Portable Steam Engines and Traction Engines and Their Use in Rural Areas: The Case of Lezíria Ribatejana, Portugal

ABSTRACT

In the second half of the 19th century, the area known as Lezíria, in Portugal, started to use portable steam and traction engines in agricultural production. Out of more than a hundred original examples, all of them manufactured in England, little more than a dozen survive today, with different levels of preservation. This article studies these for the first time through an archaeological perspective, identifying their use and importance in different agricultural activities in the production of goods such as olive oil.

KEYWORDS:

• Lezíria Ribatejana
• Portugal
• portable steam engines
• traction engines

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to all who helped us in producing this paper, especially to Jorge Custódio, the principal researcher in the project Steam Age in Portugal, João Pimenta and Henrique Mendes from the Vila Franca Museum, Aníbal Mendes from Coruche Municipality, Inês Teixeira from Quinta de Santo André, Marta Milheiro from Museu de Almeirim, Pedro Lufinha from Quinta da Alorna and Mr Antero, for all the tasty roasted quinces.

Notes

1. Madaleno, I.M., ‘Companhia Das Lezírias — O Passado e o Presente’, HISPANIA NOVA. Revista de Historia Contemporánea, 6 (2006), online, http://hispanianova.rediris.es [accessed 11 July 2017].

2. Custódio, J., A máquina a vapor de Soure (Porto: Fundação Belmiro de Azevedo, 1998).

3. Pacheco, S., ‘As Caldeiras Babcock & Wilcox em Portugal (1867 a 1926), uma inovação? Análise do ponto de vista da Arqueologia Industrial’ (unpublished MA dissertation, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, NOVA University of Lisbon, 2017).

4. This project (2014–20) is supervised by Dr Jorge Custódio at NOVA University of Lisbon.

5. Custódio, J. & J. Sequeira, ‘The Age of Steam in Portugal Research Project’, TICCIH Bulletin, 73 (2016), 7–8.

6. Cossons, N., ‘Industrial Archaeology: the Challenge of the Evidence’, The Antiquaries Journal, 87 (2007), 17.

7. Relatório da Repartição das Manufacturas do Ministério das Obras Públicas, Comércio e Indústria, Apresentação à Câmara dos Deputados pelo Ministro e Secretário de Estado Respectivo (Lisbon, 1857).

8. Sequeira, J., ‘De Almeirim à CUF: os empreendimentos fabris do Visconde Da Junqueira (1843–1870)’ (unpublished MA dissertation, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, NOVA University of Lisbon, 2015).

9. CIP — Conjunto de Interesse Público (Building of public interest) (Portaria no. 117/2010, 14 December); (MIP — Monumento de Interesse Público (Monument of public interest)/ ZEP (Area with special protection), Portaria no. 740-BG/2012, DR, 2a. série, no. 248 de 24 December 2012).

10. Custódio, J., ref. 2.

11. Gregory, T., Portable Engines (Driffield: Japonica Press, 2014), 30.

12. Ibid., 30.

13. Ibid., 8.

14. Sequeira, J., T. Casimiro & J. Figueiredo, ‘“Retire-se Que Isto Não Acaba Bem”: o caso do processo n.° 3062 da 3.ª Circunscrição Industrial e a importância das Circunscrições Industriais para a Arqueologia Industrial’, Al-Madan Online, II Série, 21.3 (2017), 145–56.

15. Reis, J., ‘Latifúndio e progresso técnico: a difusão da debulha mecânica no Alentejo, 1860–1930’, Análise Social, XVIII (1982), 371–433.

16. Exposição de Alfaia Agrícola na Real Tapada da Ajuda (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1898).

17. Gregory, T., ref. 11, 11.

18. Process number 809 of Caldeiras e Recipientes de vapor/ 3ª Circunscrição Industrial (former DRELVT archive). The machine is said to have been out of action since 1954.

19. Regulamento para os geradores e recipientes de vapor, Diário do Governo, 30 de Junho de 1884, http://legislacaoregia.parlamento.pt/V/1/58/39/p329; Sequeira, et al., ref. 14 [accessed 6 July 2017].

20. Process number 1177/ 3ª Circunscrição Industrial (former DRELVT archive) refers to the explosion of a boiler in a textile factory owned by Adelino Gonçalves Estêvão, in Ancião, Leiria, an accident that fatally injured a child who was working as an apprentice.

21. The former Direcção Regional de Economia de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo closed in 2015 and all the documentation relating to the processes is not available for consultation until further notice.

22. Redol, A., Gaibéus (Lisboa: Caminho, 2011), 193.

23. http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Ransomes,_Sims_and_Head [accessed 13 May 2016].

24. Former DRCLVT archive, process 809.

25. Sequeira, J., ref. 8, 78; ibid., 73.

26. A veraci system is when the olives are crushed by an olive oil mill with two millstones.

27. Pacheco, S., ref. 3.

28. Coelho, A., Cadernos da Ascensão. A Terra (Chamusca: Câmara Municipal da Chamusca, 1995); Fonseca, J., História da Chamusca. 1919 a 1950, iv (Chamusca: Câmara Municipal da Chamusca, 2007).

29. Freitas, A., J. Matta, O. Mello, & P. Castel-Branco, Dois lagares de azeite: officinas, material, technica e notas economicas (Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional, 1905), 25.

30. Bonnet, H., Discovering Traction Engines (Buckinghamshire: Shire Publications, Ltd, 1975), 3.

31. Burton, A., Traction Engines — Two Centuries of Steam (Chartwell Books, Inc., 2000), 25.

32. Bonnet, H., ref. 30, 5.

33. At least 15 road rollers, 13 of them made in Germany and two in England in early 20th century, still survive and are the property of the National Roads Authority.

34. Madaleno, I.M., ref. 1; Gazeta dos Lavradores (1879).

35. Although no other information is provided about the builder of this engine, the 1879 date suggests that this machine was built by James and Frederick Howard, Britannia Ironworks, Bedford, England.

36. Camacho, C. & M. Baptista, ‘Trabalhar a Terra, Mecanização e Agricultura em Vila Franca de Xira’, in Trabalhar a Terra, Mecanização e Agricultura em Vila Franca de Xira (Vila Franca de Xira: UNICARO, 1992), 13–25.

37. Brown, J., Steam on the Farm. A History of Agricultural Steam Engines 1800–1950 (Trowbridge: Cromwell Press, 2008).

38. Redol, A., ref. 22, 199.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

João Luís Sequeira

João Luís Sequeira is an archaeologist who dedicates most of his work to contemporary and industrial archaeology. He is a researcher at the Instituto de História Contemporânea at the NOVA University of Lisbon and is currently doing a PhD on the mechanisation of agriculture in Portugal in the late 19th century.

Tânia Manuel Casimiro

Tânia Manuel Casimiro is a researcher at the Instituto de História Contemporânea and Instituto de Arqueologia e Paleociências at the NOVA University of Lisbon, working on a post-doctoral project funded by FCT on the trade and distribution on Portuguese ceramics in the North Atlantic English colonies. Her major interest is in material culture and the relationship between people and things. Although spending most of her time on academic research, with many funded projects, she frequently collaborates in projects undertaken by private archaeological companies dedicated to different periods of time, from Roman to contemporary archaeology.