Cascami Seta, view of the plant in 1904

Construction of the Cascame plant began in 1897; in 1899 the first department opened — the 'macerazione', water-and-lime baths used to soften the cocoons and separate their short fibres.

The Società per la Filatura dei Cascami di Seta, founded at Meina in 1872, chose Vigevano in 1897 on the initiative of Count Giuseppe Bonacossa, the city's parliamentary representative: a family-owned plot at the city's edge was turned into an industrial island.

The silk-waste industry processed what the 'classic' silk-reeling mills threw away: broken cocoons, short fibres, reeling residues. A profit system built entirely on recovery — and on a workforce that was overwhelmingly female.