Industrial History

En el paisaje urbano de la ciudad de Burgos, hasta bien entrada la tercera década del siglo XX no aparecerán edificios industriales significativos. A diferencia de lo que ocurre en otros espacios urbanos de mayor dimensión, en la capital castellana apenas existen entonces chimeneas y la producción fabril no forma parte de los elementos tradicionales. Y es que, como en muchas otras ciudades españolas de tamaño medio, la industrialización llegó a la ciudad con cierto retraso. De hecho, hasta la posguerra, cuando comienzan a surgir iniciativas industriales realmente importantes y con incidencia relevante en el empleo y las producciones, Burgos se caracteriza por el mantenimiento de una economía preindustrial, con predominio de labores y actividades artesanales y de manufacturas primarias, sin introducción de procesos de verdadera mecanización. Pequeños talleres tradicionales, ubicados en su práctica totalidad en los bajos de los edificios residenciales, dominan el conjunto de establecimientos productivos. En estos talleres se fabrican productos de primera necesidad (alimentos variados, ropa, guantes, sombreros, velas, chocolates, utensilios diversos…) de reducida elaboración y fundamentalmente para el abastecimiento del mercado local. El panorama se completa con harineras, molinos, alfares, carpinterías, talleres de curtidos y establecimientos de productos de papel. Todas estas manufacturas componen una estructura que apenas se ha iniciado en las fabricaciones modernas y, en realidad, hasta el final del siglo XIX solo se pueden destacar dos iniciativas verdaderamente fabriles, pero de escasa relevancia y corta duración en el tiempo: la Fábrica de Papel Continuo (1841, 120 empleos) y la Fábrica de Loza Fina (1846, 100 empleos).
Sobre este panorama preindustrial, se producirá un primer avance vinculado al progreso urbano. De la mano de la luz, el agua, las infraestructuras, el abastecimiento y la modernización de algunas producciones tradicionales surgirán en Burgos las primeras máquinas y los primeros edificios industriales. La Fábrica de Gas (1862), las Fábricas de Luz de la Compañía Municipal de Aguas (1889 y 1900), la Azucarera Burgalesa (1900) o la Sociedad Hidroeléctrica El Porvenir (1915) son algunos de los ejemplos de una primera dinámica de cambios en la producción industrial. Pero realmente no será hasta las décadas de 1930 y 1940 cuando las verdaderas fábricas, los edificios industriales modernos, de grandes dimensiones y con maquinaria y líneas de producción en serie, lleguen a la ciudad. En el año 1930 comenzará a operar en Burgos la Sociedad Española de Seda Artificial (SESA), marcando el hito de la primera industrialización contemporánea, el comienzo del primer impulso industrial relevante, que se extenderá hasta bien entrados los años cincuenta, y que tendrá en la década de 1940 su principal exponente. Los años cuarenta, en la primera posguerra, fueron un escenario singular en el que desapareció la primitiva economía preindustrial, en el contexto de la nueva España del Franquismo; la industria llegó a la ciudad de Burgos y las fábricas modelaron la extensión urbana, convirtiéndose en protagonistas de la formación del extrarradio.

Edited volume about Tatabánya during the First Wolrd War. It contains essays about the local coal mining industry, the military units of the coal miners, about a great strike in 1917 and the following martial law, about the life in Tatabánya during the war, a database about war-related issues in local public administration records and a detailed essay about the military deaths of WWI related to Tatabánya. It was edited by me and was published in Tatabánya by Tatabánya City Archives in 2019.

Nina Kleinöder, Stefan Müller und Karsten Uhl leiten die Bemühungen des Sammelbandes um eine Verortung von »Humanisierung« der Arbeit in einem breiteren Kontext des 20. Jahrhunderts ein. Ausgehend vom Bundesprogramm »Humanisierung des Arbeitslebens« (1974-1989) rückt dazu eine allgemeine Historisierung der Geschichte der »Humanisierung« in den Fokus. Die Herausgeber*innen loten hinsichtlich der transnationalen Sozialgeschichte, der Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensgeschichte sowie der Wissens- und Technikgeschichte verschiedene Forschungsperspektiven ausg, an die der Sammelband anschließt. Sie grenzen dabei mit dem im Sammelband gewählten Zugriff einer Geschichte des HdA-Programms und der Debatte technischer und ökonomischer Entwicklung der letzten Jahrzehnte die Geschichte der »Humanisierung der Arbeit« deutlich von den sozialhistorischen Anfängen ab. Insbesondere die Frage der Qualität der Arbeit (und der Auseinandersetzung darum) spielt in der historischen Analyse der versammelten Beiträge eine wichtige Rolle.

Staatliche Reglementierungen, die ein humanitäres Arbeiten gewährleisten, wirken heutzutage wie eine Selbstverständlichkeit. Doch wie kam es zu solchen Eingriffen in die Arbeitswelt? Der Band setzt erstmals die Bemühungen um eine »Humanisierung des Arbeitslebens« in den breiten Kontext einer transnationalen Geschichte der Arbeit: Wie dachten Akteure und Akteurinnen der Arbeitswelt über eine »menschlichere« und »gerechte-re« Gestaltung von Arbeit nach? Welche Initiativen unternahmen sie, welche (widersprüchlichen) Interessen verfolgten sie und wie ordneten sich diese Arbeitspolitiken in die Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts ein? Ausgehend vom Humanisierungsprogramm der Bundesregierung (1974-1989) nehmen die Beiträge das Verhältnis von Rationalisierung und Humanisierung in den Blick und untersuchen Austauschbeziehungen zwischen Wissenschaft und betrieblicher Praxis.

The last quarter of the nineteenth century has been characterised as a period
heralding a decline in participation by British urban elites in the day-to-day activities
of the towns and cities that housed their businesses. It is often argued that these
businessmen withdrew from leadership in the urban sphere and adopted a more
leisurely, country-focused, gentrified lifestyle.1 Recent work has challenged the extent
of elite withdrawal from towns and cities and this paper suggests that it is useful to
consider the period as one of reconfiguration of industrialist engagement with the
Victorian ‘boom town’ rather than one characterised by decline. Taking the North
Eastern England industrial town of Middlesbrough as a case study, this article
highlights evidence of continued industrial elite involvement in the traditional areas
of influence such as municipal and economic life, as well as placing heightened
emphasis on their exercise of authority through leadership of voluntary bodies and
patronage of company-driven initiatives. It is argued that through this evolution of
industrialist urban engagement, Middlesbrough’s steel magnates continued to play a
crucial role in the fabric of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century
‘Ironopolis’ alongside the petite bourgeoisie and working-classes that have often
been portrayed as displacing the industrial elite.

Història de l’empresa La Farga Lacambra des dels seus origens a la Barceloneta fins a l’actualitat: 200 anys d’història. El llibre es fonamenta en la recerca i documentació realitzada per Pere Pascual Domènech que juntament amb Jordi Nadal són els autors de:
Pascual, P.; Nadal, J. (2008), El coure. I. Producció i consum a l'era industrial, les Masies de Voltregà: Eumo Editorial/La Farga Group. ISBN: 978-84-9766-279-6.
Pascual, P.; Nadal, J. (2008), El coure. II. La Farga Lacambra (1808-2007): un estudi socioeconòmic, les Masies de Voltregà: Eumo Editorial/La Farga Group. ISBN: 978-84-9766-280-2.

An urban characterisation study of Bethesda was undertaken in 2017 in support of the Wales Slate World Heritage Nomination to be submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Bethesda is a small town in the Ogwen valley, among the foothills of Snowdonia in Gwynedd. It came into existence in the nineteenth century to house workmen employed in local slate quarries, primarily Penrhyn, one of the largest slate quarries in North Wales.

The report outlines the history of quarrying in the locality and the chronological development of the town. The character study examines the pattern of settlement and its relationship to its existing infrastructure of roads and land ownership. The report discusses the influence on building styles of the local economy, cultural aspirations, social structure and the use of local materials, all of which have contributed to Bethesda’s special character.

From the 1820s a landscape of farms and small quarries was transformed into a town, but economic growth was not sustained in the twentieth century, with a result that the character of the town today is the result of a few decades of growth in the nineteenth century. The town grew up along a stretch of road on the east side of the River Ogwen, centred around the chapel which gave the town its name. A number of landowners leased building plots for workmen’s houses, mostly along existing roads, a pattern of settlement that eventually coalesced to form a town, in which the main road became the commercial centre.

Houses are broadly uniform in style, with some early single-storey cottages in a rural tradition, but they are grouped in various ways, from pairs to longer terraces, and in parts forming grids of parallel streets. Social distinction is revealed in subtle ways, with some houses open directly to the street, others behind garden walls, while others open to pathways with gardens in front of the houses. Economic aspiration is displayed in the commercial buildings on the High Street, and cultural aspirations are displayed in the town’s surviving chapels, Capel Bethesda and Capel Jerusalem being notably ambitious works and prominent buildings in the town centre.

Building materials contribute much to the character of the town. Field stone, dressed quarried stone (for higher-status buildings) and waste slate from the slate quarries are all used in various ways. The ingenious use of sawn slate is especially notable, for example for storm porches with Gothic arches.

The various themes are drawn together to show that Bethesda retains a strong and distinctive nineteenth-century character based on its unique combination of topography, pre-existing infrastructure, economic and social history, and the local natural resources with which its buildings were constructed. The report concludes with recommendations on the merits of designation of Conservation Area status.

Operating at the nexus of the coal industry, the railroads, the daily press, labor migration, and urbanization, private security firms like the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency “helped convey Virginia from the unruly mob rule of the Gilded Age to the codified, business-friendly Jim Crow system of the Progressive era.” From patrolling the railways as Norfolk and Western railroad detectives to policing labor action in the West Virginia mine wars, firms like William Baldwin’s were “examples of the New South service economy” and helped institute “the profitability and professionalization of white supremacy, as well as a burgeoning carceral enterprise.”

This part traces the controls of lead in the British workplace following Legge and Goadby's momentous book in 1912.  Thomas Legge took a leading part in the negotiation of the ILO convention which aimed to substantially restrict the use of lead in paint.  However, the British government refused to  ratify this and introduced controls on use instead.  The article traces the politics, reasons and consequences of this decision, and its effects up to today.  It provides an example of the practical and social problems of control of risk by the substitution of a less hazardous substance.