I could write for hours on a few of the collections of the museum, so I will attempt to keep this shorter. The first major thing I will cover is the transportation collection, specifically the Cugnot steam cart. While we saw a 70% replica while in Turin at the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile, on the top floor at the start of the tour, after doing a little extra digging on the Paris museum’s website I have found that this one was apparently entered into the collection in 1799, which would mean it might be the first one (despite the story told by our Italian guide about it crashing, seeing as it’s intact and not partially embedded in a building.) A few other highlights were a standard American Ford Model T, a scale model of a drive system from an old paddlewheel ship, and my personal favorite, a velodrome bicycle from 1995 that looked like a banana that grew wheels.
In the mechanics section there were many examples of historical machine tools, like a tiny shaper, a machine that essentially rips a strip of metal off a bigger plate to reduce thickness quickly, a few tiny lathes and mills, a single point threading machine, power hammers, a file cutting machine, and what appeared to be a scale model of a wagon wheel workshop, with tools for shaping spokes and rim sections and a furnace for expanding the iron bands that hold the wheels together. Seeing as most of these are functional, not only is it a great example of preserving historical manufacturing techniques, it’s a hilarious workshop to build tiny versions of old objects.
While the construction collect outdated-but-historically-important and highly specialized piece of technological history was a scale model (that appeared functional) of one of the many steam powered bucket excavators from the construction of things like the suez canal, not to mention all the other scale examples of construction techniques and other (seemingly functional) miniaturized equipment.
In one of the communication areas, there were loads of early telegraph and telephone related items, and a few dozen similarly aged items, but I think my favorite out of all of them was the collection of early computers. There was the standard 1984 shaped Apple computer, some brick from IBM, and both a Texas instruments TI-xx and some Thomson models, and to my delight, two Sinclair ZX series machines and the absolute classic, the Commadore 64. While today these machines can be blown out of the water by a TI-84 plus or a mediocre smartwatch, at the time of their debut they were pretty serious machines. While the museum hasn’t been updated since the early 2000s, I personally think they stopped at a great point. As the staff rightly stated, updating to keep up with modern technology would be expensive, and stopping before the swap from cathode ray tube displays is a fitting place for a museum with original items from the 1700s.
The last museum was a really great way to end the trip. While taking the tour, I noticed different aspects we had previously learned about from other museums. We saw some evidence of the evolution of automobiles, like the first museum in Turin. We also saw communication and radio devices similar to that of Turin's radio and television museum. But even though they were repeating information we had already learned about, some facts were new. For instance, we saw a bunch of looms and we had originally learned that Jacquard was the first to create a device that was fitted to a loom to allow for patterns to be created. But at this museum, we learned that someone else had created something similar but wasn't successful, so Jacquard took the idea, expanded it, and became known as the person who created the Jacquard machine. I overall felt that this museum acted like a little bow to tie together all of the topics we had discussed to end the trip.
-- Haley
The last museum we visited before the conclusion of the study abroad was the Museum of Arts and Crafts. This museum contained many models and artifacts from scientific history. This included things like some of the tools and devices used by Antoine Lavoisier, who many say is the founder of modern chemistry. There was also the calculator designed by Pascal and clocks and watches from the earliest ages of their existence. They also had the original Foucault Pendulum on display, which is the pendulum experiment that helped prove that the Earth rotates.
The museum had a heavy emphasis placed on many civil and mechanical constructs as well with different machines on display along with things like bridges and models of monuments. The monument models mostly depicted the Statue of Liberty. There were many different models that showed its construction, but the coolest model of the statue was in a little room we could go into and see a miniature of what it would have been like to travel by boat into New York City after the statue was complete.
- Zacharia Houghton
I thought the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Paris was a great way to wrap up our study abroad program. With it, we got to reexamine a lot of the lessons we learned from the other museums throughout our stay. We got information about the loom, videography, cars, and even communication. It was great seeing all of this brought together on our last day while learning even more cool things. My favorite overall was the construction sector of the museum. I liked looking at all of the displays and design elements of some of their more famous structures. Learning the science behind the materials and techniques was fascinating, especially considering the time in which they were built. It was a good end to the experience.
- Morgan
I found this museum to be particularly interesting because it seemed to wrap up a lot of the museums we had seen previously into one, touching on each subject briefly. This felt like a good way to end the trip as it refreshed all of the information we had learned and displayed many objects to show the evolution of specific inventions. I also found this to be intriguing because our guide talked about subjects that we had discussed at previous museums, as well as during our class discussions. One thing she mentioned that caught my attention was about Antoine Lavoisier. I had previously heard this name, since he largely influenced the subject of chemistry, but what I did not know was the role his wife played in this as well. Marie-Anne Lavoisier assisted Antoine in his work by writing and translating much of his work. Without this, his ideas would have never spread worldwide, so her work was pivotal. After Antoine's execution, she hid many of his research belongings in order to protect them from being taken, and as a result, the museum had many of the originals of his items.
I thought it was interesting to hear this because we credit Antoine with all of his discoveries, but we never hear about the work Marie-Anne did to spread these discoveries around the world. I found this to tie into many of our class discussions since we talked a lot about who deserves credit in various situations, as well as women receiving a lack of credit for many discoveries and actions. I believe that knowing the work Marie-Anne did in this story is just as important as Antoine's work because without her work, his ideas would have never gotten as far as they did since they would not have been translated.
The Museum of Arts and Crafts has a bit of a misleading name in English. It houses items related to work trades and scientific discoveries across various fields of study, including: mathematics, chemistry, mechanics, construction, communication, transportation, and physics. It is interesting to note, the museum was originally established as a conservatory, where practice as well as learning of these different crafts could take place. Today the museum is divided into seven sections that showcase these scientific and technological developments along with the culture surrounding them - as information and tools became more publicly available and widespread.
I really appreciated the depth and diversity of material this museum had. There were plenty of side-by-side models and artifacts of inventions as they developed over time; Visitors could see art of problem solving in the development of things such as the marine clock and the bicycle. It was also cool that they included iconic pieces such as Pascal's calculators and Lavoisier's apparatus for the synthesis of water.
Knowing the museum's origin as a conservatory, it was cool to see a few interactive models (found mainly in the mechanics section: rotating systems, and some electrical motors). I wish they had added more of these throughout the museum to bring a little bit more life back into the building's heritage of workshop style learning.
Posted by AEbert