Innovation in Europe at the Beautiful Time

Between 1870 and the First World War, Europe knew a wave of exceptional Innovation technical making following 50 years of technological push. This creative synthesis , easily perceptible by the contemporaries, remains an important historical turning point and whose width is not without recalling the upheavals observed to the Renaissance. It is the time of the faith in the Progrès, the golden age of the World Fairs, the popular Entrepreneuriat and the Internationalisation before the hour. In this context of economic prosperity, France and the '' City of Light '' played a particular role which both world wars will come soon to ruin. This period of expansion in a climate of unconcern, which will be described later as Belle Time, was a decisive turn towards the Modernité.

The one time spirit

The 40 years period which preceded the First World War saw the greatest technological revolution, industrial, economic, cultural and social of the European history from the extent of the fields which changed. It is one period of strong rupture where the car, aviation, the cinematograph, the fairy electricity anticipate promising fields and renewed lifestyles.

the world changed more between 1880 and 1914 that since the Romains

the end of the 19th century is one period which crowns one century of extraordinary scientific and economic efforts, new era whose scientists and philosophers prophesy the size, whose realities will exceed our dreams and our imaginations

the 20th century will see the clearing of the old world

The term “Belle Time”, if there exists during the time considered, will spread really only after the Second world war with the historians who will evoke not without nostalgia “ the lost paradise of 1913 ”. In England one will speak about second industrial revolution. It is one period of extreme optimism, a kind of ideal in Europe. The growth is vigorous, the state does not borrow more because it is surplus, the currency is stable with the Gold franc which is an international reference or the royal Pound sterling.

The religion of progress

The Beautiful Time sees the birth of the concept of Progrès. The contemporaries have a positive vision of the contribution of science and technique at the company which solves or will solve soon the problems (Vaccination…) : it is the enchantment of the future. Many reviews with character scientic are published such as astronomy , illustrated science , Science and life , electricity … Parallèlement of the conferences is given by largest to the Conservatoire national of arts and trades, the Maisons of progress always open with Paris in a preoccupation with a popularization. One attends a idealization of progress with the goddess of progress or the fairy electricity ; science is the Archange progress. With the control of the Steel and Verre the cathedrals of modern times are set up following the example Large palace, of which one of the pediments precise that “ the future will be made tools which will be invented ”, or the Palais of the machines which was the largest building ever built in Paris.

By its exceptional dimensions, by its bold and slim farms of 115 meters range, reaching at the top a 45 meters height, this palate constitutes a single monument in the universe; it makes more the great honor with our national industry and strongly contributed to the great success of the Exposition .

Paradoxically of many retrospectives are organized at that time (like the habitat of prehistory at our days), to make pass the innovation with the idea of a directed progress.

Time to live

In France and Germany, one attended a considerable fall of the working Working time of approximately 1000 H per annum. 14:00 per day, which corresponds about to what was observed with the Renaissance see with the Middle Ages, the work period fell at 8:00 per day in 1914 in the majority from the large companies. The obligatory school is made possible by the productivity gains which release the children of work.

This considerable change for the individuals, in a context of wage increase and generalized fall of the prices, confines with optimism while authorizing the saving. It allows also a provision of the fruits of this technological push , which had not been able to take place before 1880. The new technique is present in the middle of the population (the telephone, the airship, the vacuum cleaner…), with often a ludic component, from where an immediate adhesion on behalf of the public. It is the period when the industry of the leisure with companies headlights is invented as Luna Park which was largest Amusement park before 1914. Many theaters are created ( Théâtre of the gaity , popular Théâtre ). The voyages develop, it is the time of the Sea bathings as to Boulogne where the beaches accommodate more bathers than at the time of the Popular front

The associative movement is released and benefits from the availability offered by the fall of the working time, it is the period of creation of the inns of youth, of the Salvation Army.

Art in the life

The Belle Time also comprises an esthetic dimension with an acute sense of the beauty. It is the period of the Art nouveau but also of 6th and the 7th art (the Photographie and the Cinéma).

Art for all is asserted, it is the time of beautiful in the useful one produced in great series with Louis Comfort Tiffany or Emile Galle and the École of Nancy. The houses of the people have a role of education with Article Of large companies are also of invaluable patrons (Crédit Lyonnais, General society)

Art everywhere must be the rule: in the Subway, the stations (Station of Orsay)… One observes a revival of the Vitrail which is not without pointing out the almost religious dimension of progress.

The creative synthesis

The Beautiful Time constitutes a pivot for the innovation with the fast development of sectors such as fine chemistry, the Médicament S (Aspirine), the Plastique S, the Phonographe, the Aéronautique, the press, the Pétrole, the Téléphone, the Banque with network, the Parfumerie and the Cosmétique S (L'Oreal), the Agroalimentaire, the Machine-outil, the machines of office…

After 50 years of technological push, the 19th century was completed with a creative synthesis . The wave of innovation of the Renaissance carried out a synthesis by the beauty (by the Art), that of the Beautiful Time integrates this artistic dimension but also of other dimensions.

. Among the 500 plus contemporary European large companies more than 400 were born at this period.

It is the time when many famous brands are created, often of international dimension, among which one can quote Rolex, Renault, Bosch, Blédina, Mount Blanc, Parker, Kodak, Whirlpool, Liquid air… As soon as a sector is born, of many companies are born to exploit the prospects thus open with sometimes high-speed takeoffs. For example with the refrigerating machines was born from the companies like the new company of the industrial cold or the refrigerators of Paris

The Beautiful Time sees also the appearance of the principal codes which structure the life in Europe (the Nobel Prize, the Tour de France…) or which will make the image, often still of topicality, of the countries concerned (the Moulin-Rouge, Olympia…)

A new generation of contractors

The second part of the 19th century sees to be essential a new middle-class, not that of the owners but that of the graduates. In France for example, the Universities provide the main part of the new contractors (Gustave Eiffel, Armand Peugeot, André Citroen, Louis Renault, Louis Pasteur, Louis Lumière…). But the arrival of these graduates to the head of the large companies however does not break systematically the family tradition:
In a case of figure often included in the novels, the engineer shining could succeed the owner after having married his daughter |Patrick Verley

This will of extraordinary initiative of the time was also expressed with men with the atypical profile such Ferdinand de Lesseps, civil servant in end of a career which raised the required funds to the construction of the Suez Canal. To undertake was with the range of all and the possible exceptional success as for this simple pharmacist who invented to them… Cachou Lajaunie.

The Written press is emblematic company spirit of the time, with an organization which does not know the contemporary ideological barriers following the example Jean Jaurès which does not direct less than 1600 employees to the newspaper the Humanité.

Forms of companies and financings

The period sees the model appearance of varied businesses of emergence and which remain a source of inspiration for the current contractors. In parallel original ways of financing are born.

The development of the legislation on the public limit companies (total liberalization in 1856 in the United Kingdom, 1867 in France and 1870 in Prussia), gradually makes it possible anonymous capital to join those of the great industrial dynasties inherited the previous period. But the legislator offered many legal possibilities to express this will of initiative among which one to quote little the Mutualisme (MY), the Coopération (Crédit Agricole), the Limited partnership (Michelin), limited liability company, the Association law 1901 which allowed the birth of Governmental organizations, the Fédération, the Cooperative society of production (working Verrerie of Albi), the Union (Universal postal union, International union of telecommunications).

Between 1873 and 1913,500 banks (against only two since the second world war) are create, sometimes specifically for a sector ( chemical Crédit , aeronautical credit …). Paris which was a determining money market during this time of entrepreneuriat very active.

Historically in Europe, never a period had not led to the creation of as many richnesses with such a fast wasting related to the First World War. 1968 will have to be waited until to find the purchasing power of the wages of 1913, thus constituting a major Economic recession from where this feeling of lost paradise and inexpressible doubt as for the triumphing progress of which the effects will be only more fatal (Poison gas made possible by the development of the Chemical industry…)

Department stores

This period favourable with the trade allowed the creation of the department stores with the Bon Marché, of which the structure was built by Gustave Eiffel. This store was the source of inspiration of the novel of Emile Zola “ With the happiness of the Ladies ” which testifies to the extent of the sociological changes in progress such as in the Law the labor or the birth of the Consumer society.

Some, like Large the store Dufayel , whose pediment showed “ progress involving in its wake the bank and industry ”, were conceived like true World Fairs permanent with symphony orchestra and theater. In this movement of creation, Paris takes the leadership with approximately fifteen very department stores among which one can quote Felix Potin, joined together Stores, the Bazar of the Town hall, With the Beautiful Flower stand, Galeries Lafayette, With Réaumur, Spring…

The period also sees the appearance of the Mail-order selling.

Will of universalism

As for the other great period of European innovation that is the Renaissance, international dimension is extremely strong at the Beautiful Time: with the Invention, the Innovation and the Industrialization, the Internationalisation is an essential component of this large wave of innovation. If the Renaissance made the synthesis of imported techniques, the Beautiful Time directly sees being born the new techniques in its center (electricity, photography, car…)

The period allows a level of internationalization ever reached and the Times to affirm that “ there does not exist place in the world where information cannot arrive in less than one fifteen minutes ” thanks to the development of technologies of communication (cable deck chairs, Téléphone…) and of the International union of telecommunications which coordinates the use of the frequencies Radio. In literature, Jules Verne makes make in Philéas Fogg the Round the world tour in eighty days , thanks to the European technical genius . It is the time of large the maritime companies such as the transatlantic general Compagnie, of the lines of Railroad like the East-Express train, the blue Train between Calais and the Riviera, London - Cairo, the Transsibérien…

In the Cultural field, the multiplication of the accounts of voyages or modes as the Japonisme show rise to power in the imaginary European of others Culture S, themselves often put at evil by the Colonisation which will remain the dark face of this time. Paris, the City of Light , is then regarded as the reference of the culture and it is of good tone to send his children to study in Paris to make their Humanités. Nowhere one could test naive and yet very wise unconcern of the existence more fortunately only in Paris. Each one of us others, young people, incorporated a share of this lightness by adding its own share to it. Chinese and Scandinavians, Spanish and Greeks, Brazilian and Canadian, all felt on their premises on banks of the the Seine During the inauguration of the Subway of Paris, the panels of information will be in 34 languages; in the department stores it is possible to buy in many languages. The vast majority of the countries adhere to the international Postal Union with only one stamp for all the countries. The Postcard, which is invented at that time, is exchanged with nearly 800 million specimens in 1914.

On this date, France is present in 150 countries with external assets which account for 120% of the GNP of which only 3,5% in the colonies and flow Net invested abroad account for 4 to 6%. The Crédit Lyonnais is then more the large bank of the world. It is one period without precedent for the creation of companies of international dimensions: Michelin, Renault, Pathé… with a will of internationalization posted from the beginning as publicities testify some which affirm “ present everywhere in the world ”. Forty of the more current French large companies were created at that time with takeoffs which can be high-speed and an international dimension sometimes acquired in only a few years (Renault, Pathé)

The period is favourable with the payments of the international problems following the example Henri Dunant which created the French Croix-Rouge and the convention of Geneva. However the army pains to fall under this international movement, it is also the time of the Affaire Dreyfus and rancours of the Guerre of 1870.

The Mondialisme also finds its first expression of width on the base of the Marxisme with the foundation of the Internationales.

In this context of exceptional international opening, the universal exposures played a part emblematic, serving then as genuine crucible.

The role of the World Fairs

The World Fairs were created in 1844 to present the industrial achievements of the various nations and are not in the beginning carrying any political ideology. They played an amplifying part of the innovation while being used as interface between different fields, the culture and the technique, people of varied competences, thus constituting a formidable accelerator of innovation.

The World Fairs of 1889 and 1900, which accommodated nearly 50 million visitors in a few months, are undoubtedly emblématiques of the Belle Time. They represented the technological and industrial window participants, with a state of Article the most creative personalities were present, following the example Thomas Edison which had as a practice to test the reception reserved for its innovations by presentations at the time of the World Fairs. the 19th century was the great century of progress. To celebrate the wonders of arts, of sciences, industry and agriculture, France invited all the nations to take part in the World Fair which it organized in Paris. All answered this invitation; they made a point of comparing progress of their industry with those of the other nations. The Exposure of 1900 was a wonder At the origin, each country had a reserved space in a central house. Starting from 1867, national houses made their appearance still reinforcing the effect of competition. With this occasion of the contests allowed more deserving to obtain Médaille S which profited from a certain prestige ensuring the world leadership sometimes. The innovations presented were at the origin of the creation of very many companies which found the funds to develop on the money markets closest such as that to Paris.

Many architectural achievements built at the time of World Fairs became thereafter symbols of the cities which sheltered them like the Eiffel Tower with Paris. The physical organization of certain exposures deserves to be recalled with for some an organization in network which allows a visit either by country (“all productions of Japan”), or by discipline (“all on electricity”). The main door of the exposure, of which most famous was not other than the Eiffel Tower, is not without evoking all the power symbolic system of the Portail S in the religious architecture.

Lastly, the behavior of the World Fairs was always the occasion to set up projects of town planning: construction of the Subway of Paris in 1900, grand boulevards…

Thus the World Fairs were a crucible of most favorable to carry out the creative synthesis characteristic of the vagueness of innovation of the Beautiful Time.

Random links:Business of the court of Nice | Robert Castel (sociologist) | Cross from the Togo of football | Utopia (Romance) | Collar of Bassachaux | Cobra_du_mustang_SVT_de_Ford