Honoré Blanc
By the 1760s, Blanc was making specialized machinery and tools to make gunlocks. His design for the Musket Model 1777 was accepted and he was made chief controller for three arms factories. In 1785, in an experiment, Blanc mixed parts from 25 gunlocks and assembled several models with ease. His demonstration showed the benefit of interchangeable parts and how it worked. He repeated the experiment for military policy makers in 1790. The French Academy of Sciences supported his idea in 1791. But the Legislative assembly would not fund his work. Blanc shifted his attention to setting up a private company to produce gunlocks using interchangeable parts in 1791. Even after receiving permission and funds from the French government, he was very slow in getting started. He did not produce any gunlocks until 1796. His factory was still making gunlocks in 1807 when Blanc died.