Although best known for his work on technology, Gille also wrote on diverse subjects including the history of French banking and Russian economics.
In 1959 Gille published his doctoral thesis, La Banque et le crédit en France de 1815 à 1848, part of a longer work derived from the archives of several French banks.
This in turn led to the publication of the two-volume, 1000 page, Histoire de la maison Rothschild (1965, 1967).
In the same year he published Petites questions et grands problèmes: la brouette, on the history of the wheelbarrow.
Gille was a Corresponding Member of the Society for the History of Technology, which in 1970 awarded him its highest honour, the Leonardo da Vinci Medal.