Milling journals of the past. The First Mill to be driven by Electricity: Matarazzo & Co’s Mill, São Paulo
Full details
| Authors & editors | |
| Publisher | Milling & Grain |
| Year of publication | 2023 June |
| Languages | |
| Medium | Digital |
| Edition | 1 |
| Topics | |
| Tags | |
| Scope & content | This title headed an article in the Christmas edition of Milling in 1902. Twenty years earlier Francesco Matarazzo had emigrated to Brazil from Italy and was destined to become the fifth richest man in the world by 1937, the year he died. In 1900 a British bank had provided the finance for him to build a modern mill in Sao Paulo and by 1902 electricity was becoming more and more used for running machinery. It was not so surprising that the whole plant in a large flour mill would come to be powered this way and Matarazzo & Co were early adaptors. Originally the setup was driven by steam, and although coal was abnormally expensive in Brazil, the mill was still a great success. It used “Monitor” wheat separators and scourers, “Simon” patent wheat washing, stoning, and drying machines, a ventilated whizzer and “Cyclone” dust collectors, cylinders, graders, sieves, and fans. The roller plant of the first mill had 50inx10in Simon 4-roller mills for the breaks, and smooth 4-roller mills for the reductions, with a full complement of scalpers, purifiers, graders, and centrifugal dressing machines. Band conveyors were also installed for conveying grain from the railway cars to the silos. During 1902 Henry Simon of Manchester had erected the firm’s second roller plant of 20 sacks capacity, comprising a complete set of machines for cleaning the wheat, as well as for grinding, purifying the middlings and dressing the flour. As a result of this success, Mr. Matarazzo called in the Manchester firm to erect a duplicate twenty sack plant bringing the total up to 40 sacks per hour. In addition, a splendid range of steel storage silos for grain were made in England, put together, marked, then taken apart to be shipped to Brazil where they were erected by Simon’s own superintendent mill erectors…Read more. |
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