Finlaysonin Tehdasalue - details

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The Finlayson factory area is full of memories of the history of Tampere, and its importance to the growth and development of the city cannot be overestimated. The Finlayson factory was established by Scottish gentleman James Finlayson, who was given a permission to set up a factory here in 1820. At first, the factory produced hand-woven wool fabrics, but in 1828 it was transformed into a cotton mill with two spinning machines. This event marks the beginning of large-scale industrial production in Finland. Mr. Finlayson sold his factory to Georg Adolf Rauch and Carl Samuel Nottbeck in 1836. The new owners immediately started to develop the factory area. By 1850 a school, a hospital, a bank and worker housing had been built and Finlayson's parish set up with its own priest. The factory itself was enlarged, and the most important of all the new buildings was the huge weaving mill Plevna (1877), in which 1200 spinning machines were used and where the first electric lightbulb of northern and eastern Europe was lit in 1882. In the same year Finland's first automatic fire extinguishing system was built in the Finlayson factory buildings.