Pirelli: A Multinational Company at the Early-20th-Century Expos
Almost since the dawn of the industrial age, there is one sign that shows the degree to which a company has become international: its participation in the great World Exhibitions. When Pirelli turned up with its products at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, it was preparing to build its first factory abroad, and indeed it opened a plant a couple of years later in Spain. The company presented itself as a “company for the industries of elastic rubber, gutta-percha and similar items, and insulated electrical wires and cables”. Tyres were yet to emerge as objects for everyday use, and modernity was measured in terms of products and services for the new world of electricity. “At the Exhibition, Ditta Pirelli & C. restricted its display to products for electricity”, said the printed presentation sheet, “but the exhibition is nevertheless of the greatest interest, even though it is to some extent affected by the lack of space from which the entire Italian section suffers.” In a veiled riposte to French grandeur, the Italian company thus showed its astonishing technological achievements to the entire world, which had converged upon Paris. These breakthroughs had made it one of the world leaders in the electricity sector, especially in the field of submarine cables. “In other words, a complete exhibition, of the highest degree of interest, which may give an idea of the magnificence of the factories of Ditta Pirelli & C.”
The great leap to the New World came four years later, at the St Louis World’s Fair in 1904. This time, the factory in Milan sent not just electrical and telegraph cables but also “rubber pipes for railways, haberdashery items, a deep sea diver’s suit, technical items in rubber, inner tubes for velocipedes” – and, at long last, “1 complete tyre for cars”. To show how a great Italian company was every bit as good as any American titan, the first six of the twenty-one crates dispatched to Saint Louis on 16 February 1904 contained the entire Pirelli & C. stand with drawings and instructions for assembly on site. The magnificence of the display at the Milan International exhibition in 1906 rather overshadowed the fact that Pirelli & C. was once again present across the Atlantic, at the New York exhibition in October that year, where it was now an undisputed leader in tyres. In the home of motors, the company promoted its brand-new business for the world of transport: on display was a 910 x 90 Ercole mounted on an innovative removable rim, which allowed for easy and rapid tyre change. America simply could not be ignored by anyone wanting to expand in the world of tyres and it was actually in the offices of the New York importer that the “Long P” logo was born the following year. It was the same city that, in 1908, saw the start of the New York-Paris motor race, which included a Züst fitted with Pirelli tyres, with the journalist Antonio Scarfoglio on board and Emilio “Giulio” Sirtori at the wheel.
But the Pirelli Group’s real home from home became South America – Argentina and Brazil – from the late 1920s. It is no coincidence that, already in May 1910, Pirelli was taking part in the International Exhibition in Buenos Aires, to mark the centenary of the Argentine Republic. “Railways and Overland Transport. Agriculture. Hygiene and Medicine” were the three main themes of the South-American exhibition and Pirelli was present at all three, with pipes and bumpers for railway carriages, car tyres and solid tyres for trucks, travel kits and rubberised fabrics for aeroplanes, disinfection pumps and special cables for underwater lines. The company that showed up at all the great World Expos at the beginning of the century was carving out a role of its own as a multinational corporation. After that, it was history that would dictate its rate of growth: the Pirelli Historical Archive contain a folder devoted to the Group’s participation in the International Exhibition of Electrical Industries in Barcelona. Or at least, what should have been its participation, for the folder is empty. It bears the date April 1915.
Almost since the dawn of the industrial age, there is one sign that shows the degree to which a company has become international: its participation in the great World Exhibitions. When Pirelli turned up with its products at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, it was preparing to build its first factory abroad, and indeed it opened a plant a couple of years later in Spain. The company presented itself as a “company for the industries of elastic rubber, gutta-percha and similar items, and insulated electrical wires and cables”. Tyres were yet to emerge as objects for everyday use, and modernity was measured in terms of products and services for the new world of electricity. “At the Exhibition, Ditta Pirelli & C. restricted its display to products for electricity”, said the printed presentation sheet, “but the exhibition is nevertheless of the greatest interest, even though it is to some extent affected by the lack of space from which the entire Italian section suffers.” In a veiled riposte to French grandeur, the Italian company thus showed its astonishing technological achievements to the entire world, which had converged upon Paris. These breakthroughs had made it one of the world leaders in the electricity sector, especially in the field of submarine cables. “In other words, a complete exhibition, of the highest degree of interest, which may give an idea of the magnificence of the factories of Ditta Pirelli & C.”
The great leap to the New World came four years later, at the St Louis World’s Fair in 1904. This time, the factory in Milan sent not just electrical and telegraph cables but also “rubber pipes for railways, haberdashery items, a deep sea diver’s suit, technical items in rubber, inner tubes for velocipedes” – and, at long last, “1 complete tyre for cars”. To show how a great Italian company was every bit as good as any American titan, the first six of the twenty-one crates dispatched to Saint Louis on 16 February 1904 contained the entire Pirelli & C. stand with drawings and instructions for assembly on site. The magnificence of the display at the Milan International exhibition in 1906 rather overshadowed the fact that Pirelli & C. was once again present across the Atlantic, at the New York exhibition in October that year, where it was now an undisputed leader in tyres. In the home of motors, the company promoted its brand-new business for the world of transport: on display was a 910 x 90 Ercole mounted on an innovative removable rim, which allowed for easy and rapid tyre change. America simply could not be ignored by anyone wanting to expand in the world of tyres and it was actually in the offices of the New York importer that the “Long P” logo was born the following year. It was the same city that, in 1908, saw the start of the New York-Paris motor race, which included a Züst fitted with Pirelli tyres, with the journalist Antonio Scarfoglio on board and Emilio “Giulio” Sirtori at the wheel.
But the Pirelli Group’s real home from home became South America – Argentina and Brazil – from the late 1920s. It is no coincidence that, already in May 1910, Pirelli was taking part in the International Exhibition in Buenos Aires, to mark the centenary of the Argentine Republic. “Railways and Overland Transport. Agriculture. Hygiene and Medicine” were the three main themes of the South-American exhibition and Pirelli was present at all three, with pipes and bumpers for railway carriages, car tyres and solid tyres for trucks, travel kits and rubberised fabrics for aeroplanes, disinfection pumps and special cables for underwater lines. The company that showed up at all the great World Expos at the beginning of the century was carving out a role of its own as a multinational corporation. After that, it was history that would dictate its rate of growth: the Pirelli Historical Archive contain a folder devoted to the Group’s participation in the International Exhibition of Electrical Industries in Barcelona. Or at least, what should have been its participation, for the folder is empty. It bears the date April 1915.
