Chinese Technology as a Resource: Horn Lantern Manufacturing and Global Circulation of Knowledge in Early Modern France
Abstract: In 1793 Alexis-Marie de Rochon, an astronomer by training, was commissioned to set up a manufacturing workshop of horn plates in France. This was meant to make up for the shortage of imported horn plates, a commodity which was necessary for the production of lamps used in the military navy...
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| izdano v: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/artefact, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jezik: | Anglais |
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Artefact
2024
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| Online dostop: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Izvleček: | Abstract: In 1793 Alexis-Marie de Rochon, an astronomer by training, was commissioned to set up a manufacturing workshop of horn plates in France. This was meant to make up for the shortage of imported horn plates, a commodity which was necessary for the production of lamps used in the military navy. An unexpected resource allowed him to initiate research on horn plate making: a 40-year-old memoir dedicated to the manufacturing of Chinese lanterns. The paper reconstructs Rochon’s research and explains why the use of a Chinese memoir was far from being coincidental in 18th-century France: it was both the result of a massive accumulation of knowledge on Chinese techniques by the French government and of a lack of literature on a very poorly codified European technical practices. |
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