Complete workshop for making carriage wheels

This remarkable ensemble of eleven machines, three sawmills and a kiln depicts the workshop created in Rue du Chemin-Vert by five Parisian coachbuilders, including Eugène Philippe, in 1829. From 1832 to 1839, Philippe made 1:5 scale models of these machines for the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, then in 1840 combined them in a single working model. Like the machines in the actual workshop, they were admired for the quality of their craftsmanship and their regular working. Philippe was awarded a gold medal at the Exhibition of Products of French Industry in 1834. The use of machines, the concentration of production in huge workshops, the division of work and the distribution of power using drive belts were all features of the mechanisation of industrial sectors such as the construction of horse-drawn carriages from the July Monarchy onwards.