Antoine Clerc Gallet

of France

Instrument maker.

The Musée des Arts et Métiers have on display a form of dividing engine used for engraving series of accurately-space lines on printing plates, made in 1803, designed by Nicolas-Jacques Conté and constructed by Antoine-Clerc Gallet. See here. In 1803, Conté directed the publication of the work of the Egyptian campaign, led by Napoleon Bonaparte. Desiring to reduce the cost of producing the plates for printing the illustrations, Conté envisaged using a machine to assist in engraving. It would engrave parallel lines, more or less pronounced, with graduation to suggest tones. The publication of the Description de l’Égypte in twenty volumes took place from 1808 to 1822.

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