Museum of Industrial Heritage

In the years of the Italian unification important technological innovations were introduced into rice processing and cereal grinding. The article proposes an interesting route through several mills from Piemonte to Emilia-Romagna, where new manufacturing methods or new machines were brought in from anglo-saxon countries and fitted in the Italian situation.

On the occasion of a training stage in cooperation with the Institut National du Patrimoine in Paris, the Industrial Heritage Museum has started the cataloguing of a collection of lithographic stones coming from the Tipografia Bodoniana in Bologna and dating back to the late 19th century – early 20th century. 120 specimens out of a total amount of 500 have been catalogued and digitized. The article reproduces a part of the final account by the trainee.

In March 2011 the Industrial Heritage Museum in Bologna and the Soprintendenza Archivistica for Emilia-Romagna have come to an agreement upon a census of historical company archives in the territory of Bologna. The project’s first step is a pilot study of the archives of four momentous companies in the Bolognese productive framework, namely G.D/ACMA, Fabbri, Carpigiani and SAMOR, focused on documentary evidence up until 1970, or to later years in individual cases. The project’s second goal is to network the results of the census, with the companies’ consent, by means of SIUSA, a computerized cataloguing system.

Roberto Curti, Director of the Industrial Heritage Museum from its establishment until March 2003, restyles his conversations with Bruno Gnudi, owner of GB Gnudi spa and a protagonist of the development of the packaging industry in Bologna, in the form of a story. His biography is typical in the packaging division: after getting a diploma at Aldini-Valeriani he got a job at OARE (Officina Automobilistica di Riparazione dell’Esercito) and began to collaborate with the dawning packaging companies. In 1956 he was recruited at CAM, owned by Antonio Martelli, where he took care of the customer office and played a leading role in the development of the packaging division.

The history of Marchesini originated from the intuition of its founder Massimo Marchesini. After attending Istituto Aldini-Valeriani and a work experience at CAM (Costruzioni Antonio Martelli) as a skilled worker in the field of  automatic machines, he decided to set up business on his own account and established 2M in Pianoro, a village near Bologna. On the occasion of the insertion of Marchesini BA1000 cartoning machine within the permanent collection of the Museum, the article reconstructs the firm’s history and highlights the technical innovations and entrepreneurship of its protagonists.

The Romanin-Jacur silk mill, which worked from 1872 to 1952, was a plant for silk manufacturing which widely contributed  to the economic and social development of Salzano and its neighbouring villages in the Venetian hinterland. After the plant was shut down, it was converted into a documentation center on silk and spinning, endowed with an expositive section and an archival section that gathers materials and documentation about selected subjects. At the same time the mill underwent a transformation from a place of silk spinning to a place of artistic production. The festival called FILI, in co-operation with Echidna cultural association, has reached its eighth edition this year, restoring the mill’s spirit of the place, namely documenting the community’s self-consciousness.

In 1960, at the height of the economic boom, the firm called Italemmezeta was founded. In 1967 it changed its name to Italjet. During its whole productive history, the firm faithfully mirrored the qualities of its founder, Leopoldo Tartarini, a celebrated rider in the 50s, famous for his bold courage which led him to win the classic races of the time, Milano-Taranto and MotoGiro. For 40 years Italjet produced a great variety of models for both Italian and foreign motorcycle lovers, ranging over all typologies and all engine sizes, always pursuing innovation in style, materials and construction features.

The player piano is an automatic musical instrument that can be used also by non-musicians. The music played by the instrument is generated by the arrangement and length of a series of holes in a piece of cardboard. The same cardboard supplies the performer with written instructions about the dynamics of the piece. These instruments reached their utmost popularity between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. One of the most important manufacturers of these instruments was Giobanni Racca, based in Bologna. The article reconstructs the founder’s life and the firm’s history and production.