Musée Promenade de
Marly
La Machine à eau de Marly
Musée de Marly : Louveciennes, 01.39.69.06.26.
The
water machine of Marly carries out one of the greatest scientific
projects of its time, revealing of the imagination of the engineers to
the service of the royal power of louis XIV. To give pleasure to the
monarch and with its paradise of Versailles, this machine was to take
the water of the Seine to supply the basins, fountains and cascades of
the Castle of Versailles. A colossal machine for the simple pleasure of
the eyes. June 13, 1684, the king in person inaugurates
hydraulic
Titan able to make assemble 5000 m3 of water daily to more than 150
meters of uneven. Three years of work, 1800 workmen, 100.000
tons
of wood, were necessary to build the monster. It functioned
during 133 years, until 1817. Fourteen large paddle wheels 12
meters in diameter made go up the water taken again by the three stages
of pumps, the whole being actuated by the hydraulic power
itself.
50 people whose 20 carpenters and 14 blacksmiths were assigned to his
operation. The parts wore extremely quickly and were to be
regularly changed. All the talent of the engineer carpenter
Sualem was to know to transmit the driving force of the paddle wheels
to pumps located 700 away meters, by an interlacing of rods, pulleys,
22 km of chains, rods and cranks which were articulated in an infernal
noise according to witnesses. The machine, exhausted, was demolished in
1817 then replaced by various projects of which none proved also
spectacular.
