View source for Machine de Marly

{{Short description|French water pump, built 1684}}
<!-- There's no specific infobox for water pumping stations, so using this infobox instead -->
{{Infobox machine
| name           = Machine de Marly
| image          = 
| caption        = 
| classification = Water pump
| industry       = 
| application    = [[Irrigation]]
| dimensions     = 
| weight         = 
| fuel_source    = [[Hydropower]]
| powered        = 
| self-propelled = 
| wheels         = 
| tracks         = 
| legs           = 
| aerofoils      = 
| axles          = 
| components     = 14 paddle wheels {{cvt|11.9|m|ft}} in diameter<br />250 pumps<br />Various dams and linkages
| invented       = 1681–1684
| inventor       = Arnold de Ville, Rennequin and Paulus Sualem
| examples       = 
}}

[[Image:Pierre-denis-martin-view-of-the-marly-machine-and-the-aqueduct-at-louveciennes-1722.jpg|upright=1.44|thumb|''Vue de la Machine de Marly'' (1723) by [[Pierre-Denis Martin (1663-1742)|Pierre-Denis Martin]], showing the Machine de Marly on the Seine, the Louveciennes hillside, and in the background to the right, the [[aqueduc de Louveciennes]] to which the water was pumped by the Machine]]
[[Image:Alfred Sisley 043.jpg|upright=1.44|thumb|right|The 1859 Machine de Marly painted circa 1873 by [[Alfred Sisley]]]]

The '''Machine de Marly''' ({{IPA|fr|maʃin də maʁli}}), also known as the '''Marly Machine''' or the '''Machine of Marly''', was a large hydraulic system in [[Yvelines]], [[France]], built in 1684 to [[pump]] water from the river [[Seine]] and deliver it to the [[Palace of Versailles]].<ref name=Thompson251>Thompson 2006, p. 251.</ref>

[[Louis XIV of France|King Louis XIV]] needed a large water supply for his [[fountain]]s at Versailles. Before the Marly Machine was built, the amount of water delivered to Versailles already exceeded that used by the city of [[Paris]], but this was insufficient, and fountain-rationing was necessary.<ref>Thompson 2006, p. 251 and note on p. 351 ("Even though more ..."), citing Adams 1979, p. 88.</ref> Ironically{{Clarify|reason=|date=March 2020}} most of the water pumped by the Marly Machine ended up being used to develop a new garden at the [[Château de Marly]]. However, even if all the water pumped at Marly (an average of {{convert|3,200|m3|impgal USgal|0|disp=or}} per day) had been supplied to Versailles, it still would not have been enough: the fountains running ''à l'ordinaire'' (that is, at half pressure) required at least four times as much.<ref name=Thompson251/>

The Machine de Marly, based on a prototype at the [[Château de Modave]], consisted of fourteen gigantic [[water wheel]]s, each roughly {{convert|11.5|m|ft|disp=or}} in diameter,<ref name=Pendery>Pendery 2004.</ref> that powered more than 250 pumps to bring water {{convert|177|yd|m|order=flip}} up a hillside from the [[Seine]] River to the [[aqueduc de Louveciennes|Louveciennes Aqueduct]]. Louis XIV had countless schemes and inventions that were supposed to bring water to his fountains. The Machine de Marly was by far his most extensive and costly plan. After three years of construction and a cost of approximately 5,500,000 [[French livre|livres]], the massive contraption, considered the most complex of the 17th century, was completed. "The chief engineer for the project was Arnold de Ville and the 'contractor' was [[Rennequin Sualem]] (after whom the quai by the machine is now named)."<ref name=Pendery/> Both men had experience in pumping water from coal mines in the region of [[Liège]] (in modern Belgium).<ref>Demoulin & Kupper 2004, p. 199.</ref>

The machine suffered from frequent breakdowns, required a permanent staff of sixty to maintain and often required costly repairs. It functioned for 133 years.  Destroyed in 1817, it was replaced by a "machine temporaire" during 10 years and then a steam engine entered in service from 1827 to 1859.  From 1859 to 1963, the pumping at Marly was assumed by another hydraulic machine conceived by the engineer [[Xavier Dufrayer]].<ref>Barbet 1907, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5nZZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA166 p. 166, note 3].</ref> Dufrayer's machine was scrapped in 1968 and replaced by electromechanical pumps.

==Historical context==
From the beginning, the construction of the château and the park of Versailles water supply had posed a problem. The site chosen by Louis XIV, a former hunting lodge of his [[Louis XIII|father's]], was far removed from any river and high in elevation. The sovereign's will to have a park with more and more basins, [[Jet (fluid)|water jets]] and fountains became a hallmark of his reign by the extension and improvement of a permanent water supply system with the construction of new pumps, aqueducts and [[reservoir]]s to collect ever more water, from a greater and greater distance.

The idea to bring water from the Seine to Versailles had always been under consideration. But more than just the distance – the river is located nearly 10&nbsp;km from the château – there was the problem of the elevation to ascend, nearly {{convert|150|m|ft|0|abbr=off}}. Since 1670, [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]], Louis XIV's Superintendent of the [[Bâtiments du Roi|King's Buildings]], had opposed several projects, including one proposed by {{Interlanguage link multi|Jacques de Manse|fr}}, both for reasons of feasibility and that of cost.<ref name =Bentz>Bentz & Soullard 2011.</ref>

Arnold de Ville (1653–1722), a young and ambitious bourgeois of [[Huy]] in the Province of Liège, who had already built a pump in [[Saint-Maur, Oise|Saint-Maur]], succeeded in submitting to the king his project for pumping the waters of the River Seine to the [[Château of Val-Duchesse|Château of Val]] in the [[Forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye|forest of Saint-Germain]], demonstrating that the same could be done to supply Versailles. This machine, a sort of small scale model of what the Machine of Marly could be, impressed the king,<ref name ="S&V">Testard-Vallant 2010, pp. 70–71.</ref> who then entrusted him with the development of a machine on the Seine to supply not only the gardens of Versailles, but also those of the Chateau of Marly then under construction.<ref name =Bentz/>

==Location==
The Machine de Marly site is located {{cvt|7|km|mi}} north of the Château de Versailles and {{cvt|16.3|km|mi}} west of the center of Paris, on the Seine in the [[Yvelines]] [[Departments of France|department]]. The river pumps and administration buildings are located in what is now the town of [[Bougival]]; relay pumps, machinery, the aqueduct and reservoirs are located in [[Louveciennes]]. One reservoir is in the town of [[Marly-le-Roi]].

Between [[Port-Marly]] and [[Bezons]], the Seine, along its length, was divided into two arms by a series of islands and earth berms linked together by timber/rock dikes to form two disconnected, parallel river beds over {{convert|10|km|mi|spell=in}} in length.  The hydraulic pumping machinery, propelling the river water to the top of the hill that borders the Seine, was constructed across from the left arm of the river, a little below the small village of La Chaussée, downstream of Bougival.
<ref>Barbet 1907, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5nZZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA95 p. 95].</ref> A dam at Bezons on the right arm creates a [[hydraulic head]] measuring {{convert|3.1|m|ftin}} high to power the wheels of the Machine de Marly.<ref>Barbet 1907, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5nZZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA101 p. 101].</ref> The upper pumping relay station (demolished) was located next to the Château des Eaux (1700) and pumped water to the top of the Louveciennes aqueduct, which fed the Louveciennes and Marly reservoirs, near the site of the [[Château de Marly]] (demolished).

<gallery mode="packed" heights=220>
Image:MachineDeMarlySituationMap.jpg|Location of the Machine de Marly
Image:MachineDeMarlySituationMapDetail.jpg|Location of the components of the Machine de Marly (detail)
Image:MarlyIslandsLinked.jpg|The Seine between Bezons and the Machine de Marly showing the linkage between islands created by dikes to establish the water head at the Machine  
Image:MarlyChatouDike.jpg|Dike at Chatou, plan, section and elevation (1763-1765)
</gallery>

==Construction==
[[File:MarlyDidPl2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Engraving of the Machine de Marly from Diderot's ''[[Encyclopédie]]'' (plates vol. 5, 1767), showing side views of a typical paddle wheel, which powers river pumps from one side and remote pumps from the other]]

{{Quotation|It does not seem that one has ever completed a machine that has made as much noise in the world as that of Marly...|[[Bernard Forest de Bélidor|Bernard Bélidor]]<ref>Bélidor 1739, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65526489/f229.image.langEN p. 195]: "Il ne paroît pas que l'on ait jamais exécuté de machine qui ait fait autant de bruit dans le monde que celle de Marly..."</ref>}}

To design and build this machine, Arnold de Ville, who did not have the technical skills, appealed to two men from Liège, the master carpenter and mechanic [[Rennequin Sualem]] (1645–1708) and his brother Paulus. He had already worked with them on a pump at the [[Château de Modave]] and Rennequin Sualem was the designer of the pump at the [[Château of Val-Duchesse|Château de Val]]. The entire project – channeling and dikes on the Seine, construction of the machine and the network of aqueducts and basins – would last for 6 years. The chosen site on the Seine would later become the town of [[Bougival]] (at the location of the current locks of Bougival).

About 7 kilometers upstream, Colbert channeled a portion of the Seine by linking several islands with dikes from the island of Bezons and separating the river into two arms, a western arm for navigation and an eastern arm destined to supply the machine by creating a constriction and a drop<ref name =Bentz/> of about three meters<ref name = "S&V" /> to power the 14 paddle wheels of the machine. The construction mobilized 1800 workers and required more than {{convert|100,000|ST|LT t|0}} of [[wood]], {{convert|17,000|ST|LT t|0}} of [[iron]] and {{convert|800|ST|LT t|0}} of [[lead]] and as much [[cast iron]].<ref name = "S&V"/> The wood used in the construction of the platform and the wheels of the machine, and for the dikes between the islands and for the buildings came from the surrounding forests. The iron for rods came from the Nivernais and Champagne and most of the cast iron pipe was produced in Normandy.<ref name =Bentz/>

A large number of [[Walloons]] came to work on the project. They possessed a know-how acquired from their work on water evacuation from mines. Many defected as well because of the economic difficulties encountered then in [[Wallonia]], which had been ravaged by wars. Illiterate, the Sualem brothers were from a family of master carpenters from the mines of Liège. They were the only ones to have mastered the mechanism for remote power transmission, the [[flatrod system]] necessary for the proper functioning of the machine of Marly. The Walloon craftsmen went on to become the primary maintenance men essential for the enormous task of keeping the machine in working order.<ref name =Bentz/>

<gallery mode=packed heights=220>
File:Machine de Marly- carte de la Seine.jpg|Map of 1783 showing the deviation of the Seine
File:Carte Machine de Marly.jpg|Elevation and perspective of the Machine de Marly (c. 1715) by [[Nicolas de Fer]]
</gallery>

The work began in June 1681 with the canalization of the Seine. The construction of the machine began at the end of 1681. On June 14, 1682, a successful demonstration was held in the presence of Louis XIV.<ref name =Bentz/>  The water could be elevated to the top of the hillside. The machine was inaugurated June 13, 1684<ref name = "S&V"/> by the king and his court. The [[aqueduc de Louveciennes]] was completed in 1685 and the entire project, three years later, in 1688.

The total cost of the project was 5.5 million [[livres tournois]] (over 100 million dollars 2015 <ref>Tiberghien 2002, p. 12.</ref>). It included the construction of the machine itself (3,859,583 livres), buildings, aqueducts and water basins, the supply of materials, and the wages of the workers and artisans. (Rennequin Sualem was the best paid with 1800 pounds per year.).<ref name =Bentz/> After the end of the work and the successful demonstration, Rennequin Sualem was appointed First Engineer of the King by Louis XIV and knighted. To the king, who asked him how he had had the idea of this machine, Rennequin answered in [[Walloon language|Walloon]]: "Tot tuzant, Sire" ("By thinking hard, Sire").<ref>[http://www.belgiumtheplaceto.be/happy_famous_belgians_introduction.php?idcat=20&idfamous=6.  "Rennequin Sualem"] of: "Famous Belgians"</ref>  Arnold de Ville earned a great deal of money from the success of the machine and was able to rise into the aristocracy.<ref name =Bentz/>

==Description==
[[File:MarlyBirdsye3.jpg|thumb|upright=1.9|Engraved view of the Machine de Marly, looking downriver]]

The engraving illustrated here describes the functioning of the machine as follows:
<blockquote>
THE MACHINE OF MARLY is built on an arm of the Seine river. It consists of 14 wheels of 30 [[Units of measurement in France before the French Revolution#Length|Paris feet]] [{{cvt|11.9|m|ft|lk=on}}] in diameter, the axles of which have two cranks, one which moves the pistons which push the water into the pipes and raise it up to the first reservoir; the other moves a system of crossarm levers which run the length of the mountain up to the highest reservoir. These crossarms power the pumps which are in the reservoirs and pump the water from the lower reservoir to the upper and from there to the top of the tower which is at the summit of the mountain, from where it runs over a large aqueduct which feeds different pipes to furnish all the waters of Versailles and Marly.''
</blockquote>
Pumping technology of the era of [[Louis XIV]] did not allow the delivery of water from the Seine to the top of the aqueduct of [[Louveciennes]], an elevation differential of more than {{convert|150|m|ft|abbr=off}} in just one stage, so two intermediate pump relay stations were built, one at {{convert|48|m|ft|abbr=off}} and another at {{convert|99|m|ft|abbr=off}} above the river. Pumps in the relay locations were powered by two sets of oscillating timber and metal tie-rod linkages, driven by the river paddle wheels. A reservoir at each station buffered the water supply for each level of pumps.
{{clear}}
<gallery mode="packed" heights=150>
File:Machineanim1.JPG|Computer animation of a typical wheel showing pumps and crank linkage]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qzp3rcMfWs |title=MachineExplained - YouTube |website=[[YouTube]] |access-date=2016-11-26 |archive-date=2016-04-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420054247/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qzp3rcMfWs |url-status=dead }}</ref>
File:Machmarly3D1.jpg|Looking southwest
File:Machmarly3D3.jpg|Looking northeast
File:Machmarly3D2.jpg|Detail
</gallery>

==Remnants==
Some remnants of Dufrayer's machine are still visible today, but little remains of the original 17th-century masterpiece built by the Sualem brothers, de Ville and Louis XIV.

The overgrown walls of the mid-slope reservoir are visible on the hillside, just adjacent to the cobblestone path that runs straight up the incline. The paving stones on this 17th century service road are set with their top edges slightly exposed to allow better traction for the horses which hauled loads uphill.

Two administration buildings from the original Machine complex of 1684 still exist next to the Seine.<ref>{{Base Mérimée|PA00087379}}</ref>

The building which housed the steam-driven pumping machine from 1825 can still be seen next to the river as well.

An engraving of the [[Paris Observatory]] from the beginning of the eighteenth century shows the wooden "Marly tower" on the right, a dismantled part of the Machine de Marly (the temporary tower replaced by La tour du Levant at the beginning of the [[Aqueduc de Louveciennes]]), moved to the [[Paris Observatory]] by astronomer [[Giovanni Domenico Cassini]] for mounting long telescopes.<ref>Barbet 1907, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5nZZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA124 p. 124].</ref>

<gallery mode=packed heights=180>
File:ResMiCote.jpg|Remnants of the mid-slope reservoir of the original Marly Machine
File:Bougival - Bâtiment Charles X 001.JPG|[[Charles X of France|Charles X]] building from 1825
File:Paris Observatory XVIII century.png|The wooden Marly tower (right) at the<br>[[Paris Observatory]] (left)
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Adams, W. H. (1979). ''The French Garden 1500–1800''. New York: Braziller. {{ISBN|9780807609187}}.
* Barbet, Louis-Alexandre (1907). ''Les grandes eaux de Versailles: installations mécaniques et étangs artificiels: description des fontaines et de leurs origines''. Paris: H. Dounod et E. Pinat. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5nZZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP7 Copy] at [[Google Books]].
* [[Bélidor, Bernard Forest de]] (1739). ''Architecture Hydraulique, ou L'art de conduire, d'élever et de ménager les eaux pour les différens besoins de la vie, Tome Second''. Paris: L. Cellot. [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65526489/f11.image Copy] at [[Gallica]].
* Bentz, Bruno; Soullard, Éric (2011). "La Machine de Marly", ''Château de Versailles: de l'Ancien régime à nos jours'', no. 1 (April/June 2011), pp.&nbsp;73–77. {{ISSN|2116-0953}}. [http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb42416673z/PUBLIC Notice bibliographique] at [[BnF]].
* Demoulin, Bruno; Kupper, Jean-Louis (2004). ''Histoire de la Wallonie''. Toulouse: Privat. {{ISBN|9782708947795}}.
* Pendery, David (2014). [http://www.marlymachine.org "La Machine de Marly"] at www.marlymachine.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20141217140220/http://marlymachine.org/ Archive copy (17 December 2014)] at the [[Wayback Machine]].
* Testard-Vaillant, Philippe (2010). "Des grands travaux en cascade". ''Les sciences au Château de Versailles'' (exhibition catalogue in French), pp.&nbsp;70–71. Issy-les-Moulineaux: Mandadori magazines France. {{OCLC|758856411}}. {{ISSN|1968-7141}}.
* Thompson, Ian (2006). ''The Sun King's Garden: Louis XIV, André Le Nôtre and the Creation of the Gardens of Versailles''. London: Bloomsbury. {{ISBN|9781582346311}}.
* Tiberghien, Frédéric (2002). ''Versailles, le chantier de Louis XIV: 1662–1715''. [Paris]: Perrin. {{ISBN|9782262019266}}.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Machine de Marly}}
* [http://www.marlymachine.org/ Marly Machine]
* [http://www.tourisme-bougival.com/en/visit-bougival/the-marly-machine/ Bougival Tourisme Office]
* [https://vimeo.com/55546188 La Machine de Marly video (in French)]

{{Pays des Impressionnistes}}
{{Portal|France|Engineering}}

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[[Category:Former buildings and structures in France]]
[[Category:History of the Palace of Versailles]]
[[Category:Landscape design history|France]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1684]]
[[Category:Infrastructure completed in the 1680s]]
[[Category:1684 establishments in France]]
[[Category:Water supply pumping stations]]
[[Category:Hydropower]]
[[Category:History of energy]]