Industry in revolution. A technological involution in the pyrenean paper industry from about 1788 to around 1830

Résumé 0

During the Revolution, one of the largest paper mills in France was built on the upper Garonne, and it adopted modern cylinder technology. Destroyed by a fire, it was rebuilt on a small scale by using traditional technology, as used by the other mills in the Pyrenees. While these mills were gradually entering a phase of industrialization, adapting their technical progress to the social and environmental conditions of the region, the mill of Camon, by contrast, was mired in a technical system that had become archaic. This example, which goes beyond the monographic example, illustrates the specific constraints of technology transfer like those of the insertion of a capital innovation into an old technical system. If performed too early, the transfer could constitute an obstacle to the development of the company and put it in jeopardy. Neglected or undertaken too late, it was accompanied by a technical delay that would render manufacturing no longer profitable.