The miners were held in high regard in Saint Etienne and it’s well documented the huge impact their labor had on French industrial development.

The “Hangman’s Hall” in the Couriot Mine Museum. The workers had to pay for their own uniforms and stored them in the warm rafters with a locked pully to keep them secure.

Saint Etienne was also the site of the Couriot mine, one of the largest coal producing mines in France and the destination of the first trains operated in France in order to transport coal to Paris. The mine today is a museum dedicated to the industry, and the town itself is home to a University of Mining Sciences.

The mechanical weaving of Saint Etienne’s ribbon looms was amazing to witness. Many of the Museum of Art and Industry Museum’s machines are in full working order and are switched on for demonstrations.

Saint Etienne was also famous for it’s fabick and ribbon manufacturers. Large mechanical looms could replicate any concieved artistic patterns, including works of art, through a binary punch card system. This industry continues today in Saint Etienne and is also why the city is nicknamed “Design City.”

The Manufacture d’Armes Saint Etienne was a huge factory building in the city’s center. It was well known for the manufacturing of hunting firearms, bicycles and sporting equipment in the early 20th century, but also for military arms during wartime. The building today has been converted to a Museum of Design, and has cooperative workshop spaces and will soon become an arts and applied science destination.

Fine steel chiseling on some small sword guards. This exhibit at the Museum of Art and Industry in Saint Etienne, France detailed the many adornments on weapons from chisel work to acid etching and encrustation.

A beasutiful cased pair of dueling pistols, made by Zaoue a Marseille and held in the Saint Etienne Art and Industry Museum. French cased pistols were charactieristically set in form-fitting velvet boxes, wereas the English had more compartmental boxes.

An original Mitrailleuse Saint-Etienne Modele 1907T, manufactured in Saint Etienne and held in the Art and Industry Museum.

A display of the canoneer’s tools to manufacture firearm barrels in Saint Etienne, France.