Edmé Régnier L'Aîné (15 July 1751 – 10 June 1825) was a French pistol maker and engineer, born in Semur-en-Auxois in 1751 and died in Paris in 1825.
He became the inspector of hand firearms production under the Committee of Public Safety. Subsequently, he was appointed the first Director of the Musée d'Artillerie in the cloister of the Church of Saint Thomas d'Asquin, Paris.
Régnier's dynamometer
In the early 1780s, Philippe Guéneau de Montbeillard and Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon encouraged Régnier to begin the design a device that could compare muscular strength. The physician Charles-Augustin de Coulomb further encouraged him, and the result was made known to the public in 1798 and became known as Régnier's dynamometer.
Régnier's dynamometer was one of a series of innovations related to public safety and rifle safety and adopting recent innovations to public need. A list of his innovations was published in around 1801.
Combination Lock
According to the ASSA Abloy website, Régnier also invented a combination lock that could change its combination, by doubling the number of rings. Usually, this type of lock has a number of rotatable rings that release the shackle only when all of them are set to a specific position. The ability to change the combination made it more secure and popular.
References
- Jamin, Jean (1986) Notes sur le dynamométre de Régnier, Gradhiva, No. 1. autumn 1986
- Régnier, Edmé (1798) Mémoires Explicatifs du Dynamomètre et autres machines inventées par le Cen. Régnier
- Régnier, Edmé (ca. 1801) Note des innovations du Cen Régnier, conservateur du Dépôt Central de l'Artillerie, membre de l'Athenée de Arts, de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale ...(Paris: Impr. de Prault, n.d., ca. 1801)
- "Padlocks as combination locks".
External links
- Bloom, Peter J., (2008) French colonial documentary: mythologies of humanitarianism, page 253.
- The Mechanics' Magazine, Volume 1, 21st edition, London 1825, pp 209 - 210, 283