@ARTICLE{10.21494/ISTE.OP.2019.0410, 

TITLE={Pierre Bézier and the Renault Transfer Machines (1940–1960). When Cinema Fails to Glorify an Industrial Hero}, 
  
AUTHOR={Alain P. Michel, }, 
	
JOURNAL={Technology and Innovation}, 
	
VOLUME={4}, 

NUMBER={Issue 4}, 
	
YEAR={2019}, 

URL={https://openscience.fr/Pierre-Bezier-and-the-Renault-Transfer-Machines-1940-1960-When-Cinema-Fails-to}, 
	
DOI={10.21494/ISTE.OP.2019.0410}, 
	
ISSN={2399-8571}, 
	
ABSTRACT={Pierre Bézier is an anti-hero of industrial innovation. He has alternately been seen as the artisan of an original form of automation, the promoter in Europe of numerical control, and as one of the founders of industrial computing. While "Bézier curves and surfaces" are still widely used, the family name is seldom associated with the man and hardly ever linked to his previous innovations which have fallen into oblivion. This paper investigates the failure of a film promotion campaign for Renault transfer machinery in the late 1950s. This case study makes it possible to compare Bézier’s workshop practices to the patterns of industrial thought which did not consider him as a worthwhile innovator. In other words, as Bezier’s trajectory resists the canonical interpretative frameworks of heroic industrial innovation, the anecdotal acquires a historical value.}}