The mere handicrafts : Ure’s Dictionary (1839-1853)compared with the Dictionnaire technologique(1822-1835)

Abstract

Technology, in the nineteenth-century sense of ‘science of the industrial arts’, comes in two varieties. The tradition of special technology began in 1777, when Beckmann published his Anleitung zur Technologie. The tradition of general technology began in 1806, when Beckmann published his Entwurf der allgemeinen Technologie. The former tradition entered France at the turn of the century. One of the more important French technological productions is the Dictionnaire technologique, launched by Lenormand and Francœur in 1822. Examples of the latter tradition are Christian’s Plan de technonomie and Ure’s Philosophy of Manufactures. Ure was also active in the field of special technology. In 1839, he published the first edition of his Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines. This dictionary has 1 million words, the Dictionnaire technologique four million. The difference of three million words has to be explained by the fact that Ure explicitly omitted various parts of human industry, particularly the mere handicrafts. It turns out that he is especially interested in automatic manufactures operating with self-acting machines, the most perfect manufacture being that which dispenses entirely with manual labour. In this technological utopia, the mere handicrafts would have become obsolete, and the workshop of the artisan would have been replaced by the automatic factory.