Factory Torpedo - military program
Naziv
Factory Torpedo - military program
Klasifikacija prema RKD
Vrsta baštine
Valorizacija
Today, the warehouses and workshops of the Torpedo factory are partly preserved within the Wholesale Market Rijeka and other business premises. The rest of the warehouse was abandoned and unconserved. The launch station, although protected, is in extremely poor condition and exposed to decay.
Opis
Torpedo, a factory of weapons, engines and vehicles founded in 1853 in Rijeka under the name Metal Foundry (Fonderia Metalli), as an industrial company for the production of iron objects and the performance of mechanical work in shipbuilding. The factory was founded by the most eminent local financiers, shipowners, merchants and factory workers. Despite this, at first it operated modestly, consuming only 28 tons of iron per year, and at the end of 1857 it had only 25 employees. Although it had its own iron foundry and a 20 hp (14.9 kW) steam engine, due to insufficient funds and poor management it could not outgrow the scope of a larger craft workshop. Therefore, the shareholders entered into negotiations with the English entrepreneur and technician Robert Whitehead, who had already managed to turn the small Trieste foundry Fonderia Strudthoff into the largest supplier of steam boilers of the Austro-Hungarian navy.
