Pardubice had been a centre of small-scale chemical production even in previous decades, but the first large chemical factory in the city was the Fanto mineral oil refinery, established in 1889. The building was located to the west of today’s station. The company originally produced mainly kerosene, but it grew rapidly thanks to increasing demand for petrol and diesel.
A major boost to industry in Pardubice came in January 1905 when the František Křižík company built a power plant on the edge of the city (close to the railway, in order to facilitate the supply of coal). Six years later, the plant was taken into municipal ownership.
After the First World War, a huge complex of chemical factories was built on land belonging to the former Semtín estate, to the north-west of Pardubice. The Explosia and Synthesia complex is still functioning today.
In 1922 the Telegrafia company (a producer of weak-current electrical appliances) established a factory in Pardubice. The factory was situated near the city hospital, and it made telephone exchanges, telephones, radios, and (from the 1930s onwards) military equipment. After the war, Telegrafia became part of the much larger Tesla Pardubice corporation, which no longer exists.
The growth of industrial production also brought negative consequences. The steam engines in the factories first burned wood, and then coal. Pardubice’s air became very polluted, and the factories also emitted unpleasant smells. Sugar production polluted the waters of the Labe River at some times of the year, poisoning fish. The sugar refineries further up the Chrudimka River constantly dumped toxic sludge in the water. Far more dangerous than the sugar industry was chemical production. For many decades the Fanto refinery merely pretended that it was purifying its waste water; in fact, it was simply releasing the pollution directly into the Labe.
