O.T. Museum of Arts et Metiers, Paris

I went to the rebuilt Museum of Arts et Metiers yesterday, and it was a
great better than it was when
I last went through it twenty years ago - good displays, well laid out
and quite a bit of explanatory material - less in English than in
French, but the French did invent chauvenism.

It still fails to do justice to Vaucasson's sliding lathe from 1751,
which can claim to the ancestor of all modern lathes, mainly by virtue
of its wonderful lead screw - the Scientific American article on the
subject (from the early 1980's - IIRR) was pretty explicit on that
claim, but no French museum keeper is going to pay any attention to
that.

And there is a Bruget(?) biplane which - IIRR - held the world altitude
record for a while, for which I could find any description at all. It
was just hanging there in the chapel, next to Bleriot's cross-channel
monplane from 1909, which was well-documented (as if it needed
documentation).

The museum has also got Joseph Cuget's steam-driven "Fardier" from 1770
- for pulling artillery around - with a video clip recording the
consequences of designing a self-powered vehicle without a braking
system ... and a reassembly of Lavoisier's orignal laboratory. Great
stuff, well-displayed.

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen (but in Paris for a day or two)

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: O.T. Museum of Arts et Metiers, Paris
    ... French, but the French did invent chauvenism. ... The museum has also got Joseph Cuget's steam-driven "Fardier" from 1770 ... when I was in Paris for a few days. ... The Curie Museum, near the Pantheon, is also worth a visit. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: O.T. Museum of Arts et Metiers, Paris
    ... French, but the French did invent chauvenism. ... And there is a Brugetbiplane which - IIRR - held the world altitude ... The museum has also got Joseph Cuget's steam-driven "Fardier" from 1770 ... - for pulling artillery around - with a video clip recording the ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Bovington or Saumur
    ... allied forces WWII: ... It's a fabulous museum. ... In the museum, all the informations are in French, English and German ...
    (rec.models.scale)
  • Re: O.T. Museum of Arts et Metiers, Paris
    ... French, but the French did invent chauvenism. ... but no French museum keeper is going to pay any attention to ... And there is a Brugetbiplane which - IIRR - held the world altitude ... - for pulling artillery around - with a video clip recording the ...
    (sci.electronics.design)