- Le choix de la révolution industrielle: Les enterprises de Marc Seguin et ses frères (1815–1835)
Michel Cotte focuses on three entrepreneurial endeavors of the five Seguin brothers over a twenty-year period: suspension bridges (chapters 6–9), steamboats (chapters 10–15), and the first major railroad in France, from Saint-Étienne to Lyon (chapters 16–22). Chapters 1–5 introduce the contextual background of the Rhône region and chapter 23 examines Marc Seguin’s scientific work. Based on extensive research, especially the rich archives of the Seguin family and businesses in the department of the Ardèche, Cotte includes an analysis of family dynamics and tensions among the brothers Marc (1786–1875), Camille (1793–1852), Jules (1796–1868), Paul (1797–1875), and Charles (1798–1856). Cotte’s 1,142-page doctoral dissertation focused on the same topic: “Innovation et transfert de technologies, le cas des entreprises de Marc Seguin (France 1815–1835)” (1995). Specialized readers may also benefit from his recent research on the history of technology in France: De l’espionnage industriel à la veille technologique (2005) and Le Canal du Midi (2003).
Cotte integrates multiple themes critical to a contextual understanding of the Seguin enterprises. For example, the oldest brother Marc sought to integrate systematic research, and at times scientific theory, within the [End Page 459] brothers’ technological practice. The Seguins’ testing of bar iron and iron wire of different diameters was critical in determining optimal design of bridge cables, which gave rise to a widely accepted standard for cable design. Cotte shows how the brothers’ travels in France and England informed their own technological practice and artifacts and how they chose carefully among British artifacts for import and adaptation in France. They associated with British innovators such as George and Robert Stephenson and Richard Trevithick and with British innovators working in France, and they were also well-informed of American developments and innovators such as Robert Fulton and Oliver Evans.
Cotte is particularly attentive to how social, economic, and technical aspects at French sites of innovation differed from those in Great Britain. For example, he examines in detail how the Seguins modified British imports to fit their unique circumstances, such as the relatively faster flow of the Rhône, topographical diversity between Saint-Étienne and Lyon, and the initially lower skill levels of French craftsmen. The July Revolution of 1830 and its widespread tensions in France exacerbated the challenges faced by the Seguins, especially in the Lyon area where worker unrest threatened the construction of the railroad. Cotte clearly grasps the complexities of broader economic problems in France as well as the particulars of the business aspects of the Seguin enterprises such as private and public companies and corporations, board composition, capitalization, and the tensions of corporate management versus railroad construction management.
Despite Cotte’s contextualist approach, this book is packaged for the narrow specialist. Many details and redundancies could have been eliminated to reduce the 573-page length, with the economized resources committed instead to maps, illustrations, and tables. I was often surprised to discover illustrations many pages after the first textual reference. For example, not until the end of chapter 1 on the Seguin family does one find a genealogical table (p. 33). Similarly, an analytical diagram of the Seguin brothers and their technical specialties is found at the end of chapter 3 (p. 69). After looking up numerous references to sites in the Rhône Valley, I eventually discovered a map on page 250. An illustration of the Seguins’ Tournon-Tain suspension bridge appears on page 177, long after the topic is introduced on page 120. A list of illustrations at the beginning of the book would have been a welcome resource. Captions are minimal, typically with few or no labels of components, and with no explanations of how artifacts function. (An exception to this is the cross-section of the Tournon-Tain bridge on page 175.) Well-chosen illustrations could have significantly improved...