page_title: Tejo Power Station (working conditions)
section_title: Division of labour
hierarchical_section_title: Tejo Power Station (working conditions) / Division of labour
caption_attribution_description: Português: Boneco Chegador ao Museu da Electricidade (Central Tejo)
context_page_description: The entire operation of the Tejo Power Station, as well as the evolution of electricity in the city of Lisbon, was only possible thanks to the work carried out by the people who set all of the machinery in motion, day and night, guaranteeing that the coal-fired power station never interrupted its production.
context_section_description: The Tejo Power Station is a highly complex industrial body, and the number of workers it required demanded a hierarchical labour structure subdivided by room, with the harder work coexisting beside the more bearable tasks. Needless to say, those who worked near the boiler suffered more than those who, for example, controlled it from the control desk.
  There were approximately 45 types of jobs in the power station, ranging from work in the plant such as that done by the ‘Alcochetanos’ or the stokers, to work done in the workshops and the electricians in the substation.
  Work areas in the power station:
  Praça do Carvão (Coal Square): This is where the workers who unloaded and distributed the coal were found. The Alcochetanos, responsible for unloading the coal from the boat to the square, were hired periodically for this job. Their name was due to them being men and women from Alcochete, a town located on the other side of the Tagus River. They would unload the coal, carry it and pile it according to its country of origin.
  In the square, the power station workers called the ‘Square’s Men’ distributed the coal, ensuring that it reached the boilers’ feed system.
  On a regular workday, there would be approximately 16 people on each shift, including foremen, machinery maintenance men and those who controlled the bucket elevators and the scale.
  Boiler Room: this is the room that required the greatest number of workers in the entire power station: ninety people between 8am and 5pm, and thirty people for the rest of the workday. Here, each job was crucial to the successful operation of the boilers.
  One chief engineer supervised the boilers with two men directly under him. To control the boilers, there was the head operator who, from the control desks, controlled steam production, while the sub-head operator gave instructions from the top of the boiler. Regarding the coal burning, the operator controlled the combustion quality, while the stoker, from behind the boiler, pushed the unburnt coal to be re-burned, thereby clearing the combustion conveyor belt.
  Ash Room: The workers responsible for removing the coal ash were located in the room beneath the boiler room. Their job was to take the ash from the silos and deposit it outside the power station.
  Machinery and auxiliary room: This is where all of the power station's more qualified personnel were found since, and without underestimating the workers who suffered most, there is a huge difference between setting a boiler in motion and controlling the turbo-alternator sets, the electric power generators and all the auxiliary equipment. Approximately 15 people worked here during the day, from technical engineers, machinists and the staff responsible for the water purification process, to cleaning and maintenance personnel.
  Substation: This is where the electricians in charge of the substation and its electrical equipment–such as transformers and circuit-breakers, etc.–worked.
  Some of the activities that complemented production must also be brought to notice, such as the laboratory, workshops, the design room and warehouses. In the Electricity workshop, maintenance was carried out on all of the power station's electrical infrastructures. In the carpentry and ironwork workshops, workers made molds, furniture and a wide variety of parts for the power station's operation. In this work space, the workday began at 8am and ran until 5pm, and involved approximately 50 people.
  There was also security work (four people per shift), and staff in charge of administrative processes.
caption: Mannequin of operator shovelling coal inside a high pressure boiler.
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