2019 Patrimony Days (or European Heritage Days) were held on the 21^st and 22^nd of September.

2018 Patrimony Days (or European Heritage Days) were held on the 15^th and 16^th of September.

Pyréolophore: it’s the name of the first internal combustion engine in the world, invented by Nicéphore Niépce and his brother Claude. It will officially enter into Le Musée des Arts et Métiers on Thursday, September 27, 2018, at 7pm.

The Niépce House and Spéos Photography school rectify the history of science, after many years of research: the first internal combustion engine is French!

This research was validated by the Academy of Sciences in 2015 and is the subject of a book written by Manuel Bonnet, Jean-Louis Bruley, Olivier Pironneau (introduction), and published in 2015 by the Université pour Tous de Bourgogne Centre de Chalon-sur-Saône:

Niépce, Another revolution in the shadow of the great Carnot – Essay of a reasoned bibliography of the first internal combustion engine (1806). The Pyréolophore.

The rehabilitation of the Pyréolophore was carried out thanks to the Nicéphore Niépce House, with the financing of Spéos photography school, as well as the support of Olivier Pironneau from the Académie des Sciences and Yves Winkin, director of Le Musée des Arts et Métiers.

• Presentation of the Pyréolophore: Thursday, September 27, 2018 at 7pm
• Musée des Arts et Métiers · 60 rue Réaumur · Paris 3e
• Invitations on request by email to csj@speos.fr

> KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PYRÉOLOPHORE

Every year, the “Haut Comité des commémorations nationales” presents to the Ministry of Culture and Communication a selection of about a hundred personalities, whose birthdays are celebrated in the name of the nation.

This selection is presented in a publication that has become well-known among both amateurs and professionals within the domain of French history. In 2015, it features Nicéphore Niépce, who celebrates his 250th anniversary.
Excerpt page 215 (French only):

 

Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce

Chalon-sur-Saône, 7 mars 1765
Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, 5 juillet 1833

Enfant des Lumières par excellence, Joseph Niépce naît l’année de la parution du dernier volume de texte de l’Encyclopédie.
Peut-être le futur inventeur de la photographie se déclare-t-il dans ce Nicéphore qui surgit sous sa plume en 1787, millénaire du concile de Nicée II (787) qui vit le futur patriarche de Constantinople, Nicéphore, prendre courageusement position contre l’hérésie iconoclaste.
Niépce dira avoir « travaillé à cette découverte à Cagliari », en 1797-1798.
Sa vie de clerc tonsuré enseignant au collège oratorien d’Angers, ses « courses nocturnes dans la montagne » avec la 83e demi-brigade, son passage remarqué à l’état-major de l’armée d’Italie aux côtés de Bonaparte, les heures délétères à la commission du district de Nice sous la Convention thermidorienne, tout cela appartient alors au passé.
L’avenir, pour autant que ses revenus fonciers le lui permettent, est au goût pour les sciences et techniques qu’il partage avec son frère Claude. Et à cette époque, la découverte de la photographie n’est pas prioritaire. L’idée, qui lui appartient au moins « partiellement », d’une « nouvelle machine dont le principe moteur est l’air dilaté par le feu », accapare tout son temps.
Explicitement baptisé « pyréolophore », le moteur à combustion interne est la grande affaire de leur vie. […]

Manuel Bonnet

 

The electronic version of National Commemorations 2015 will be available on the website of the Archives of France au dernier trimestre 2015. in the last quarter of 2015. In the meantime, you can order the book from Éditions du patrimoine via this link.

The revised online edition of Niépce, correspondance et papiers is a compilation of over 700 documents from more than 50 archives spread all over the world.
Footnotes give thousands of references; its index of names amounts to more than three thousand; equipped with a multi-criteria search engine.

Historical bits and pieces are revealed, family secrets unveiled — the collage of scientific history turns the confidences of Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833) into a captivating story.

The museum Maison Nicéphore Niépce is happy to announce the online publication of Niépce-Correspondance et papiers , with the sponsorship of the Académie des sciences and the Académie des beaux-arts, the largest number of documents ever collected on the inventor of photography (1765-1833).

In the attic of the photo museum Maison Nicéphore Niépce, Maurice Bonneviot — a notary — tells the story of the invention of photography via Niépce’s notarized letters and documents.

A bit of family history…

Among the Niépce family, Nicéphore is well-known, as is Abel Niépce of Saint Victor, who was born at Saint-Cyr and became the military governor at the Palais du Louvre. He first followed Nicéphore’s photographic work and then invented the first process on glass (Albumine).
Last but not least, there is David Niépce, whose name is carried by the Collège de Sennecey.

Who was David Niépce?

David François Etienne Pierre Laurent Niépce was born into a royalist family in Chalon on 12 September 1781. A student at the Ecole des Oratoriens de Chalon, he and a couple friends preferred to play truants to serious studies. Due to his lively, strong and righteous personality, David quickly became the leader of their group – a character trait which marked the most important dates of his career.
During the French Revolution, David Niépce was declared “a good patriot and republican”, followed by a decisive first meeting with the then sergeant Bonaparte, which was to considerably influence his life.
Enrolled in the voluntary republican army at Givry, he thus participated in all major Napoleonic wars: Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, the Prussian campaigns, Silesia, Poland.
Named adjutant to the King of Westphalia (Napoleon’s brother), David leaves the army to serve in this position until 1812, when – as colonel general he participates in Napoleon’s terrible campaign in Russia. Only after the emperor’s exile in Elba is he reunited with his wife, the baroness of Zandt, and their six children.

In 1852, just after the 1848 Revolution, David Niépce is elected into the General Council of Saône-et-Loire. For 17 years, until his death in 1869, Sennecey and its canton thus benefit from his will to progress – mostly with regard to public education, in particular the conditions for teachers and students. This is why the General Council decides on 9 September 1988 to give his name to the Collège de Sennecey le Grand.

Colonel David Niépce – frequently commuting between Sennecey le Grand and Paris – also played a decisive role in the history of the invention of photography, being the link between Nicéphore and Charles Chevalier, the Paris-based optician. Chevalier not only introduced Daguerre to Nicéphore, but also was the supplier to Petiot Groffier, whose laboratory – the world’s oldest – is already on view in the Niépce House.

David and Nicéphore Niépce, who were cousins, had a very close relationship to each other. Nicéphore liked to stay in Sennecey, where the entire family met during his visits.

In the attic of the family house in Sennecey – thoroughly searched this year (2010) – we thus managed to find David Niépce’s library, objects belonging to his cabinet of curiosities, as well as photo accessories, clearly showing his growing interest in photography since 1839, when he started to follow Nicéphore’s work.

The Niépce House in Sennecey today is a beautifully renovated guest house, which allows those interested in history to stay in the very same surroundings Nicéphore and his family enjoyed during their reunions.

The collection belonging to David Niépce will be shown for the first time during the National Heritage Days 2010 (free entry for the inhabitants of Saint-Loup).