by Pierre Mounier-Kuhn
Historian CNRS, Sorbonne University and CentraleSupélec
In 1990, while beginning my thesis on the history of computing in France, I organised an international symposium on the subject at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, embellished by an exhibition at the museum of the same name. Alongside the French and foreign pioneers of the 1950s, who came to present their electronic computers or the history of their companies, we had the pleasure of welcoming a young engineer, François Gernelle, who recounted the development of the Micral N. This story was not totally unknown to those interested in the subject, but it was the opportunity to launch a movement of interest and to show it to François Gernelle.
Keeping in friendly contact with him, I asked him for further information, in particular about the first purchasers of the Micral after INRA had commissioned the prototype. In other words, information that would help us to understand how the small firm R2E went from developing the microcomputer to industrialising and marketing it. Knowing who the first purchasers were could also be a clue to finding and saving any potential buyers. Micrals by simultaneously studying its history and safeguarding its technical heritage.
Among the 'pioneering' customers he cited was the company AREA manager of the Lyon-Chambéry motorway, replied quite quickly, in substance: "Yes, we always use Micrals to the remote control of the toll plazas. The plan is to replace them, but only after the Albertville Olympics are over, in the spring of 1992!
On 18 April 1992, my old car took me to Chambéry. The attendant at the Nances toll plaza, who had been informed by his superiors, had put the Micrals who made the return trip to Paris in my trunk. There are moments of pure joy in the life of a technical historian, similar to Pagnol's "la gloire de mon père" (the glory of my father) after hunting bartavelles or to the jubilation you feel when you make a discovery or unearth a treasure. Thank you to the Lyon-Chambéry motorway company!
Surprise on arrival, on opening these gifts: the 'automation' units, which had spent 20 years practically in the open air, in the very relative shelter of the toll booths, had stored up blades of grass, or ears of country grass, or an adventurous grasshopper... Proof that the Micral N had indeed been designed by professionals in industrial computing, to operate in testing conditions, far from the playful spirit of the Californian 'counter-culture'. Now that was French tech. !
I didn't want to keep all this loot for myself. I took two copies to François Gernelle, one of which was fitted with the control panel for programming the device 'aux clés', in binary. A third went to the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie at La Villette, where it soon featured in an exhibition. I kept a copy, both for the pleasure of the collector and to show it to my students or at some future exhibition.
An AREA Micral N recovered by Pierre Mounier Kuhn
Eleven years later, in 2003, when I organised a colloquium and a small exhibition at the CNAM to mark the 30e anniversary of the micro-computer, François Gernelle solemnly brought one of his Micrals at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, where it has been on display ever since. Other examples have subsequently appeared at auction, sometimes going on to American collections.
As for mine, I'd quite like to give it a new lease of life, insofar as it's compatible with preserving its components, by making it control some machinery other than a motorway barrier!
Pierre Mounier-Kuhn, 2023
