Francisco Rodolfo Simch (1877-1937) e a siderurgia no Brasil: bloqueamentos e mutações dos sistemas técnicos no início do século XX

Abstract

This thesis analyses aspects of Francisco Rodolfo Simch’s life (1877-1937) through the history of the techniques and entangled history approach. The Gravataí Mine is an example of state mining, at the beginning of the 20th century. Francisco Rodolfo as a Court of Appeal Judge, a Professor of Free Law School of Porto Alegre, a member of the government of Riograndense Republican Party (PRR), a graduated from the School of Mines of Ouro Preto and a passeur of scientific knowledge performs scale variations through his activities, leading to a transnational dimension of the steelmaking technique and to the human connexion between politics and technique. During the First World War, the involvement of the state in order to achieve energy self-sufficiency and the improvement of transportation systems led to the resumption of the Port of Torres Project, to the creation of the Mineralogical and Geological Service and the exploration of the Gravataí Mine as a state model mine under his supervision. He defended the production and transport of coking coal in the space Gravataí Mine – Port of Torres and the mining of tungsten, a strategic metal, to overcome blockages to the mutation of the steel industry's technical system and promote industrialisation. The research highlights changes in the characteristics of state mining with the succession of the state government in 1928, the economic crisis of 1929 and the Revolution of 1930, and their repercussions on the development of science and steelmaking technique in Brazil. The analysis of Francisco Rodolfo's life stages, considering the dimensions of technique and circulation of scientific knowledge, studies his publications, private and administrative files as sources, which enables to identify his intellectual background and some primary groups of interaction, such as the Service of Public Works. Unpublished sources from Germany clarify the outcome of the 1930 Port of Torres project. A private collection presents a report requested by the government describing technical practices and equipment used, as well as the quality of the obtained coke, bringing the subject of the expertise of state technicians and their flexibility to adjust themselves to the opportunities offered by industrial development. The space Gravataí Mine – Port of Torres had obstacles of political, economic and administrative nature, but left rugosities in contemporary society, which are perceptible in the renewed debate on these themes.