The Fábrica do Inglês

CORK MUSEUM

European Industrial Museum of the Year 2001

Timetable                     Summer (15th July to 15th September)                     from 09h00 to 13h00                     and                     from 14h00 to 22h00                     Winter (16th September to 14th July)                     from 09h00 to 13h00                     and                     from 14h00 to 18h30           Price - € 1,50 adults;                   - € 1,00 children until 12 or persons in groups with previous booking.

A Practical Guide

1. Conference Room                     Located at the western end with a seating capacity for 55 places and used for film projections and slide shows about cork.           2. Hall           3. Exhibition Room                     Area where documentary evidence used for the introduction to the history of the factory, the raw material cycle and Silves, a Cork City can be observed and described.           4. The Workshop for the Transformation of Cork                     Composed of pedal drills, machines for cutting straight and conical corks, cork slicing machines, and other machines connecting the power source network, whether underground or aboveground, which had been installed in 1921. At the entrance to this room can be found a small area reproducing the earlier semi-manufacturing atmosphere.           5. Metalworks, Ironworks and Leatherworks                     This was the place that guaranteed the maintenance of the machinery being used since the 1920s. It is dominated by the presence of a mechanical lathe, a forge, a drilling machine and a small area for the production of cork batons.           6. Machine Room                     A particularly interesting diesel internal combustion engine surrounded by various water and fuel tanks, made by Ruston & Hornsby and installed at the end of the 1940s, is exhibited. Attention should be paid to the ornamental windows.           7. The Press Room                     An enormous hydraulic press is on show, which was used for pressing cork shavings and other waste products. Other factory products and an important collection of various types of scales for varying purposes are also demonstrated.           8. Documentation/Archive Centre                     Area for investigation and reporting on archive documents and conserved for the museum. Location of cork culture Library.           Outdoor Exhibition                     Outside of the whole of this wing can be seen various pieces of equipment designed for recovery of cork dust by vacuuming or for drying and paraffining bottle corks. In the areas designated for restoration and recreation two open fire boilers, various machines, tools and other items evoking memories of an earlier labour intensive use of space, expanding the concept of a the museum throughout the development. in leaflet of "Fábrica do Inglês" Cork Museum.