Louis Payen (1830–1901) picked up the Arithmometer baton when Thomas de Colmar’s son didn’t seem equal to the task. Taking over the workshop in 1887, he inherited a legacy that was both a blessing and a burden: a boutique workshop still operating with the slow, deliberate pace of artisan handicraft.
He adopted a standardised production model and bridged the transition from artisanal production to industrialised production. He kept the lights on in Paris while the rest of the world was trying to blow them out.