TIME EUROPE
June 5, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 22
The Art of Science
The eclectic but elegant Musée des arts et métiers reopens in Paris after a decade-long restoration
By CAROL POIRIER Paris
Back during the bloodiest days of the French Revolution, as dozens of the country's most illustrious scientists were sent to the guillotine, a member of the constituent assembly, the National Convention, tersely claimed that "The Republic has no need of savants." But another Convention delegate thought otherwise. Abbé Henri Grégoire, who was also instrumental in obtaining citizenship for French Jews and agitated for the abolition of slavery, was the driving force behind the founding in 1794 of the Musée des arts et métiers in Paris, probably the oldest science and technology museum in Europe.
In an era of increasingly complex technical and scientific diversity, all nations are more dependent than ever on scientists and the increasingly sophisticated tools of their trade — the electron microscope, the computer with almost infinite rapidity and memory, the synchrotron whose powerful beams probe the inner recesses of matter. And just as in Grégoire's time, scientific machines and instruments retain the power to fascinate the layman because they are works of art in themselves or because of the place their creators carved out in history with them.
For the past decade the pioneering objects that science and technology have created over the last 450 years have been out of public view as the Musée des arts et métiers underwent massive renovation. But now some of the most celebrated scientific devices ever invented can once again be viewed. The results are dazzling.
The collection is housed in what remains of the splendid medieval Priory of Saint-Martin des Champs on the Right Bank near the Marais. More than 3,000 items from its unique collection of 80,000 objects and 15,000 drawings are exhibited and classified into seven "domains": scientific instruments, materials, construction, communication, energy, mechanics and transport. Perhaps the most stunning objects are exquisitely crafted machines and models of machines. For the uninitiated contemplating these mostly mysterious objects, major exhibits have been equipped with electronic panels explaining their functioning or the historical context of their creation.
A visit to the museum begins in the Priory attic and ends in its 11th century chapel, where the museum's largest objects are on display. A felicitous combination of old and new materials creates vast, airy rooms throughout. The handsome antique wooden display cases have been retained and restored to their original settings, while new glass and brass cabinets complete a modern mise-en-scène in which old-fashioned clutter has been banished without significant loss of charm. The flamboyant, polychrome chapel has been invested with a spectacular sloping metal and glass walkway with tiny red spotlights on the floor that seem to repeatedly signal, "Stop and look," ending with a series of intersecting staircases.
The highlights of the museum collection provide a short course in the history of science. On view is Blaise Pascal's calculating machine, perfected in 1642 by the then 19-year-old mathematician and philosopher, with its eight tiny wheels adding and subtracting while carrying over automatically. Antoine Lavoisier's laboratory, worthy of Dr. Frankenstein with its spider's web of glass vials connected by copper conduits, includes the large but precise copper scales on which he carried out the experiments that established him as the father of modern chemistry just before the French Revolution. Léon Foucault's 1851 steel, brass and lead pendulum to demonstrate the rotation of the earth — and recently given a popularity beyond science in Umberto Eco's novel Foucault's Pendulum — hangs suspended from the vault in the priory chapel.
The museum boasts the Lumière Brothers' first cinematograph, a square black box with protruding lens that marked the beginning of the film industry with its first public projection in 1895. Also in the realm of entertainment is one of the largest collections in Europe of androids, automatons, mechanical musical instruments and toys. Adding an air of aesthetic ephemera Clément Ader's flimsy, uncertain 1897 flying machine "Avion 3" gracefully hovers over the main staircase, its diaphanous wings of silk and bamboo poles resembling an enormous bat whose morphology in fact was its inspiration.
Albert Einstein once wrote, "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious — it is the source of all true art and science." Even though the well-crafted explanations of the exhibits take some of the mystery from these historic objects, a visit to the Musée des arts et métiers remains a wondrous experience.
This edition's table of contents
TIME Europe home
More stories from TIME Europe and related links
E-mail us at mail@timeatlantic.com
COPYRIGHT © 2000 TIME INC.
|
|
|
|
June 5, 2000
COVER
Baby, It's Cold Outside
Tony Blair gave birth to a new Labour Party, but the Prime Minister's promise of a "modern Britain" is going to take much longer to deliver
New Kid on the Block
An open letter to Leo Blair, Britain's youngest celebrity
EUROPE
A Difficult Performance
David Trimble squeezes a close vote from his party to rejoin Northern Ireland's government
All Quiet on the Eastern Front
A decade after the end of the cold war, Germany plans to revamp its army
Guilt by Association
In an apparent postwar payback, a Serbian court jails a group of Kosovo Albanians for "terrorism"
MIDDLE EAST
Courage under Fire
In a defining moment, Prime Minister Ehud Barak makes good on his promise to withdraw Israeli troops from southern Lebanon
The Time Had Come To End a Tragedy
Israel's Prime Minister insists that withdrawing from Lebanon will not harm security, and he warns against a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state
AFRICA
Showdown to Savagery
After Ethiopian forces blitz their way into Eritrea, a bloody two-year war may be closer to its conclusion
Hope Springs Internal
African women may be the key to saving the chaotic continent
BUSINESS
The Money Game
Even as football's cup runneth over, there is a growing sense of unease among fans that riches may ruin their sport
For Love and Money
Why shouldn't a top-level footballer earn as much as an actor does?
Beenz Counters
An upstart firm tries to make its new product the first legal tender of the World Wide Web
THE ARTS
Dark Victory
At Cannes this year, the jury danced with Björk, but some fine Asian films made a lasting impression
The Art of Science
The eclectic but elegant Musée des arts et métiers reopens in Paris after a decade-long restoration
DEPARTMENTS
Techwatch
World Watch
|
|
