Antique French Gadgets

PopSci travels to Paris's Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers to round up the scientific instruments and machines of the 18th and 19th centuries.

April 23, 2007

frenchgadg_elec.jpg

Believe this had something to do with generating electricity.

frenchgadg_tele.jpg

Some kind of early telegraph . . . I think the guy cranking one handle could Morse-code the dude cranking the other. Mostly they'd talk about what that dome on the top is for.

frenchgadg_plane.jpg

Couldn't read the sign for this old plane, but it contained a picture of a bat and the figure 16 meters.

frenchgadg_phono.jpg

Edison phonograph from the late 19th century.

frenchgadg_comp.jpg

Crazy supercomputer from the 1970s. I wonder if it can run homebrew . . .

frenchgadg_gen2.jpg

A nine cylinder, two stroke, radial aircraft engine. Probably from the early 1930s. (Thanks to Steve Long)

frenchgadg_micro.jpg

Electron microscope from the 1970s.

frenchgadg_math.jpg

Can't for the life of me remember what this was--I think it had something to do with mathematics machines, but doesn't it just look like something out of the Matrix ship?

frenchgadg_type.jpg

This was called a 'portable typewriter' . . . couldn't tell if it had Bluetooth.

frenchgadg_watchcam.jpg

The original watch-cam--very sneaky.

frenchgadg_steam2.jpg

This was something like one of the last steam engine designs--apparently it was once used to pump water from the Seine.

frenchgadg_chem.jpg

A chemical set near the early photography and daguerreotype exhibits . . . also what I imagine Theo Gray's cupboard looks like.

frenchgadg_tel.jpg

Grover Bell telephone set, 1896. Not sure why the tubes are so long. I think back then people's ears were much farther from their mouths.

frenchgadg_cam.jpg

A television camera circa 1960--I think this is the front.

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