The village smill
There was still before war a worn in Vierville, Auguste Blin, also having a small farm road to Formigny, a great wounded of the Great War. He was in charge of the maintenance of agricultural equipment and horse ironing. Luckily, in 1938, Mrs. Hausermann's grandchildren photographed her forge before its total disappearance after the war, with the end of draft horses and the introduction of tractors.
an invoice from March 1937, signed by Auguste Blin. It concerned the repair of a water pump probably
Father Blin (Auguste Blin), a forger in 1938, busy raping the hoof of the Hausermann horse. Madame Hausermann's grandson, Jean-Pierre Chedal-Anglay, holds the horse called "Muscadet".
The burds succeeded each other, it seems, from father to son in the Blin family; the last brigger of this name lived in an old small farm on the road to Formigny, it still exists. (photo on the right)
The forge was located on rue Pavée, in the village, (the photo below shows the building that remains).
The premises of the old forge, rue Pavée
The Blin farm, on the road to Formigny, now become a residential house.
Plan of Mr. Blin's house, rfue Pavée, with the forge in the shed, around 1950
An unusual object made by an ancestor of the Vierville forger
It is a 32 cm long wooden model representing a tricycle for two people. It was made in captivity in 1871 by Michel-Jules-Clément Blin. See on the right two newspaper articles on this subject.
At the time the bicycle did not exist, so it was an exceptional object. The wheels were built like those of the chariots, made of wood.
the small wooden tricycle 32 cm long
Michel-Jules-Clément Blin's miniature tricycleRead the rewritten text
This reading version has been rewritten from the newspaper clipping. Connecting phrases and any reconstructed words are not a verbatim quotation.
The unusual object presented for the month of May is a miniature wooden tricycle with two places, made by Michel-Jules-Clément Blin. Born in Vierville on July 24, 1848 and died in the same commune on March 12, 1911 at the age of sixty-two, he belonged to an ancient family in the region.
He had replaced his father, a farrier in Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes and then in Vierville, after his paralysis. Incorporated into the 13th Dragon Regiment on October 20, 1869, he was taken prisoner the following year and detained mainly in Silesia, in Breslau and Neisse.
With pieces of wood, bone fragments and makeshift tools he had made, he made models of complicated instruments, tools and devices. Their sale to civilians helped him support him and his comrades. His widow had kept seven pieces from this period, intended for the Baron-Gérard Museum in Bayeux.
The most important was the tricycle, thirty-two centimeters long and twenty centimeters high on the handlebars. The rear wheels were 138 millimeters in diameter, the front wheel 154. The two seats were arranged in tandem: vélocipedist saddle at the front and gallery seat at the rear, able to accommodate a woman. Two joysticks and a handlebar placed between them also made it possible to move it by hand without a male companion.
The body of the text and the legend place this realization in 1871. The know-how of Blin's farrier had allowed him to build the wheels in the manner of those of carts. The article presents the object as a remarkable invention for its time.
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The miniature tricycle of Michel Blin, craftsman from ViervilleRead the rewritten text
This reading version has been rewritten from the newspaper clipping. Connecting phrases and any reconstructed words are not a verbatim quotation.
In its "History and Little History" section, a local magazine pays tribute to the ingenuity of Michel Blin, a farrier born in Vierville-sur-Mer in 1848. While he was doing his military service, the war of 1870 broke out. Prisoner of the Prussians, he was sent to Breslau, Silesia. To soften his internment conditions, he made instruments and scale models, some of which were sold on site.
On his return, he brought back a miniature wooden tricycle, dated 1871 in the article and preserved at the Baron-Gérard Museum in Bayeux. The photograph is provided by this museum. The magazine highlights the innovative nature of the object by comparing it to what it presents, with caution, as a first tricycle identified in 1880, single-seater and with large rear wheels. This comparison belongs to the article and does not constitute here a verified history of the invention of the tricycle.
The description cited gives a length of thirty-two centimeters and a height of twenty centimeters at the handlebar level. The rear wheels have a diameter of 138 millimeters; the front wheel, larger, measures 154 millimeters. Two seats are arranged in tandem: a bicycle saddle at the front and, at the back, a gallery seat presented as being able to accommodate a woman. The device also provides for manual propulsion by means of two joysticks, with a steering handlebar placed between them, to move without a male companion, according to the period formulation included in the magazine.
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Original OCR text
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Michel-Jules-Clément Blin was born in Vierville on July 14, 1848, he replaced his father as a village brigger in Vierville. He had started working in Ste-Honorine before installing his forge in Vierville, but he was paralyzed.
Called to military service in 1869, at the 13th Dragons, Michel Blin had to make the war of 1870 where he was taken prisoner.
During this period spent in Silesia, in Breslau in particular (now in Poland under the name of Wroclaw), he used his manual skill to make various models, tools, instruments, and this curious tricycle. The tools used were also from his manufacture. He was thus able to improve the ordinary of his group by selling his works to Germans.
Michel Blin died on March 12, 1911. His widow kept some of his work and donated it to the Baron Gérard Museum in Bayeux. This collection consists of seven pieces.
The most important is a wooden tricycle model. The total length is 32 centimeters. The rear wheels have a diameter of 138 millimeters; the front wheel is larger, with a diameter of 154 millimeters. The maximum height taken at the handlebar level is 20 centimeters. This tricycle has two seats placed in tandem, the front with a bicycle saddle, the rear with a gallery seat that can be occupied by a woman. In the absence of a male companion, the device can be moved by hand using two joysticks and a steering handlebar placed between these controllers. This work was made in 1871. It is a novelty for the time, the bicycle did not yet exist. Thanks to his job as a farrier, Mr. Blin was able to make the wheels in the manner of those of carts. An exceptional object.
His grandson, Auguste Blin, was a brigger in Vierville in 1939. He had made the war of 1914/18 from which he had returned badly injured and gassed. He had no offspring and since Vierville has had no blacksmith.
(Adaptation of the Bessin Renaissance which told its story).