Old Nail Factory
Year of 1910. Manuel Matos Machado natural of Abobreira and blacksmith profession, married with Luiza Dias Moleiro natural of Carregueira constituting family in this village where were born their children, Laurinda and Luís Machado.
During the 20's, because of his taste for his profession, he opted to build a little larger space on the side of the house, where in parallel with his profession he started to install nail making machines.
As there was no electricity in the village he bought a combustion engine, which was placed in an annex to reduce the noise inside the factory, a noise that could be heard throughout the village when it was working.
The engine, with its movement, started to transmit the drive to all the machines through shafts, drums and belts, as well as a small generator that would provide lighting when necessary.
All the equipment was intended to transform rolls of wire of various thicknesses into nails, from the thin and small "ripar" nails with ~3 cm, to the thicker and longer "galleota" nails with ~10 cm.
This material, after being packaged, was sold to retailers or directly to consumers, mainly connected to the construction industry.
The profitability in production/commercialization in comparison with the national competition, strongly centralized in two or three large factories, was due to the reduction of labor costs, since it was a family industry (father and son).
Production was made over a few dozen years, having started its reduction due to the lack in the final quality origin, the wear and tear of the components of each machine, as well as the control in the commercialization made by the big companies to the small industries.
With this situation also came the advanced age of this descendant, owner, worker and manager, motivating the closure of the same by the 80s.
Currently, by descendant, the obsolete equipment was commercialized for scrap. Later, by fire, the small building was reduced to its current ruins.