Wednesday, August 24, 2011

France/Spain 2011 - Day 4, Part 4 - Paris: Musée des Arts et Métiers

"There is not any memory with less satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted." - James Branch Cabell

***

France/Spain 2011
Day 4 - 20th March - Paris: Musée des Arts et Métiers
(Part 4)

After the Musée Rodin I headed to the Musée des Arts et Métiers for something completely different.

On the train I saw a lady reading a Japanese guidebook. What was interesting was that she was alone - Japanese usually travel either in tours or alone. I assuaged my curiosity and confirmed my suspicions. She also agreed that it was rare, and that she was just there for a vacation.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
"5 pièces inédites"
("5 new pieces")
I found it interesting how the men on ladders were striking the typically female pose of one leg kicking inthe air

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
"Festival des Arts Martiaux"
("Martial Arts Festival")
Orientalism!
They also have Burmese and Cambodian martial arts.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Musée des Arts et Métiers (Museum of the Arts and Professions)

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Funky sunglasses (notice that she's in the shade, and that it was March)

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Lady Liberty and a kissing couple
This wasn't on purpose - it's because it's France

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Lady Liberty and no kissing couple

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
"History of Nintendo"

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Everlasting calendar

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Sphere from Foucault's Pendulum, which demonstrated the Earth's rotation


Spanish Kids looking at Foucault's Pendulum (replica)
The original 28kg sphere (in the glass) was damaged on 6 April 2010 when its cable snapped, and was replaced by a copy

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
On Léon Foucault

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Hall of Transportation (not the real name)
An alternative name would be: "When France was at the cutting edge of transportation technology"
The middle one should be the Blériot plane, used for the first Channel crossing in 1909

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Diesel Engine, 1892

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Vulcain Motor (used on European rockets)
I was surprised to find something less than 60 years old here (i.e. post war). They also had a car with "Europcar", "Renault Elf", "Prost" and "Michelin" on it, but there was no information panel.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Statue of Liberty, 1875

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Monoplane

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Biplane

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Hélica Propeller Car, 1921

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Benz Car, 1898
The Franco-German motor - moving Europe forward!

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Gallery from the top

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
On the planes

The rest of the museum wasn't quite as interesting. For example:

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
A gallery only an engineer could love
Strangely there were a lot of kids and they seemed quite engaged. Or at least not less so than in a normal museum. Perhaps it's all the same to them?

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
The Batwing - Clément Ader, 1893-1897

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Engines. At least they are somewhat sexy. Plaques are left to right.
I was amused that "Injection Directe Haute Pression" got abbreviated "HDI" (the English acronym)

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
I don't know what the hell these are. Well, they are "pneumatic rodless cylinders", but that doesn't really answer the question (the panel refers to the 2 in the foreground in silver).

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
???
Hollow spheres, interlocking spheres etc

There were also fluorescent lamps, a model of an oil refinery and a model of a nuclear plant.

There were also some old batteries and things like that - chemistry is more interesting than physics, after all. Or perhaps it was because, after a room with gears, everything else was interesting.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Delafon cell, 1889

Unfortunately they didn't have any of Galvani's frogs.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Silver Chloride cell (Warren de la Rue and Müller), c. 1860

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
2 more cells

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Electrolysis device, 1828

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Electrolysis device, 1828
blog comments powered by Disqus