FAZENDA IPANEMA - Mistérios e Curiosidades que ninguém conta - A Real fabrica de ferro

Guia Junior (15) 996190693 The Royal Iron Factory of São João de Ipanema, or Fundição Ipanema, was a steel mill that operated between 1810 and 1926 on the Ipanema Farm, located in the district of Bacaetava, municipality of Iperó, in the interior of São Paulo. D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, minister of D. João VI, commissioned Varnhagen and Martim Francisco de Andrada e Silva to design a modern Iron Factory that would use the ore from Araçoiaba. The project was completed in July 1810, budgeted at 60 contos de réis. The proposal emphasized the need to bring in European technicians experienced in steelmaking techniques. The company was created by Royal Charter on December 4, 1810, as a mixed capital company, with thirteen shares belonging to the Portuguese Crown and 47 to private shareholders from São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Bahia.[3] To implement it, a team of Swedish technicians was brought to the region, hired in December 1809, led by Carl Gustav Hedberg. In addition to the presence of magnetite deposits, the abundance of wood to feed the furnaces and water collected from the Ipanema River, the driving force par excellence until the mid-19th century, were decisive in choosing the location. In 1815, Hedberg was replaced by the German Ludwig Wilhelm Varnhagen, who was in charge of building the factory's blast furnaces, which were inaugurated in 1818. Two smelting campaigns were carried out, one lasting 3 months and the other lasting seven months. In 1820, José Bonifácio visited the Factory and wrote a Memoir criticizing the functional architecture of the blast furnaces.[4] The blast furnaces of the Royal Iron Factory of Ipanema, under the direction of João Bloem, produced many of the articles needed by 19th-century Brazil, from iron pots to machinery for sugar and coffee mills, railings, ladders, lamps, etc., with articles winning awards at national and international fairs at the time. The labor of specialized public slaves was used in the Ipanema Factory.[5] These slaves had belonged to the State since 1760, when the assets of the Jesuits were confiscated by the Portuguese Crown. Slave labor at the Factory was present in practically all stages of production, performing the most diverse activities.[6] The Factory experienced a period of growth and investment under the direction of Colonel Mursa, between 1865 and 1890. With the reforms introduced in the internal profiles of the blast furnaces, the daily production of pig iron doubled. The Austrian workers he brought in 1878 allowed the introduction of a new iron refining process, the Styrian process, which was more efficient. One of the techniques Mursa used to ensure economic support for the enterprise was the distribution of collections of objects related to iron manufacturing in Ipanema. A box of these objects can be seen at the Republican Museum of Itu[7] and another is part of the collection of the National Museum,[8] in Rio de Janeiro. Images duly authorized through ICMBio process no. 02072.000002/2021-13. Acknowledgements: Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation - IPANEMA NATIONAL FOREST/ICMBio Information: https://www.icmbio.gov.br/flonaipanema/ ICMBio - Ipanema National Forest - Flona Ipanema