Terni Steel Works
This entry refers to the heavy industrial complex established in Terni, Umbria, in the late 19th century to produce iron and steel.
1884 Vincenzo Stefano Breda established the Società Alti Forni, Fonderie e Acciaiere di Terni (SAFFAT).
1903 Breda died and the business passed into the hands of Attilio Odero and Guiseppe Orlado.
1922 The company changed its name to Terni Società per l'industria et Elettricita
The above information is condensed from the ARVEDI AST website.
1937 The plant became part of Finsider, which was purchased in 1980 by Ilva group.
See Engineering 1887/06/10 for a description, with plans, of the 'Terni Steel Works', from which:
The works were begun in the summer of 1884, and in May, 1886, steel rails were produced. The manufacture of bars and
plates followed, and in August 1885 ingots of 60 tons and
upwards were cast for armour-plates, and the great '100-ton' hammer was put into operation.
Subsidiary to the Terni Works, and owned by the company, were mines of lignite at Terni and Spoleto; Iron mines, blast furnaces, and steel works at Val Trompia, in Lombardy, for the production of spiegel and ferro-manganese and of high quality steel; Foundries at Terni capable of turning out castings weighing 120 tons; blast furnaces were under construction, at Civita Vecchia for making pig iron from Elba ore, and coke ovens for the use of these furnaces and for the Terni foundries.
Signor Breda arranged to use water from the Velino to provide power for the steel works. For this purpose a watercourse, 6.6km metres in length, was constructed, half being tunnelled, and the remainder in pipes, with 90 metres, only of open canal.
'This power is applied for the purposes of the works to
fifty turbines, revolving on horizontal axes, and four
water-pressure engines. These latter set in motion compressors, by means of which the air is compressed to five
atmospheres in a receiver of 1000 metres capacity, built of
cast-iron pipes 1 metre 25 centimetres in diameter. The
pressure of air is regulated by reaction against a column
of water which descends from a reservoir situated 50 metres
above the level of the steel works, and the air is distributed for working all the hammers and cranes. In this
manner water and compressed air are exclusively employed for the purposes for which steam is used in other
similar works. .... The works are lighted by electricity. Seven turbines
set in motion fourteen dynamo-electric machines, supplying light to 200 arc lights each of 2000 candle-power and
1000 incandescence lights of various powers.
The number of workmen employed in the steel works
is about 3000, and in the foundries 1000. The service of
the mines at Terni, Spoleto, and Val Trompia is about
2000, making a total of 6000 workmen in the employment
of the Terni Society, a number which is being considerably augmented as the works are being extended. ....'
See The Engineer 1907/03/08 for a description and drawing of the 108-ton pneumatic hammer.