Description:
<jats:p>The 1840' years coïncide with the period where the rural diffusion of pre-industrial lime making reaches its peak on the armorican fringes (Maine-et-Loire, Mayenne, western Sarthe). We have fîsrt to specify the quantitative évolution of the lime manufacturing establishments which turned to good account the limestone quarries and the coal mines. We try then to analyse what are the common points and the differentiation factors, socially speaking, among the lime entrepreneurs of that time, It is at last interesting to find out what trace the generation of limeburners of the 1840 years has left during the following decades. The spreading in the countries which reached its maximum in the 1840 years allowed original forms of activities, but it was not the springboard for a real industrialization.</jats:p>