Pasquale & Fratelli Borghi cotton spinning mill

Varano Borghi, Via Motta , ITA
1904
The project of a Lancashire-style cotton spinning mill for a family textile factory located in the town of Varano, Lombardy, was designed by Séquin & Knobel’s office in 1902 and opened in 1904. It is formed by 35 x 9 frame sections, split by a rope race, on the ground floor of 128 × 40 metres. Its pillars consist of two wrought iron U-profiles and carry concrete filler-joist floors with the spans of 3.4 metres lengthwise and 4.2–5.8 metres in the transverse direction. Annexed to the south of the building are two staircase towers and a central tower with toilets, with a rope race connected to the engine house and a boiler house. In the south-eastern corner is situated a dust shaft, with another tower containing toilets connected to the north end of the rope race. All of the four towers, each 29 metres high, carry water tanks of the sprinkler system. The total capacity amounted to 13,440 mule spindles, 15,880 ring spindles and 17,324 ring twisting spindles, which required the drive of 1 250 HP.
Literature:
~, Gebäude einer Baumwollspinnerei, enworfen von Séquin-Knobel in Rütti, Uhland’s technische Rundschau XVII, 1903, Ausg. II, Nr. 6, S. 43–44, Taf. 6; ~, Baumwollspinnerei der Firma Pasquale ed Fratelli Borghi in Varano, Uhland’s technische Rundschau XVII, 1903, Ausg. V, Nr. 3, S. 18–19, Taf. 3; Achille Manfredini, La nuova filatura della ditta Pasquale e Fratelli Borghi in Varano, Il monitore tecnico X, 1904, no. 24, pp. 439–443; Antonello Negri, I cotonifici della Lombardia, in: idem (ed.), Archeologia industriale: monumenti del lavoro fra XVIII e XX secolo. Milano: Touring Club Italiano 1983, pp. 31–32; Ornella Selvafolta, The Development of Industrial Architecture in Lombardy, in: Helena E. Wright – Robert M. Vogel (eds.), Industrial Heritage ’84: The Fifth International Conference on the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage, Vol. 2: Proceedings, The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage 1986, pp. 197–207, here pp. 205 and 206; Axel Föhl – Manfred Hamm, Die Industriegeschichte des Textils. Technik, Architektur, Wirtschaft. Düsseldorf: VDI-Verlag 1988, p. 142 and 149.
Documentation:
ETH Zürich, gta Archiv, fonds no. 116: Séquin & Knobel, box no. 051; Aerial view on Wikimedia
Credit:
Lukáš Beran