incorporation, the company was to have continued operations for 9 years, with a share capital of 215,000 lire and its headquarters in the municipality of Corpi Santi di Milano. Here, in Via Ponte Seveso, now Via Fabio Filzi, the Peregrini brothers’ company began work in early April on construction of the factory. Production started in June 1873, initially limited to technical articles made of rubber.
The factory was described by the periodical L’industriale as “of uncommon size and not without the robust elegance of which many foreign factories are proud”. As we see in a watercolour by Salvatore Corvaja, the first Pirelli factory covered 1,000 square metres, in the open countryside, with the office building on the left and the production plant on the right. It employed 40 workers and 5 office clerks, but it was destined to grow rapidly, as production expanded, and in 1876 it began producing consumer items and in 1879 came electric and telegraph cables. By 1881 the number of workers had increased to 200 and the factory had been enlarged, though it maintained the same structure, as we see in the view printed on a letterhead a few years later.
Production of elastic thread started up in 1883, involving a particularly complex process that led to a huge and immediate increase in terms of the number of employees and the size of the company organisation. By 1884, the workforce had doubled (400 workers) and the area occupied by the factory reached 7,400 square metres, 6,150 of which were covered, with 4 steam engines with a total output of 160 horsepower, 12 mixers, 3 rolling presses, and 14 vulcanisers. This expansion is well illustrated in an 1888 drawing by Antonio Bonamore, which shows how the area has significantly expanded and the number of buildings has increased, now with 4 chimneys. Bicycle tyres entered the Pirelli product catalogue in 1890, and they were followed by car tyres in 1901.
And the factory expanded once again, until it had filled all the available space, while the city grew up all around it: this is documented by the view published for the first time in a price list of 1900, later taken up and adapted by Domenico Bonamini in 1922. New land needed to be purchased, and it was found in the area not far from the Bicocca: thus began the story of the second Pirelli production site, which was to shape the landscape and the history of Milan.
G.B. Pirelli & C., a limited partnership for the manufacture and sale of elastic rubber items, was brought into being before the notary public Stefano Allocchio on 28 January 1872. As we read in the notarial deed of incorporation, the company was to have continued operations for 9 years, with a share capital of 215,000 lire and its headquarters in the municipality of Corpi Santi di Milano. Here, in Via Ponte Seveso, now Via Fabio Filzi, the Peregrini brothers’ company began work in early April on construction of the factory. Production started in June 1873, initially limited to technical articles made of rubber.
The factory was described by the periodical L’industriale as “of uncommon size and not without the robust elegance of which many foreign factories are proud”. As we see in a watercolour by Salvatore Corvaja, the first Pirelli factory covered 1,000 square metres, in the open countryside, with the office building on the left and the production plant on the right. It employed 40 workers and 5 office clerks, but it was destined to grow rapidly, as production expanded, and in 1876 it began producing consumer items and in 1879 came electric and telegraph cables. By 1881 the number of workers had increased to 200 and the factory had been enlarged, though it maintained the same structure, as we see in the view printed on a letterhead a few years later.
Production of elastic thread started up in 1883, involving a particularly complex process that led to a huge and immediate increase in terms of the number of employees and the size of the company organisation. By 1884, the workforce had doubled (400 workers) and the area occupied by the factory reached 7,400 square metres, 6,150 of which were covered, with 4 steam engines with a total output of 160 horsepower, 12 mixers, 3 rolling presses, and 14 vulcanisers. This expansion is well illustrated in an 1888 drawing by Antonio Bonamore, which shows how the area has significantly expanded and the number of buildings has increased, now with 4 chimneys. Bicycle tyres entered the Pirelli product catalogue in 1890, and they were followed by car tyres in 1901.
And the factory expanded once again, until it had filled all the available space, while the city grew up all around it: this is documented by the view published for the first time in a price list of 1900, later taken up and adapted by Domenico Bonamini in 1922. New land needed to be purchased, and it was found in the area not far from the Bicocca: thus began the story of the second Pirelli production site, which was to shape the landscape and the history of Milan.
