Dubois et Casse: The History Rewritten from Primary Sources
Our article on the Paris barometer and manometer makers Dubois et Casse has been completely rewritten from archival documents. Two long-standing errors are corrected, and a substantial body of newly traced evidence — patents, exhibition awards, directory entries and the firm’s own succession — is published here for the first time.
The entry on Dubois et Casse has been rebuilt from the ground up. Rather than repeating the account that has circulated among collectors, the new text rests on documents: patent catalogues, the Bulletin des lois, the Didot-Bottin trade directories, official exhibition award lists, a finding aid of the Service historique de la Défense, and a Brussels commercial annuaire. Every claim now carries a direct link to the source page.
Two corrections matter most.
Alfred Casse was not Dubois's partner. The partner was Charles Casse. Alfred Casse was an entirely separate maker — successor to Guilbert & Cie and later absorbed by Maxant. The Didot-Bottin for 1891 lists both firms in the same trade rubric, on consecutive lines and at different addresses, which settles the question.