the Arts of Industry in Age Enlightenment

The arts of industry encompassed both liberal and mechanical realms. This title argues that mechanics and artisans used four principal means to describe and rationalize their work: drawing, model-making, societies and publications. It also examines the status of the mechanical arts from the medieval period to the seventeenth century. During the 18th century, the arts of industry encompassed both liberal and mechanical realms—not simply the representation of work in the fine art of painting, but the skills involved in the processes of industry itself. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, Celina Fox argues that mechanics and artisans used four principal means to describe and rationalize their work: drawing, model-making, societies, and publications. These four channels, which form the four central themes of this engrossing book, provided the basis for experimentation and invention, for explanation and classification, for validation and authorization, and for promotion and celebration, thus bringing them into the public domain and achieving progress as a true part of the Enlightenment.