THE MARLY MACHINE
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A former machine used to pump water from the Seine, built by Baron de la Ville, an entrepreneur from Liège.
Inaugurated in 1684, the Machine de Marly was part of a series of installations used to pump water from the Seine to the basins in the park at Versailles. The fascinating work of Baron de Ville, a gentleman and entrepreneur from Liège, in partnership with master carpenter Rennequin Sualem. The Seine was partly dammed by 14 paddlewheels, 12 m in diameter, driving over 200 pumps. The machine had to raise the water in three stages, each 59 m in height, to the 1,200 m aqueduct at Louveciennes; the water then flowed by gravity to large storage reservoirs, which supplied the water games at Versailles, and later, those in the Parc de Marly - from which it takes its name. After successful trials at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Louis XIV witnessed the commissioning of the "Eighth Wonder of the World", which transported almost 2,000m3 of water every day. But there were major drawbacks: maintenance costs, deterioration of the wood from which it was made, operating noise... Unrepairable, the machine was destroyed in 1817. A second steam engine was installed by architect Cécile and engineer Martin. Still too costly, it was replaced in 1859 by a machine designed by Dufrayer, director of the water department. Modernized on several occasions, it was shut down in 1963, then destroyed. Today, all that remains of the Machine de Marly is the neoclassical "Charles X" building, and the Napoleon III brick structure in the middle of the river.
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