The oldest technical museum in Europe
The Museum of Arts and Crafts is one of the oldest technical museums in Europe. His expositions are incredibly interesting, and at the same time very informative.
Everyone knows France mainly for famous sights such as: Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, Arc de Triomphe, Versailles, etc. But few people know about the Paris Museum of Crafts and Arts, which opens up many new and exciting exhibits for its visitors.
The Museum of Arts and Crafts, located in the French capital, has every right to be called the oldest technical museum in the world. The exhibits presented in it tell visitors about how European science and technology developed from the 16th to the 20th century, covering almost all areas in which discoveries and inventions were made - from weaving to photography.
General information about the Museum of Arts and Crafts
In fact, the name of the museum, located in the capital of France, is not entirely accurate. After all, expositions are represented not by works of art, but by masterpieces of technology. Exhibits are the achievements of science, technologies that help us cope with everyday life, facilitate it, and also make it more diverse. In short, the Polytechnic Museum.
The Museum of Arts and Crafts can be safely called a town, because the building is huge, and in order to just see all the exhibits, not stopping at reading the plates and examining them in detail, it will take an hour and a half. And in order to consciously familiarize yourself with the best examples of science and technology, you need to allocate a whole day, or even more.
And acquaintance with the museum and the anticipation of a successful visit begins even in the metro at Arts et Metiers station (unless, of course, you arrive at the museum by metro). When you get off the train, do not rush in search of the museum. You need to look around, then you will see oval walls with copper cladding on thick rivets, neon lamps and large windows, and in the center of the hall, right under the ceiling, there are huge gears. It seems that you are a column of seawater, and you are the hero of Jules Verne's Nautilus.
When you move away from a light attack of surprise (definitely positive), then you will understand that the museum is located directly above the metro, in the center of Paris. A tour of one of the most famous sights of France will be most interesting to those people who are fluent in French (not conversationally). All information about the exhibits is in the official language of France, only the plates with their names are duplicated in English.
And now a little about the history of the creation of the museum
Few people know that the museum was opened under Napoleon Bonaparte (during the French Revolution). In 1794, Abbot Henri Gregoire proposed to the National Convention a project for the creation of the Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, the purpose of which would be "the study and preservation of machines, tools, drawings, models, books and various documentation of all existing arts and crafts." The Conservatory approved by the Convention immediately becomes the new mistress of many private technical collections confiscated during the revolution. After a long search for premises for the new museum, in 1798 the collection of the Conservatory allocated the premises of the church of Saint-Martin-de-Chan.
The church of Saint-Martin-de-Chan is built on the site of the old church of the Merovingian era. Legend has it that this church was destroyed during the Norman invasions. There is no exact confirmation of this, but it is reliably known that in the middle of the 11th century Henry I ordered to build a “second church” on this site. Built in 1059-1060, the church was transferred in 1076 to the jurisdiction of the Order of Cluny.
The church building that suffered during the revolution required significant repairs; the museum first opened its doors to the general public only in 1802. From the very beginning of the museum, interactivity has become one of its principles - museum employees not only showed, but also explained to visitors how the mechanisms exhibited in the museum work. At the same time, the institution of the same name opens, whose professors give lectures in various fields of engineering and technology, and students have the opportunity to practice the knowledge gained on the machines exhibited in the museum. The CNAM Institute still exists, being one of the most prestigious educational institutions in France and the most popular educational institution for students combining studies with work (evening and correspondence departments). Its branches are open in many cities in France.
In 1830, under the influence of the technical revolution, the conservatory was reformed. Collections of agricultural and weaving machines are being removed from the museum, replacing them with models and drawings of more modern machines: steam, blacksmithing, paper making, Rad's machine for sugar production and many others.
The 20th century gave the Museum many new topics: from automobiles to space exploration. In the 1990s, the scenography of the museum was completely rebuilt, which allowed organically incorporating these themes into the already existing rich collection of the museum.
The cultural significance of the Museum
In our modern world, such a museum is of great importance for all mankind. Firstly, it shows how advanced scientific progress has been since the 18-19th centuries. This is irrefutable evidence that science is moving forward by leaps and bounds every day. Some visitors who come to this museum for an excursion expect to see picturesque sculptures and statues, but after visiting they are a little upset, because there are exhibits of human engineering genius, and this can only be attributed to art, the skill that the engineer possessed.
In the courtyard of the museum is a smaller model of the New York Statue of Liberty Frederick Bartholdy. The first copy is stored inside the museum.
The museum's collection consists of more than 80,000 exhibits and 15,000 drawings, 40,000 of which are in Paris.
The entire museum collection is divided into seven sections: construction, communications, transport, energy, scientific and measuring instruments, materials, as well as mechanics. Let's look at some of the sections in more detail.
Scientific and Measuring Instruments
The Scientific and Measuring Instruments section presents exhibits such as the Mani microscope made for the Duke of Scholl, the Leon Bollet calculator, an electron microscope and a supercomputer.
Leon Bollet's calculating machine
The first measuring instruments appeared in prehistoric times - from time immemorial people have sought to determine the time of day and night as accurately as possible, to measure distance and weight.
supercomputer
In the Renaissance, human ambitions increase: in a fit of exploration of our planet, he tries to determine his own whereabouts. Scientists create new measuring mechanisms, calculating machines. Most of the tools are made by watchmakers or jewelers, which elevates many of them to the rank of works of art.
optical microscope of Mani.
In the XVIII century, science - an invited guest of secular salons. Mechanics, optics, hydraulics, electricity - vivid demonstrations of the laws of physics are popular with the public. At the same time, the increasing accuracy of devices allows the creation of the first scientific laboratories (the most famous laboratory of Lavoisier), thereby marking a new step in the development of science - a more specialized, more rigorous one.
arithmetic machine Rene Grille de Rowena 1678 release. Actually, what’s already here is the world's first calculator. Almost pocket.
calculator from the past
To simplify the calculations - whether commercial, scientific or administrative - a metric decimal system is introduced. In the second half of the 19th century, the development of scientific and measuring instruments took place in two directions. On the one hand, experimental science emerges from the physical salons of the 18th century, which allows one to analyze, reproduce and understand the nature of many natural phenomena. On the other hand, new tools very quickly replace manual labor wherever possible - calculating machines and measuring machines completely change the working style of insurance companies, factories and factories.
XX century - expanded the boundaries of knowledge of science for man, new tools allow you to make new discoveries.
The fundamental difference from studies of the past is the rejection of the principle of direct observation. An astronomer can listen to the echo of the big bang that marked the beginning of our universe. The biologist uses electron microscopes, trying to understand the structure of living matter down to the atomic level. Optics and mechanics are gradually being replaced by electronics.
astronomical measuring instruments
Materials
The materials used by man have changed with the development of civilization. Not only because of changes in the dominant taste in society, but also due to the development of appropriate technologies. From the intuition of the masters and the experience of their ancestors, man gradually moved to the physical and chemical analysis of the stages of the production of materials.
During the Old Regime, craftsmen united in corporations whose control contributed to the quality and standardization of production. The needs of various crafts determined the location of the workshops: glass-blowers and tile manufacturers, who needed a lot of energy for production, built their workshops in the woods; casters, with the advent of blast furnaces, which began to smelter better quality cast iron, are not far from coal deposits; blacksmiths - along rivers, where the energy of flowing water could be used to propel bellows and hammers; textile production was divided between the village where coarse fabrics were produced and the city that processed wool, silk, etc.
The technical progress of the 18th century is structurally restructuring production. Thanks to the creation of a steam engine, new looms allow you to weave faster and better. The use of coking coal has improved the quality of cast iron.
Stand materials. It is proposed to put your hand in the hole and touch to determine the materials from which the item is made.
In the 19th century, new materials appeared: aluminum, plastic, new types of steel and glass. New dyes and fabrics (primarily rayon) are transforming weaving.
The second half of XX brings a radically new approach: if before a person selected the most suitable among natural materials, now he can directly create the material he needs based on the required characteristics.
The main exhibit of this hall is the Continuous Casting Machine.
Construction
Of great interest is the construction hall, a hall with motorbikes and cars, a mezzanine where you can see beautiful exhibits.
This hall is famous for the presence of a bucket excavator Couvre. The creator of the excavator Alphonse Couvreux (French Alphonse Couvreux) began his career in the 1840s on the construction of railways. In 1860, he patented the first version of his bucket excavator. In the following years, the inventor constantly improved his apparatus, and in 1863 he was entrusted with the development of an excavator for digging the Suez Canal.
The main part of the excavator is an arrow with a chain of buckets for excavation. The selected soil is discharged into trolleys fed along a parallel path. The excavator itself moves along a special, three-rail railway, which is shifted in the process of progressing the work. The excavator is driven by two steam engines: one allows you to move the excavator itself, the other - more powerful - drives the chain of buckets.
Excavator Couvre
Transport
In the transport hall you can see exhibits such as carriages, steam locomotives, ships, cars, planes and other vehicles. All models are executed perfectly, the masters put a lot of effort to create them. Among the real exhibits are old bicycles, near which stands a monitor. Using computer technology, you can view several video clips related to their history. As well as records from bicycle races, which were held in the 90s of the 19th century.
The next hall, connected with the same theme, represents the very first car - a steam car, which was used without the help of horses. Another interesting exhibit is a steam plane that hangs under the ceiling. On the monitor you can see the first trip of the steam car through the streets of Paris.
Mechanics
The hall dedicated to Mechanics, simply filled with gears, voltage converters, direction of movement. At such a stand you can touch, twist everything and so on, which is very popular with visitors. Nearby is the “Theater of Automata”, the first of the exhibits - piano, mechanical piano. And so it is full of various interesting things: a clock, music boxes, a variety of live pictures, mechanical birds in cages, children's mechanical toys. The Automaton Theater is an ideal place for children; they will be unusually interesting and informative when visiting it.
There is another room in which electrical engineering is presented, which dates from the 19th century. This electric cars, telegraph, telephone, optical-mechanical toys that existed before the cinema and cartoons. The presence of the first film projector, cameras of the Lumiere brothers attracts many tourists.
The history of the development of photography.
An incredible array of a wide variety of printing presses.
unusual typewriter keyboard
combining a mechanical piano with an organ and percussion
first music box
mechanical piano
The real highlight and pride of the museum today is the collection of locomobiles and cars. Cars are installed in such a way that people who understand the intricacies of technology can appreciate the work of an engineer. In addition to all famous cars, the museum can show aeromobiles and even the steam airplane of engineer Clement Ader, which hangs on the ceiling. The museum’s greatest pride is the world's first self-propelled crew with a heat engine, the creation of engineer Nikola-Joseph Kunho.
locomobile
The second floor welcomes visitors with plywood figures of people who are holding tablets with various questions like “Who invented gunpowder?” Or “Where did the first submarine go?”. The answers are written on the back, of course, in French. On the left is a library, on the right you can continue to view the exhibits.
The museum also presents various samples of materials that are very common today in everyday life: glass, plastic, aluminum, a variety of fabrics, which over the centuries have helped people to create the necessary equipment.
The museum is useful for children and adults, it is an educational tour showing the best examples of equipment and technology. This is not only entertainment, it is a study of the history of mankind.
In the center is the very Foucault pendulum from the Umberto Eco novel.
The first telegraph apparatus.
Where is the Museum of Arts and Crafts, which can be viewed nearby
Church-Saint-Eustache.
The museum is located in the center, so you can see the most beautiful church in Paris - Saint-Eustache. Nearby is the large shopping street Rue Montorguil. She is of great interest to shoppers. The Dehillerin kitchenware store is for those who like cooking. It is located on Coquillerie Street.
How to get to the Museum of Arts and Crafts
In order to get to the Museum of Arts and Crafts, you need to use the metro called Art et Metiers, line 11. When you exit the metro, you will immediately see several buildings that are close to each other, and connected by one architectural style.
Anyone who comes to Paris must visit the Museum of Arts and Crafts. This is one of the main attractions of the capital of France. And everyone who visited him remains so enthusiastic and pleased with such an excursion that only pleasant memories remain from such a cultural institution.