On the north coast of Madeira, in the village of Porto da Cruz, there are the Engenhos do Norte. This island was during the XV and XVI centuries the most famous sugar producer in the world, precisely in the period when this good was much more valuable than it is today, so much so that the Europeans of that time knew it by “White Gold” and they used it in cooking, in sweets and even as a decorative element and ostentation. The Porto da Cruz mill is one of the three old mills operating in Madeira. Built in 1927, as a result of the fusion of some of the fifty or so existing ones on the island, it still uses the machines of that time, being the only one in Europe to use steam as a driving force. Among other equipment of this time we highlight the wood burning boiler, built by Jones Burton & Comp. Lda, of Liverpool, another boiler fueled with firewood and mill waste, manufactured in the defunct Arsenal of St. James, which was a landmark of the industry in Madeira, several steam pumps and in full operation, several copper tubs that served to the manufacture of honey, a serpentine also used in copper used in the manufacture of rum and the French stills of the brand Barbet in column with 7.50 meters of height that still produce agricultural Rum of Madeira.
