Published on 26 June 2015 by Jean-Luc Soulier, Member of the Paris and Brussels Bars
[email protected] Tel.: +33 (0)1 40 54 29 29, + 33 (0)4 72 82 20 80 Read this post online The inventor of the sewing machine and the arthropods Much has been said about the resistances of French society to major industrial and technological revolutions. A little book[1] in praise of Barthélémy Thimonnier, the inventor of the sewing machine, given to me by the CEO of the company Thimonnier, is a reminder that fear of change and temptation of inaction can resurface wherever an innovation is likely to upset the order of things. I felt I should share with you the brilliant lesson in political economy published by Barthélémy Thimonnier in theJournal de Villefranche on September 28, 1845 in response to a letter from a reader who had described his invention as a “public calamity”. Much has been said about the resistances of French society to major industrial and technological changes, as illustrated by the controversial introduction of the precautionary principle in our Constitution through the incorporation therein of the Charter for the Environment. And the worst has been avoided! Some of the reports published during theGrenelle de l’environnement[2], supposed to establish a framework for the implementation of the precautionary principle, suggested placing R&D activities under supervision: A commission composed equally of scientists and representatives of public authorities on the one hand, and representatives of civil society (in fact, in the mind of the supporters of this suggestion, representatives of associations) on the other hand, would have had the power of life or death on research projects likely to adversely affect humans or the environment.