Author response

In 1783, Louis XVI founded the first public repository of machines in the very premises Vaucanson had set up his workshops the Hôtel de Mortagne. A record, found among the archives of the Conservatoire des arts et métiers, enables us to identify specimens which have been collected up to 1791 by this fairly unknown institution.

While the existence of the public repository, established six months after Vaucanson's death, was attested to through the royal decree of August 2, 1783, the exact list of the machines and tools left by the engineer remained unknown. Furthermore, documents giving information on the activities of this institution, which was to be at the origin of the Conservatoire des arts et métiers, were rare. The inventory of the Hôtel de Mortagne sheds light on these two points. It is the second part of this hitherto unpublished document which appears below, following the summary of the text which preceeded the first part published in the previous issue of this journal.