Industry |
formerly: Scientific instruments Electro-mechanical engineering latterly industrial electromechanical devices |
---|---|
Founded | 1863 |
Founder | Luigi Longoni, Carlo Dell'Acqua, Ignazio Porro |
Key people
|
Bartolomeo Cabella, director (1871-1903) |
Products |
formerly Scientific, and high precision instruments latterly Locomotives, alternators, transformers, electric arc furnaces |
Tecnomasio was an Italian scientific and precision instrument company founded in the 1860s. By the beginning of the 20th century the company has begun to produce electrical equipment. After financial problems in the early 1900s the company was acquired by Brown Boveri becoming Tecnomasio Italiano Brown Boveri commonly known as TIBB; instrument production halted and the company became an industrial electrical equipment producer, one of the major companies in Italy.
The company became part of the ABB group as ABB Tecnomasio in 1988 after the merger of its parent. The plant in Vado Ligure became part of Adtranz and later part of Bombardier's transportation group.
The origins of Tecnomasio go back as far as 1863 when mechanical and civil engineer Luigi Longoni, instrument maker Carlo Dell'Acqua, and optical scientist Ignazio Porro founded a company in Milan. Porro left the company in 1864 to be replaced by photographer Alessandro Duroni forming the company Duroni, Longoni, Dell'Acqua. Alessandro gave up his stake in 1866 and Dell'Acqua in 1868 making Longoni the sole owner. In 1870 Bartolomeo Cabella joined the company. Longoni died in 1871, and Cabella became the director of the company.
Initially the company produced scientific apparatus, including microscopes,heliostats, cathetometers, theodolites and arc lamps. Cabella took over the company in 1878 and the name became Ing. B. Cabella e C.
Under Cabella's management the company attempted to expand its product range from precision instrument to one including industrial electromechanical devices such as alternators and dynamos; the company was converted to a limited company in 1898 as Società Anonima Tecnomasio Italiano ing. B. Cabella e C. By 1903 the company was in a financial crisis, Cabella was dismissed from the company, and Brown Boveri of Switzerland took a 50% stake in the company, forming Tecnomasio Italiano Brown Boveri (TIBB). The company ended its production of instruments and became a manufacturer of industrial equipment.
The milanese electromechanical company Gadda e C. was also acquired by Brown and Boveri in 1908 and the Westinghouse factory in Vado Ligure was acquired in 1921. During the next two decades the factories in Milan played a major role in supplying electrical generators and transformers for Italian hydroelectric plant. The company also became involved in railway electrification, electrifying the line from Bolzano to Brenner founding the company Sae.