Page 28 - Milano Periferia

nobbio, the "Sorini e Migliavacca" of Viale Espinasse, and then the
"Sirio", the "Sessa e Cantù", the "Società ital. per i prodotti dell’ln-
dustria Chimica" (Italian Company for Chemicals), the "Brancardi", the
M Origoni", the "Ranci", the "Edoardo Piatti", etc.

Factories and workmen infiltrated also in other parts of the outskirt cir-
cle: for example the "Officine Meccaniche" (Machine Shops) - formerly
"Meani e Silvestri " - among the most important in Italy for the building
of rolling-stock, occupied, as they still do today, a wide area of 220.000
square metres -78.500 of which covered by 27 buildings - off Porta
Vigentina, near the ring railway connecting Porta Sempione with Porta
Romana.

Near about Porta Romana stood also the "Ferriera Lurani" (Lurani lron-
works) and, a little farther down, the "Brown-Boveri", at Rogoredo the
"Siemens-Martin" steelworks. In the neighbourhood of Porta Venezia the
"Ceramica Lombarda" (Lombard Potteries), the "Bertelli", the "Migo-
ne", the "Langen e Wolf" (an Otto gas engine factory), the "Zen". Near
by Porta Genova the factories of Via Savona: the "Lucchini Perego e C ",
the "Max Mayer", the "Portalupi", the "Banfi", the "Fontana Luigi e
C. ", the "Osram D, the "Carlo e Silvio Fino", etc. To the south, between
the Naviglio Grande canal and the Pavese canal, stood the "Richard-
Ginori" and, oldest of all, the "Cartiera Binda" (a paper mill).

I must omit many other names but not, mentioning here and there, the
"Marelli" of Sesto, the "Larini e Nathan" of Alzaia Pavese (Pavia Towing
Path); the "Stigler" of Via Galileo, the "Koristka" of Parco Sempione,
the "lsotta Fraschini" of Viale Monterosa, the "Bianchi" of Via Pascoli,
the "Macchi e Passoni" of Via Farini, which in Italy was the first factory
producing huge horizontal-chuck lathes.

On the outskirts therefore Milan was seething with the epic deeds of the
workmen: Europe was beating at the doors, overtaking the languid Lom-
bard countryside; the European spirit was like a present offered by the
poor to the rich (the "sciòr ", not yet dreaming of certain American me-
galomanias. The enterprising middle classes in fact, through the Munici-
pality, took care that the new working classes were lodged in at least
more decent houses.

As a matter of fact a "Società edificatrice di case operaie" (Building
Society Providing Working-class Houses) had been established as early
as 1861, obtaining the first free assignments of building sites, but it was
especially a little later and immediately after the first world war that our
town engages in a serious building plan, even though with some inevita-
ble errors, arranging an extensive project for the improvement of the
conditions of the poor classes.

It is not the case in this brief discussion to give too many details on this
first urbanistic expansion tied to the gradual increase of the workers resi-
dent in Milan. Between 1905 and 1909 were built the popular houses of