Ferdinando Innocenti: a brief biography

Ferdinando Innocenti was born in Pescia on September 1, 1891. His father, Dante Innocenti, a blacksmith, soon moved from the city of Grosseto, where he opened a hardware store on the street Galileo, as he continues his work as a blacksmith. A few years later, a second store opened in Corso Carducci. Ferdinando, after completing his third year in a technical school, started his business with his father and his half-brother Rosolino (son of his father's first marriage) to the head of the "Innocenti Ferramentas" (1906). Thanks to all the activities at the time, the family was already wealthy.

At 18, the young Ferdinand led the family business and started its activity mainly in the iron recovered from the undertakings of the drainage of the marshes of the Maremma. Iron traded oil, and oil sales made great profits.

In 1920, he began experimenting the possible applications of iron tubes and in 1923 he moved to Rome, where he planned to invest about half a million pounds to expand its business. Fortunately, the bank where his money was deposited went bankrupt after a few months, and Ferdinand was forced to slow down and take time to recover a large sum of money.

Despite this misfortune, Ferdinando was not discouraged and soon began to trade in steel pipes produced by Dalmine Mannesmann no. 1928 has seen a boom in construction and economic situation in Italy was a thriving. Agriculture is also growing, thanks to a fasistivallanpitäjien politics and the result of the disappearance of union activity. The negative output of public policy, however, was 11-12% reduction in wages between 1921 and 1924.

From 1921-1931 fasistivallanpitäjien presented a plan for the construction and remoderning, especially in the capital. In this decade, Rome looked like a huge courtyard manufacturer, and the general mood was "a monumental renaissance of the city." Opportunities Ferdinand, and in 1926 opened the storage tube River Port Street and Support Center, where she built the operations of products. "Fratelli Innocenti", as the name of the company in 1930, has started production of scaffolding pipe in 1933. British Scaffolding installation and dismantling of a special high-speed system is used.

In 1931, Fernando began to build a plant irrigation of rain in the gardens of Castel Gandolfo the Pope (14 hectares). Water was provided by the Lake Albano. Immediately after, he worked in a plant similar to the Vatican gardens, and completed a fire and a power plant. He also used his patent scaffolding for the Sistine Chapel where he had the opportunity to demonstrate the quality of the project: the scaffolding is assembled and disassembled in a very short time, and without interfering with the priceless murals by Michelangelo. Franco Ratti in Desio, a nephew of Pius XI, and Leone Castelli, who owns a construction company working in the Vatican, were providential for Ferdinando to take part in the project of the Sistine Chapel.

The project ended in 1935, beginning the following year with Ferdinando was charged to install 6,000 square meters, covering a vast complex of his pipes in the world exposition of the Catholic press.

Great company to obtain contracts of prestige, which not only helped turn the small industrial enterprise in the business world, but he got the most useful that have contributed to its expansion. In 1932, industrial production was recorded 27% less than in 1928, Ferdinando Innocenti in Milan but the place to go for its operation. The city was in fact very active, the Central Station was then under construction, and the economic crisis was not as bad as elsewhere. Northern Italy, Innocenti had a privileged position and has won several contracts. In 1929, due to a serious crisis, 300,000 persons were registered as being free from work, and have increased by more than one million in 1931, of which 715 000 in the industrial sector.

With the help of Ratti who was then in the Dalmine Board of Directors and was also an important role in other companies, especially the Vatican through his friendships, he won the Vatican to Castel Gandolfo. The seat of Fratelli Innocenti was then opened in Via S. Paul 18

The 20 workers in 1929 was more than a hundred in 1931, when the company began production of irrigation facilities and mobile. The factory in via Pitteri (Milan Lambrate) was built in 1933. Here Innocenti was tested scaffolds produced and marketed today. A new factory was built in October 1933 on a strip of land between the Via Lambro and Pitteri. To start production, a number of displaced workers from Rome.

In November 1933 the company changed its name into "Fratelli Innocenti Società Anonima Fri Tubular Steel Applications." The most important was in Rome, Via XX Settembre, corporate assets 5,000 shares worth more than 1000 Italian lire each. Of these, 3100 belonged to Ferdinand and the 1900 is Rosolino. To reach this amount the company requested the bond worth 5 million pounds, divided in 5000 the value of bonds in 1000 pounds of 4% annual interest. CEO Ferdinando Innocenti.