Abelló Linde Centenary Book

OXYGEN FACTORIES IN SPAIN IN 1922
sidro Abelló, using the name of Fábrica de Oxígeno Linde, was the first
ISpanish industrialist to make oxygen from liquid air. But other companies
followed him, either applying this same system or through the
electrolysis of the water.
After Isidro Abelló, the second manufacturer of oxygen was the French
company L’Air Liquide, which used the system patented by the chemist Georges
Claude, a disciple of Linde’s discovery. They opened an establishment in Bilbao.
After the attempt by the French to absorb the Barcelona factory, mentioned in a
pervious chapter, Isidro Abelló, Fábrica de Oxígeno-Linde covered the
Mediterranean area, while L’Air Liquide did so in the north of Spain, where the
large steelworks were, major buyers of oxygen.
After the First World War, the deficit in oxygen all over the country led to
the appearance of new industries and the expansion of the existing ones, so that
in a short while they went from a situation of deficit to one of possible surplus
production. The first tendency of the newcomers was to cover the territories
without factories, as the buyers of oxygen in those areas were at a disadvantage
due to the extra cost involved in the transportation. The second tendency was to
go to the main productive and consumer centres in the country, which were
experiencing a sharp rise in demand.
Basically, Barcelona and Bilbao concentrate the main initiatives. Barcelona is
still the “workshop of Spain”, a characteristic that has distinguished it for nearly a
century, and has a large metallurgical industry, consuming oxygen. Bilbao is the
capital of a Basque Country in which industrialization has been based around steel
and metallurgy, which offer a wide field of action to oxygen and its applications.
Madrid is the capital of Spain, not very industrialized; but its population is growing,
along with the demand for industrial services.
Use of welding equipment in a
metallurgy industry
The commercial war for the spanish market (1922-1935) 75