Valenti Esparo
This entry applies to Valentí Esparó i Giralt (born in Llivia in 1792).
In 1825 he married Dolors Bonaplata, daughter of Salvador Bonaplata, a textile manufacturer.
In 1839 Esparó took over the old workshops of Bonaplata, Rull, Vilaregut and Compañía, but abandoned textile manufacture and concentrated on the foundry and on construction of machinery.
In 1840, its workshops were the most important in Barcelona. The only other significant foundries there were Nuevo Vulcano and Francesc Lacambra.
In the 1844 Catalan Exhibition the firm exhibited textile machinery, a steam engine, hydraulic presses, pumps, scales, etc.
1849 The first steam vessel 'Remolcador' totally conceived and built in Spain, had machinery built by Valentí Esparó. Joseph White, later the director of Nuevo Vulcano, was the engineer; Nuevo Vulcano provided the boilers; Pere Sisterer was the shipbilder.
1850 Valentí Esparó was collaborating with Nicolau Tous, from La Barcelonesa, in the ironworks construction.
The old workshops at the Bonaplata factory became inadequate, and land was bought in the Barceloneta.
1855 Merger La Barcelonesa de Tous and Ascacíbar, to form La Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima, of which Esparó was the first president.
Esparo died on February 10, 1859.
The above information is condensed from 'La Maquinista Terrestre i Marítima: Valentí Esparó i Companyia (1839-1855) [1]