Mallorca

"We shall quickly move on to glass production, for which there are three factories in Palma. A fourth one, located on the ground floor of the Temple building was closed not too long ago. These factories have their own ovens and exclusively produce hollow glass in white, greenish tones or black. They are for very common articles, such as large bottles with glass tops for table wine and others with an elongated and delicate neck which end in a type of glass for aguardiente liquor. There are also oil cruets and similar receptacles, especially demijohns known in Mallorca as barrals and generally covered with esparto grass or wicker mesh with one or two handles equally covered.

There are also three smelting workshops in Palma which work with iron, brass and bronze. The most important of these was founded years ago by a worker from Sóller who, though without education and training, was greatly skilled in these types of jobs. In 1830 he had already built a small steam machine in Sóller, one of the first in Spain and which was still used in his factory until recently and where it is still today stored. The primary items made at this factory are limited to wrought iron, oil presses, plows, reapers and other agricultural tools, as well as ovens, steam machines, wheels and a great variety of similar products. Normally, there are 45 workers employed. All the work is carried out in a very large building with the help of a steam machine.

If in Palma there are 49 blacksmiths and locksmiths, in the rest of the island towns there are a total of 141 with licenses to employ a total of 650 to 750 workers as a whole.

Mallorca also has four match factories, the most important being in Llucmajor providing regular employment to 35 workers. Another one, with twelve workers, is found in the outskirts of Palma, concretely next to the small hermitage of “La Soledad” on the road to Manacor.

There is only one gas factory, and it’s located in Palma. It belongs to a corporation whose capital today totals 1,800,000 reales (473,684 francs), distributed into 1,500 shares whose nominal value is 1,200 reales (314.79 francs) each.

Though royal authorization for this company to operate dates from February 4th, 1859, the truth is that gas lighting began to be installed on August 28th of that year. In the beginning, there were only 20 private subscribers, the figure quickly growing as demonstrated by the 70 subscribers by the end of the same year. The number of users increased progressively in the following years, stabilizing somewhat in the last five years."

Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria. Las Baleares por la palabra y el grabado. Majorca: General Part. Ed. Sa Nostra, Caja de Baleares. Palma de Mallorca. 1982.