manufacturers of clinical analysis devices in the 1940s
Once the nightmare of the Civil War was over, Barcelona’s
analysts were recovering some normality, though with many
difficulties, such as electrical restrictions many days
of the week and trouble to replenish equipment. Some craft
workshops were offering answers for some of these problems,
such as:
Metalworkers. They manufactured with difficulty culture
heaters, Wassermann’s water baths, centrifuges, autoclaves
and small accessories, such as brackets, double nuts, etc.
It is worth to mention craftsmen, such as widow Maixó,
who manufactured the Extra brand; and Badia Lizano, with
the Record brand. These two workshops were the landmark
of an era. Meanwhile, there was a company of great prestige,
Hartmann, later Industrias Sanitarias S.A., which mastered,
with remarkable quality, great surgical and sterilization
facilities. Metalworkers were hard-working people who delivered
their material by any possible means and, above all, whenever
they could. They were working at seven in the morning, though
they stopped to have breakfast at nine, grilled cod and
a jar of wine at the closest diner. They ran a doubtlessly
much better life than most of nowadays’ company managers.
Since 1957, under the Stabilization Act, and together with
the young people that arrived then, better products started
to be manufactured, through the application of electronics.
Thus, Joaquim Puig appeared, with his Selecta brand; Francesc
Roura, of the Grífols Group, with the Gri-cel brand;
as well as veteran brands, such as Crison and Atom. Regarding
precision scales, together with the excellent German Sartorius
ones, Juan Cobos also appeared.
Reagents and colorants. The brand that had traditionally
ruled the market had been Merck, from Darmstadt. But imports
were nearly impossible. Then, Casimir Busquets, with his
factory in Badalona, created the Probus brand, with a quality
that made it accepted and dominant in the market. The company
Montplet soon created a brand of reagents, Panreac, and
thus helped solving the regular supply of basic products
for analysts.
Known wax-based filter paper. Though there was no problem
to get regular filter paper, it was not so easy for known
wax-based one. The traditional brand in Spain had been German
Sleicher & Schüll, impossible to find then which
made up Rómulo Torrents Albet’s mind, a manufacturer
from l’Anoia, to enter a complex field and make it
with a quality that completely solved the problem.
Swabs. It is doubtlessly a product lacking any technology,
though it was necessary for someone to supply it. This was
a Yugoslavian gypsy, named Vasilivitch: short, fat, dark-skinned
and with curly hair. Every week, he passed by the shops
with a pouch in his arm and then he delivered orders the
following day, though always getting paid in cash and never
giving a receipt or an invoice in return.
Machine-blown glass: flasks and glasses. Three native brands
that were solving problems as they could were Ermex, of
Unión Vidriera of Spain, Belgor, from Valencia, and
Termicus, of Cristalerías Planell. None of them manufactured
low-dilation-degree glass and it was extremely difficult
until Pirex and Schott-Jena glass could be imported.
Blown glass equipment: there was an array of small workshops
with sections for glass blowing, frosting and etching. Among
them, there was the Afora brand, which contributed volumetric
materials with a contrast certificate or precision warranty
and often instruments with interchangeable frosting as well,
which took the place of cork and rubber lids to join flasks
to columns, coolants, etc. Later on, their example was followed
by Manuel Tremoleda’s Proton brand, and Leben’s
and Pérez’s Dra brand.
Carles Badia Moret
Manufacturer of glass clinical analysis devices.
© Official Medical Association of Barcelona 
