In 1832, the Balleydier mechanical plant was born in Sampierdarena, the first large industrial complex born for the initiative of the brothers Joseph-Marie and Jean Balleydier, who created a foundry and a mechanical workshop within the same factory. Among the works carried out by the Balleydier factory, the iron bridge over the Bisagno and the suspension bridge of Serravalle are worth mentioning. The Balleydier plant operated in Sampierdarena for 75 years.

They created (their own headed letterhead: "on the principle of the Old road, near the Lantern") the first industrial metallurgical-mechanical warehouse in Liguria, immediately overcoming the modest quantities of staff of the large craft presence: with the hiring of fifty workers - the first so many together in a predominantly artisan or small business area (soap, candles, silk fabrics, shipbuilding) - a factory body was built containing an oven that used Calizzano and Cadibona, capable of melting the metal and obtaining cast iron in two stages (iron and carbon + silicon, manganese, phosphorus, sulfur) with which they worked on household objects (kitchen utensils, stoves, pots, balconies and various simple objects). Another document in the municipal archive relating to 1832 writes "establishment of a real oven to melt the mineral of the Island of Elba 'managed by the Ballendier brothers" (sic for the name. It was not the first in Liguria: others were already in operation in 1811 in Rossiglione, Masone, Ronco then registered by the Sardinian prefecture).

In 1833 they already consumed 30 thousand rubles of English cast iron, 10 thousand rubles of coke (vegetable charcoal) to which were added 18,500 lignite for the steam engine; and 18,500 rubles of cast iron were produced sold in the Genoese and Piedmont.

Only in '39, did they open a coke coal furnace (sourced by ship), capable of producing the cast iron itself directly in a single process (allowing the manufacture of larger works, such as canopies; water pipes and retorts for illuminating gas ; presses for grapes, oil and pasta; water wheels and toothed rods; buoys, moorings, wheel hubs for artillery, bullets of all sizes, mortars and everything that could be formed by melting the mineral), always preserving from I start the double production, metallurgical (foundry) and mechanical (manufacture), which will eventually become a whole production (from casting to hull, machine tools, scaffolding, etc.).

Already in the first half of the 1840s, the name of the brothers appears among those eager to invest in the railway sector, then at the beginning. but it already demonstrates the versatile managerial availability in opening workshops suitable for the construction of ferrous material or at least - in the railway case - for the repair of rolling stock.

Later they were modernized with the presence of two ovens, with ventilation sleeve, powered in turn by an 8-horsepower steam engine (called Kubilot, patented by the Balleydier himself); this made it possible to obtain over 3,000 kilos of material in a few hours and produce increasingly complex and difficult tools such as steam machines (revolutionizing the manufacturing activity of small artisans, especially in textiles and paper; the main difficulty was the Genoese mentality reluctant to accept the innovations - of thought, customs and mechanics of the 'foresters' -) or iron bridges (one also over the Bisagno in front of the Porta della Pila: the cast iron structure was developed by engineer Barbavera and built in three arches, supported on sandstone of LaSpezia (seen in a drawing of the PDCambiaso, where it has 5 arches). And another, suspended above the Scrivia in Serravalle. Including the mobile covering mechanism of the roof of the 19th-century Politeama Genovese theater, designed by Nicolò Bruno in 1874; and the coverage of Mazzini gallery).

They were awarded a gold medal at the National Products and Manufactures Exhibition, organized in Genoa in 1846 (in the motivation, mention is made of the 49 items exhibited and produced in their foundry).

In a municipal list of 1847, their presence as a cast iron factory is found in the village.

In 1857 Giuseppe Maria died. The grandson Luigi takes over the management. At the handover, the factory occupies 10 thousand m² of land, 350 workers, produces pipes, wheels, chandeliers, agricultural machines (manufactured and marketed) and bullets.

Still in 1870 it had 3-400 workers (one of the most important factories in the new Kingdom), it produced steam machines capable of 20 horses, 'hydraulic presses' (sic. Evidently -as the Piedmontese court also- still spoke French, being a Francesismo di pressoir = press, press), etc., using 3500 t. of raw material.

They appear to have been employed there: year 1833 = 40-60 workers with an average wage of L. 3, 20; 1846 = 60; 1847 = 59; 1857-8 = 180; 1866 = 350; 1874 = 300 (It was in this year, at the restoration of the Politeama of engineer Bruno that 'columns and railings of the first and second galleries were placed, cast in the metallurgical plant of the Balleydier Brothers of San Pier d'Arena alla Coscia'); 1876 ​​= 280; 1890 = 400; 1896 = 250; with oscillations related to the war events (and therefore to the state commissions), the expansion of the railway network, agriculture and its machinery, the participation of the transformation of the marina, from wood to metal.

From this initial nucleus of workers and in this period of time, the great events of union, cultural and social evolution that lasted over a century at the turn of 1900 began: the issues of illiteracy, wages, timetables, relationships and agreements with masters to conquer step by step dignity, fair measures, health and rights (when in those years a farmer received 8 lire a month, a worker earned 2 a day, a weaver 50 cents, a worker in a paper mill 60 cents. starting the time at two in the morning in a system that was never interrupted, they were 'provided with lights, accommodation and work always under cover'); while a rent at home was worth 4 lire per month per room). Since neither banks nor the savings mentality existed, all the gains of the lower classes were consumed in immediate needs, not only necessary but also alcoholic, smoking (they used 'cigarettes'), lottery games.

Of the three, Luigi (son and grandson of the founders) was the most active in social activities and commercial enterprise, because the emerging business world favored his generation. Born on 13.2.1816, he was a palchettista partner of Modena in 1857 when his erection was decided; in 1868 we read it on the board of directors (together with R. Rubattino, the mayor of Genoa A.Podestà and the count Albini) of the 'colonization society for Sardinia' born with the noble purpose of enhancing this region of the kingdom; he also became mayor (maire) of San Pier d'Arena in the 1875s (succeeding N.Montano). He died on April 8, 1891, when the company was booming, employing up to 400 workers. He had shown tenacious attachment to work; even on a human level, he recognized that he preferred to work at a loss rather than lay off one employee.