Abstract

"Revisiting the Heroic Narrative of the Machine Tools Innovations through the History of Ingenious Practices, the Teachings of Biography and the Concepts of Casuistry"

Alain Michel, Paris Saclay Evry University (alain.michel@univ-evry.fr)

History of innovation depends on the way we historians conceive of the past, and the way past innovators imagined and controlled (more or less) the environment they were living in. This general statement is easier said than done. To take up the challenge of applying it, I will use the example of the concomitant invention of a new mode of automatism (by Pierre Bézier) and of a new perception of history (by Fernand Braudel). Both conceptual changes were embedded in a similar military captivity during World War II.How were those innovations possible under military constraint and practical idleness ? How can you invent when you are not allowed to work ? An how does this type of ingenuity disrupt (shake up) our global perception of industrial innovation.