Factory

A factory (previously manufactory) or manufacturing plant is an industrial site, usually consisting of buildings and machinery, or more commonly a complex having several buildings, where workers manufacture goods or operate machines processing one product into another.

Factories arose with the introduction of machinery during the Industrial Revolution when the capital and space requirements became too great for cottage industry or workshops. Early factories that contained small amounts of machinery, such as one or two spinning mules, and fewer than a dozen workers have been called "glorified workshops".

Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production. Large factories tend to be located with access to multiple modes of transportation, with some having rail, highway and water loading and unloading facilities.

Factories may either make discrete products or some type of material continuously produced such as chemicals, pulp and paper, or refined oil products. Factories manufacturing chemicals are often called plants and may have most of their equipment – tanks, pressure vessels, chemical reactors, pumps and piping – outdoors and operated from control rooms. Oil refineries have most of their equipment outdoors.

Highly Evolved

Highly Evolved is the debut studio album by Australian alternative rock band The Vines. It was released on 14 July 2002 on Capitol Records. Produced by Rob Schnapf, Highly Evolved was an immensely popular debut, part of a trend towards garage rock revival bands known as much for the relentless hype from the UK music press as for their music; The Vines were frequently compared to Nirvana. The debut single, "Highly Evolved", was chosen as Single of the Week by influential British music magazine NME. The magazine also voted it the 2nd best album of the year in 2002. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In October 2010, it was listed in the book 100 Best Australian Albums.

Recording and mastering

Highly Evolved was recorded and mixed at Sound Factory and Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, California. It was recorded between July 2001 and February 2002. The recording was assisted by Craig Conard, Kevin Dean and Nathan Burden.

"Get Free" was mixed at Enterprise 1, Burbank, California and was assisted by Brian Douglass.

Factory (trading post)

A factory (from Latin facere, meaning "to do"; Portuguese feitoria, Dutch factorij, French factorerie, German Faktorei) was an establishment for factors or merchants carrying on business in foreign lands. Initially established in parts of Medieval Europe, factories eventually spread to other parts of the world in the wake of European trading ventures and, in many cases, were precursor to colonial expansion. Factories could serve simultaneously as market, warehouse, customs, defense and support to navigation or exploration, headquarters or de facto government of local communities. The head of the factory was the chief factor.

In North America, this trading formula was adopted by colonists and later Americans to exchange goods with local non-Western societies, especially in Native American Indian territory. In that context, these establishments were often called trading posts.

European medieval factories

Although European colonialism traces its roots from the Classical Era – Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans established colonies around the Mediterranean – and almost every major city of the world once started as a trading post (Venice, Naples, Rotterdam, New York, Shanghai, Lisbon, etc.), "factories" were a unique institution born in medieval Europe.