Dynamometer designed by Edme Regnier, 1796 / State Library of New South Wales, 1988

FM2/2083

fonds

1988

Graphic Materials, Photographs

902327

13 negatives - 35 mm - film, black & white

It was at the instigation of Buffon and Gueneau de Montbelliard that, in the early 1870s, the engineer in mechanics Edme Regnier (1751-1825) sought to make an instrument which met the experimental conditions then set forth by the two naturalists: aiming to measure in a comparable way the relative forces of man at different ages, at different stages of maturity, as well as in different states of health, they wanted to have at their disposal an exact, portable, easy to handle machine, giving immediate and comparable results or values, which could be used in estimating not only the muscular force which acts on a finger, but in evaluating that which acts as each member separately and on all the parts of the body.

Edme Regnier was interrupted with his work by the French Revolution and started researching again in 1796. The instrument came into the category of dynamometers, i.e. of apparatuses which allow the measurement of force by means of the elasticity of solid bodies.

The instrument was easy to handle, easy to read and to carry; Regniers dynamometer was a certain success.

The model in these negatives is from the Musee de l'Armee in Paris. It was discovered in February 1983 at the back of a storage area of this same Museum. After investigation it led to the belief that is was a similar model to the 1796 prototype. Further research has shown that it is probably the apparatus which travelled with Francois Peron on the 19th October 1800, carried on the corvette Le Geographe under the command of Captain Baudin, and with which he was to carry out the first anthropometric measurements of French athropology during the four years taken by his voyage to the Southern Hemisphere.

Regnier's Dynamometer was on display in the Library's exhibition "The Coming of the Strangers" in 1988.

(Source: Mitchell Files)

Negatives of original Dynamometer designed by Edme Regnier, 1796, five different views.

Approval for reproduction required: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Musee de l"Armee, Paris

Mitchell file as numerous notes and information on the Dynamometer

Pic.Acc. Upgrade Project - Information transferred from Pic.Acc.6659 as part of the eRecords Project 2012-13

Good condition