Technology as a Public Culture in the Eighteenth Century: The Artisans' Legacy

Mokyr Joel , The gifts of Athena: Historical origins of the knowledge economy (Princeton and Oxford, 2002); idem, “The intellectual origins of modern economic growth”, Journal of economic history, lxv (2005), 2005–351. For syntheses of the factors of growth in the historiography, see Berg Maxine , The age of manufactures 1700–1820 (London, 1985), Hudson Pat , The industrial revolution (Sevenoaks and New York, 1992), and Verley Patrick , La révolution industrielle 1760–1870 (Paris, 1997).

Layton Edwin T. , “Technology as knowledge”, Technology and culture, xv (1974), 31–41; Channell David F. , “Engineering science as theory and practice”, Technology and culture, xxix (1988), 1988–103; Laudan Rachel , “Natural alliance or forced marriage? Changing relations between the histories of science and technology”, Technology and culture, xxxvi suppl. (1995), S17–S28; Guillerme Jacques Sebestick Jan , “Les commencements de la technologie”, Thalès, xii (1968), 1968–72, reprinted in Documents pour l'histoire des techniques, new series, i (2006); Vérin Hélène , La gloire des ingénieurs: L'intelligence technique du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1993); and Le Moigne Jean-Louis , Le constructivisme (Paris, 1994–2003).

Le Moigne Jean-Louis Vérin Hélène , “Sur le processus d'autonomisation des sciences du génie”, in De la technique à la technologie, Cahiers science—technologie—société (Paris, 1984), 42–55.

Hafter Daryl M. , “Philippe de Lasalle: From mise-en-carte to industrial design”, Winterthur portfolio, xii (1977), 139–64; Miller Leslie E. , “Paris—Lyon—Paris: Dialogue in the design and distribution of patterned silks in the 18th century”, in Fox Robert Turner Anthony (eds), Luxury trades and consumerism in Ancien Régime Paris (Aldershot, 1998), 63–96.

Long Pamela O. , Openness, secrecy, authorship: Technical arts and the culture of knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Baltimore, 2001); Brioist Pascal , “Les cercles intellectuels de Londres, XVIe—XVIIe siècle”, Ph.D., European Institute (Florence), 1993; Stewart Larry , The rise of public science: Rhetoric, technology, and natural philosophy in Newtonian Britain, 1660–1750 (Cambridge, 1992); MacLeod Christine , Inventing the industrial revolution: The English patent system, 1660–1800 (Cambridge, 1988); and Hilaire-Pérez Liliane . L'invention technique au siècle des Lumières (Paris, 2000).

Moigne Le Vérin , “Sur le processus d'autonomisation des sciences du génie” (ref. 3).

See Layton quoting Friedrich Rapp: “the engineering sciences possess a prescriptive character” and “provide mere hypothetical imperatives”, in “Science as a form of action the role of the engineering sciences”, Technology and culture, xxix (1988), 82–97.

Rosenberg Nathan , “Factors affecting the diffusion of technology”, Explorations in economic history, x (1972), 3–33; Berg Maxine , “From imitation to invention: Creating commodities in the eighteenth century”, Economic history review, lx (2002), 2002–30; idem, “New commodities, luxuries and their consumers in eighteenth-century England”, in Berg Maxine Clifford Helen (eds), Consumers and luxury: Consumer culture in Europe 1650–1850 (Manchester and New York, 1999), 63–85; Clifford Helen , “Concepts of invention, identity and imitation in the London and provincial metal-working trades, 1750–1800”, Journal of design history, xii (1999), 1999–55; Styles John , “Manufacturing, consumption and design in eighteenth-century England”, in Brewer John Porter Roy (eds), Consumption and the world of goods (London and New York, 1993), 527–44; Turner Anthony , “Mathematical instrument-making in early modern Paris”, in Luxury trades and consumerism… (ref. 4), 63–96; and Lanoë Catherine , La poudre et le fard: Une histoire des cosmétiques de la Renaissance aux Lumières (Seyssel, forthcoming).

Hilaire-Pérez Liliane , “Diderot's views on artists' and inventors' rights: Invention, imitation and reputation”, The British journal for the history of science, xxxv (2002), 129–50.

Moxon Joseph , Mechanick exercices: Or the doctrine of handiworks applied to smithing, joinery, carpentry, turning, bricklaying (London, 1703; 1st edn, 1677).

Mertens Joost , “Technology as the science of the industrial arts: Louis-Sébastien Lenormand (1757–1837) and the popularization of technology”, History and technology, xviii (2002), 203–31; idem, “Les Annales de l'industrie (1820–1827): A technological laboratory for the industrial modernization of France”, History and technology, xx (2004), 2004–63.

Hahn Roger , The anatomy of a scientific institution: The Paris Academy of Sciences, 1666–1803 (Berkeley, 1971); Roche Daniel , Le siècle des Lumières en province: Académies et académiciens provinciaux, 1680–1789 (Paris, 1978); Brian Eric , La mesure de l'Etat: Administrateurs et géomètres au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1994); MacLeod , Inventing the industrial revolution (ref. 5); Hilaire-Pérez , L'invention technique au siècle des Lumières (ref. 5).

On networks and subcontracting, see Roche Daniel , La culture des apparences: Une histoire du vêtement XVII^e–XVIII^e siècle (Paris, 1989); Berg Maxine , “Commerce and creativity in eighteenth-century Birmingham”, in idem (ed.), Markets and manufactures in early industrial Europe (London, 1991), 173–204; Clifford Helen , “The myth of the maker: Manufacturing networks in the London goldsmiths trade 1750–1790”, in Quickenden Kenneth Quickenden Neal A. (eds), Silver and jewellery: Production and consumption since 1750 (Birmingham, 1995), 5–12; Riello Giorgio , “Strategies and boundaries: Subcontracting and the London trades in the long eighteenth century”, Enterprise & society (forthcoming); and Luu Lien B. , Immigrants and the industries of London 1500–1700 (Aldershot, 2005).

Eamon William , Science and the secrets of nature: Books of secrets in medieval and early modern culture (Princeton, 1994); Vérin Hélène , “La réduction en art et la science pratique au XVIe siècle”, in Salais Robert Chatel Elisabeth Rivaud-Danset Dorothée (eds), Institutions et conventions: La réflexivité de l'action économique (Paris, 1998), 119–44; and Brioist Pascal , “La révolution des techniques à la Renaissance”, in Chaix Gérald (ed.), L'Europe à la Renaissance, 1470–1560 (Paris, 2002), 141–62.

Picon Antoine , “Towards a history of technological thought”, in Fox Robert (ed.), Technological methods and terms in the history of technology (Amsterdam, 1996), 37–49; idem, “Matière et travail: La classification des arts et métiers de l'Encyclopédie”, in Albertan-Coppola Sylviane Chouillet Anne-Marie (eds), La matière et l'homme dans l'Encyclopédie (Paris, 1998), 235–46.

MacLeod Christine , “The European origins of British technological predominance”, in de la Escosura Leandro Prados (ed.), Exceptionalism and industrialism: Britain and its European rivals, 1688–1815 (Cambridge, 2004), 111–26; Jones Peter , “‘England expects…’: Trading in liberty in the age of Trafalgar”, in Crook Malcom Doyle William Forrest Alan (eds), Enlightenment and revolution: Essays in honour of Norman Hampson (Aldershot, 2004), 187–203; Cotte Michel , De l'espionnage à la veille industrielle (Besan&çon, 2005); Smith Roger , “The Swiss connection: International networks in some eighteenth-century luxury trades”, Journal of design history, xvii (2004), 2004–39; and Hilaire-Pérez Liliane Verna Catherine , “Dissemination of technical knowledge in the Middle Ages and the early modern history: New approaches and methodological issues”, Technology and culture, xlvii (2006), 2006–65.

Jacob Margaret C. , Scientific culture and the making of the industrial West (Oxford, 1997); Stewart , The rise of public science (ref. 5); Hilaire-Pérez Liliane , “Les sociabilités industrielles en France et en Angleterre au XVIIIe siècle: Réseaux, institutions, enjeux”, in Benoît Serge Emptoz Gérard Woronoff Denis (eds), Encourager l'innovation en France et en Europe: Autour du bicentenaire de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale (Paris, 2006), 203–40.

Nieto-Galan Agustí , “The use of natural dyestuffs in eighteenth-century Europe”, Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, xlvi (1996), 23–38; and Jacob Margaret C. Reid David , “Culture et culture technique des premiers fabricants de coton de Manchester”, Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, 1 (2003), 131–53.

On reassessing artisans” part in the Industrial Revolution, see Coquery Natacha Hilaire-Pérez Liliane Sallmann Line Verna Catherine (eds), Artisans, industrie: Nouvelles révolutions du Moyen Âge à nos jours (Lyon, 2004); and Hilaire-Pérez Liliane Lanoë Catherine , “Pour une relecture de l'histoire des métiers: Les savoirs des artisans en France au XVIII^e siècle”, in Mélanges en l'honneur de Daniel Roche (Paris, forthcoming). On guilds and innovation, see Epstein Stephan R. , “Craft guilds, apprenticeship and technological change in pre-modern Europe”, Journal of economic history, liii (1998), 1998–713; and Hilaire-Pérez Liliane , “Inventing in a world of guilds: The case of silk fabrics in eighteenth-century Lyon”, in Epstein Stephan R. Praak Marten (eds), Guilds, innovation, and the European economy, 1500–1800 (Cambridge, forthcoming).

Inkster Ian , “Finding artisans: British and international patterns of technological innovation, 1790–1914”, in Artisans, industrie (ref. 19), 69–92.

For the growing complexity of institutional practices in the French world of guilds, see Minard Philippe , “Les corporations en France au XVIIIe siècle: Métiers et institutions”, in Kaplan Steven L. Minard Philippe (eds), La France, malade du corporatisme? XVIIIe—XXe siècles (Paris, 2004), 39–51; Crowston Clare H. , “L'apprentissage hors des corporations: Les formations professionnelles alternatives à Paris sous l'Ancien Régime”, Annales: Histoire, sciences sociales, lx (2005), 2005–42; and Thillay Alain , Le faubourg Saint-Antoine et ses “faux ouvriers”: La liberté du travail à Paris aux XVII^e et XVIII^e siècles (Seyssel, 2002).

French national archives (Centre Historique des Archives Nationales; hereafter CHAN): F/12/2259. Details in Hilaire-Pérez, L'invention technique (ref. 5), 63, 70, 137.

Such attempts were made in new technical centres in Paris, like the Quinze-Vingts hospital in the 1780s and the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers during the Revolution, both under direction of the mechanic Claude-Pierre Molard. For the debates on the part played by the senses in cognition and the subsequent change of the status of the expert for legitimating inventions, see Thébaud-Sorger Marie , “L'air du temps. L'aérostation: Savoirs et pratiques à la fin du XVIII^e siècle”, Ph.D. thesis, Paris, 2004.

Bret Patrice , “Les oubliés de Polytechnique en Egypte: Les artistes mécaniciens de la commission des sciences et des arts”, in Scientifiques et sociétés pendant la Révolution et l'Empire (Paris, 1990), 497–514.

Bret Patrice , L'État, l'armée, la science: L'invention de la recherche publique en France (1763–1830) (Rennes, 2002), 110–13, 119–22.

Ibid., 92, 95, 124, 189; Hilaire-Pérez , L'invention technique (ref. 5), 152, 172–3, 183, 216; Goimard Daniel , “Edme Régnier, premier conservateur du musée d'Artillerie”, Revue de la Société des Amis du Musée de l'Armée, xciv (1987), 33–37; and idem, “Edme Régnier, maître armurier (1751–1825), inventeur ou contrefacteur?”, La tour de l'Orle- d'Or, ii (1984), 1984–8.

Picon Antoine , “Gestes ouvriers, opérations et processus techniques: La vision du travail des encyclopédistes”, Recherches sur Diderot et l'Encyclopédie, xiii (1992), 131–47.

Alder Ken , Engineering the revolution: Arms and enlightenment in France, 1763–1815 (Princeton, 1997); and Bret , L'État, l'armée, la science (ref. 24), chap. 4.

CHAN: T/160/23, T*/160/4, T*/160/5.

We could also mention the cluster of projects for reforming artisanal training, from the royal drawing school by Jean-Jacques Bachelier (1766) to the locksmiths' school in Paris and to the Montgolfier brothers' scheme to educate skilled workforce (1784): d'Enfert Renaud , L'enseignement du dessin en France: Figure humaine et dessin géométrique (1750–1850) (Paris, 2003); Hilaire-Pérez , L'invention technique (ref. 5), 153; and Rosenband Leonard N. , Papermaking in eighteenth-century France (Cambridge, MA, 2000).

Hilaire-Pérez , L'invention technique (ref. 5).

Minard , “Les corporations en France” (ref. 20), 45.

Kaplan Steven L. , La fin des corporations (Paris, 2001).

Meyssonnier Simone , La balance et l'horloge: La genèse de la pensée libérale en France au XVIII^e siècle (Montreuil, 1989).

Epstein , “Craft guilds, apprenticeship” (ref. 19), 697–8.

Belfanti Carlo M. , “Guilds, patents, and the circulation of technical knowledge: Northern Italy during the early modern age”, Technology and culture, lxv (2004), 569–89. For the eighteenth century, see Dolza Luisa Hilaire-Pérez Liliane , “Inventions and privileges in the eighteenth century: Norms and practices. A comparison between France and Piedmont”, History of technology, xxiv (2002), 21–44.

Sabel Charles F. Zeitlin Jonathan , “Stories, strategies, structures: Rethinking historical alternatives to mass production”, in idem (eds), World of possibilities: Flexibility and mass production in Western industrialization (Cambridge, 1997), 1–33, p. 23.

Kaplan Steven L. Minard Philippe , “Le corporatisme, idées et pratiques: Les enjeux d'un débat incessant”, in La France (ref. 21), 5–31, p. 14.

Hilaire-Pérez Liliane , “Les examens d'inventions au XVIIIe siècle”, in Brian Eric Demeulenaere-Douyère Christiane (eds), Règlement, usages et science dans la France de l'absolutisme (Paris, 2002), 309–21.

Hilaire-Pérez , “Inventing in a world of guilds” (ref. 19).

CHAN: F/12/2201.

Cottereau Alain , “The fate of collective manufactures in the industrial world: The silk industries of Lyons and London, 1800–1850”, in World of possibilities (ref. 37), 75–152, p. 144.

Cottereau Alain , “La désincorporation des métiers et leur transformation en ‘publics intermédiaires’: Lyon et Elbeuf, 1790–1815”, in La France (ref. 21), 97–145.

McKendrick Neil Brewer John Plumb J. H. , The birth of a consumer society: The commercialization of eighteenth-century England (London, 1982); Weatherhill Lorna , Consumer behaviour and material culture in England 1660–1760 (London, 1988); Roche , La culture des apparences (ref. 13); Berg Clifford (eds), Consumers and luxury (ref. 8); Berg Maxine Eger Elisabeth (eds), Luxury in the eighteenth century: Debates, desires and delectable goods (Basingstoke, 2003); and Berg Maxine , Luxury and pleasure in eighteenth-century Britain (Oxford, 2005).

Clifford Helen , “‘The king's arms and feathers’: A case study exploring the networks of manufacture operating in the London goldsmiths” trade in the eighteenth century”, in Mitchell David (ed.), Goldsmiths, silversmiths and bankers: Innovation and the transfer of skill, 1550–1750 (Stroud, 1995), 84–95.

Clifford Helen , “In defence of the toyshop: The intriguing case of George Willdey and the Huguenots”, Proceedings of the Huguenot Society, xxvii (1999), 171–88; Smith , “The Swiss connection” (ref. 16); Hartop Christopher , “Art and industry in 18th-century London: English silver 1680–1760 from the Alan and Simone Hartman Collection”, Proceedings of the Huguenot Society, xxvii (1998), 1998–63; Luu , Immigrants and the industries of London (ref. 13); idem, “Assimilation or segregation: Communities of alien craftsmen in London in the sixteenth century”, in Gibbs Graham C. Vigne Randolph (eds), The strangers' progress: Integration and disintegration of the Huguenot and Walloon refugee community, 1567–1889 (Proceedings of the Huguenot Society, xxvi (1995), 160–72.

Doyon André Liaigre Lucien , Jacques Vaucanson, mécanicien de génie (Paris, 1966).

Hilaire-Pérez Liliane , “Transferts technologiques, droit et territoire: Le cas franco-anglais au XVIIIe siècle”, Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, xliv (1997), 547–79; Harris John R. , Industrial espionage and technology transfer: Britain and France in the 18th-century (Aldershot, 1998).

Stewart , The rise of public science (ref. 5).

Hilaire-Pérez Liliane Thébaud-Sorger Marie , “Les techniques dans l'espace public: Publicité des inventions et littérature d'usage en France et en Angleterre au XVIIIe siècle”, Revue de synthèse, ii (2006), 393–428.

Berg Maxine Clifford Helen , “Commerce and the commodity: Graphic display and selling new consumer goods in 18th-century England”, in North Michael Ormrod David (eds), Art markets in Europe, 1400–1800 (Aldershot, 1998), 187–200; Snodin Michael Styles John , Design and the decorative arts: Britain 1500–1900 (London, 1998); and Walsh Claire , “The advertising and marketing of consumer goods in eighteenth-century London”, in Wischermann Clemens Shore Elliott (eds), Advertising and the European city: Historical perspectives (Aldershot, 2000), 79–95.

Hilaire-Pérez Liliane , “Technology, curiosity and utility in France and in England in the eighteenth century”, in Bensaude-Vincent B. Blondel C. (eds), Science and spectacle in the 18th century (Aldershot, forthcoming).

Altick Richard D. , The shows of London (London, 1978); Porter Roy Roberts Mary M. , Pleasure in the eighteenth century (London, 1996); Bermingham Ann Brewer John (eds), The consumption of culture, 1600–1800 (London, 1997); Coquery Natacha (ed.), La boutique et la ville: Commerces, commer&çants, espaces et clientèles XVI^e–XX^e siècle (Tours, 2000); and Stéphane Van Damme, Paris, capitale philosophique de la Fronde à la Révolution (Paris, 2004).

“The room of this coffee shop is simply decorated; what is noticeable is the way people are served. The feet of the tables are made of two empty cylinders, which prolongation communicates with the laboratory underneath. To get what you desire, it is sufficient to draw a ring fit in the front of each cylinder: This ring is attached to a bell which calls on the laboratory: Then a valve (soupape) opens out in the table to collect the order: This valve immediately closes down & opens only again to give way to a double store maid”, Almanach du Palais-royal utile aux voyageurs pour l'année 1786 (Paris, 1785), 139. The use of a technical vocabulary for a curiosity device must be stressed. It reminds one of Cox's contriver of the Peacock describing the technicalities of the automata, not only its beautiful effects ( Zek Yuna Smith Roger , “The Hermitage peacock: How an eighteenth century automaton reached St Petersburg”, Antiquarian horology, 2005, 699–715). Economy, utility and curiosity were intricate. See also Schaffer Simon , “Enlightened automata”, in Clark William Golinski Jan Schaffer Simon (eds), The sciences in enlightened Europe (Chicago, 1999), 126–65, and Thébaud-Sorger, L'air du temps (ref. 23), 119, 126–7.

Bodleian Library: Catalogue of lotteries, letter of 12 January 1774.

Bodleian Library: Catalogue of lotteries, 1773 (item 73226).

Zek Smith , “The Hermitage peacock” (ref. 54).

Pointon Marcia , “Dealer in magic: James Cox's jewelry museum and the economics of luxurious spectacle in late-eighteenth-century London”, in De Marchi Neil Goodwin Crauford D. W. (eds), Economic engagements with art (History of political economy, xxxi (1999)), 423–51.

Zek Smith , “The Hermitage peacock” (ref. 54), 704.

“That the fitness of any system or machine to produce the end for which it was intended, bestows a certain propriety and beauty upon the whole, and renders the very thought and contemplation of it agreeable, is so very obvious that nobody has overlooked it”, Smith Adam , The theory of moral sentiments (Glasgow, 1759; Glasgow edition of the works and correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis, 1982), i, 179).

Ferguson Eugene , Engineering and the mind's eye (Cambridge, MA, 1992); idem, “The mind's eye: Nonverbal thought in technology”, Science, cxcvii (1977), 1977–36.

Chassagne Serge , Le coton et ses patrons, 1760–1840 (Paris, 1991), 251.

Lyon Municipal Archives: 77 WP 001. As the guild officials put it, “here the eye can judge, swiftly, what the mind takes a long time to grasp even in the clearest and most methodical reports”.

Vérin Hélène , “La technologie comme “science autonome'”, Documents pour l'histoire des techniques, new series, i (2006), forthcoming.

Thébaud-Sorger , L'air du temps (ref. 23).

Hilaire-Pérez , “Technology, curiosity and utility” (ref. 52).

Marsden Ben Smith Crosbie , Engineering empires: A cultural history of technology in nineteenth-century Britain (Basingstoke, 2005), 7.

Hilaire-Pérez Thébaud-Sorger , “Les techniques dans l'espace public” (ref. 50); idem, “Les techniques dans la presse d'annonces au XVIIIe siècle en France et en Angleterre: Réseaux d'information et logiques participatives”, in Bret Patrice Chatzis Konstantinos Hilaire-Pérez Liliane (eds), Des techniques dans la presse à la presse technique, 1750–1950 (Paris, forthcoming).

“The advertising, instructions, and repair manuals that come with the new machines are intended to be convincing documents, and the images in them suggest their technological sophistication and, more important, their technological rationality”: Lubar Steven , “Representation and power”, Technology and culture, xxxvi suppl. (1995), S54–S81, p. S69. See also Bennett James A. “Shopping for instruments in Paris and London”, in Smith Pamela H. Findlen Paula (eds), Merchants and marvels: Commerce, science, and art in early modern Europe (New York, London, 2002), 370–95.

Thiéry Luc-Viencent , Guide des amateurs et des étrangers voyageurs à Paris, ou description raisonnée de cette ville et de tout ce qu'elle contient de remarquable (Paris, 1786–88), 220–1.

We must mention studies in America, but not concerning early modern history: Lubar , “Representation and power” (ref. 69); Corn Joseph J. , “Educating the enthusiast: Print and the popularization of technical knowledge”, in Wright John L. (ed.), Possible dreams: Enthusiasm for technology in America (Dearborn (Mich.), Henry Ford Museum, and Greenfield Village, 1992); Stevens Edwards W. , “Technology, literacy, and early industrial expansion in the United States”, History of education quarterly, xxx (1990), 1990–44.

Royal Society of Arts: Guard book XII.

Bret Patrice , “La Méditerranée médiatrice des techniques: Regards et transferts croisés durant l'expédition d'Egypte (1798–1801)”, in Bourguet Marie-Noëlle Nordman Daniel Anayotopoulos Vassilis Sinarellis Maroula (eds), Enquêtes en Méditerranée: Les expéditions fran&çaises d'Egypte, de Morée et d'Algérie (Athènes, 1999), 79–101.

Berg Maxine , “French fancy and cool Britannia: The fashion markets of early modern Europe”, Proceedings of the Istituto Internationale di Storia Economica F. Datini, xxxii (2000), 1–36.

Hilaire-Pérez Liliane , “Cultures techniques et pratiques de l'échange, entre Lyon et le Levant: Inventions et réseaux au XVIIIe siècle”, Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, xlix (2002), 89–114.

Cottereau Alain , “‘Esprit public’ et capacité de juger”, in Cottereau Alain Ladrière Paul (eds), Pouvoir et légitimité: Figures de l'espace public (Paris, 1992), 239–73.

Roberts Lissa , “A world of wonders, a world of one”, in Merchants and marvels (ref. 69), 309–411.

Moigne Le Vérin , “Sur le processus d'autonomisation des sciences du génie” (ref. 3); Channell David F. , “The harmony of theory and practice: The engineering science of W. J. M. Rankine”, Technology and culture, xxiii (1982), 1982–52; Anderson Robert G. W. , “‘What is technology?’: Education through museums in the mid-nineteenth century”, The British journal for the history of science, xxxv (1992), 1992–84; and Marsden Ben , “Engineering science in Glasgow: Economy, efficiency and measurement as prime movers in the differenciation of an academic discipline”, The British journal for the history of science, xxxv (1992), 1992–46.