The Armor Business in the Middle Ages

The establishment of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in Paris in 1799, following a conception for a museum of science and industry outlined by Descartes a century and a half earlier, was the beginning of a type of institution which has great significance to business history. Many industrial museums have since been established. Some have grown to vast exhibitions of industrial machines and processes, such as the Science Museum in London, the Deutsches Museum in Munich, the Technical Museum in Vienna, and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. In America and in Europe many smaller museums have also been established to illustrate some particular aspects of industrial development. Among the outstanding ones in America are the Edison Museum, established by Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, the Industrial Museum of the American Steel and Wire Co. at Worcester, Massachusetts, and the John Woodman Higgins Armory, of the Worcester Pressed Steel Co.