Machine de Marly

Machine of Marly (French: Machine de Marly ) was the name of two hydraulically driven pumping stations that served to supply the fountains in the park of Versailles with water from the Seine.

The starting position

The plans for the park of Versailles saw an early stage before a large number of fountains and other water -consuming games. However, neither stood on the site itself or in the nearby area natural sources, which would provide the required amounts of water and could provide the necessary water pressure to operate the fountains.

Only the north of Versailles located over the Seine offered water in abundance; however, he was almost eight kilometers away from the castle. The real difficulty, however was that the Seine was significantly lower than Versailles. In order to bring the water from the Seine valley, first to the surrounding hills and then to give him sufficient slope so that it passed through aqueducts to the castle and there is also still had enough pressure to operate the fountains, you would have more than 160 meters in have to pump the air.

Since a waiver of the essential reasons of prestige water games out of the question, but on the other hand, there were no other sources of water, had a mechanical pumping station are designed and built, which could meet the enormous for its time requirements.

The first machine of Marly

The original machine of Marly was built in the years 1681-1684. The plans were designed by Arnold de Ville and were implemented by Rennequin Sualem into practice.

As a location, the south bank of a river loop of the Seine was chosen just below Castle Marly- le- Roi. Fourteen water wheels with a diameter of 12 meters drove in more than 250 pumps, which carried his own water through pipes uphill. Two additional pumping stations, a halfway on a slope, the other on the top just before the aqueduct, made ​​sure that the water could overcome the height difference. These pumping stations were driven by the force of the water wheels, which was broadcast on complex linkage. The construction of the unique at that time machine cost the enormous sum of four million livres.

On June 16, 1684, the finished machine of Marly of Louis XIV was inaugurated and started operations. However, soon showed their shortcomings. Even the 14 huge water wheels could Versailles not supply sufficient water to constantly operate all water games with it. You had to confine itself always only to let the fountains gush after careful planning, which were located within sight of the king in the course of the day.

Added to this was that the mechanics of the machine and the drive linkage caused a lot of noise. Madame du Barry, the Marly castle inhabited, was at night when the reservoirs were filled for the day, because of the deafening noise often do not sleep. Moreover, the machine was prone and had to be repaired frequently; 60 workers were constantly busy with the maintenance. Since they mostly consisted of wood, which rotted by moisture, permanent renovation work was necessary, which drove the maintenance costs up.

Although the machine of Marly was considered a marvel of engineering, which was admired by many visitors of Versailles - among them Peter the Great in 1717 and 1784 Thomas Jefferson - and has even been described in Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie, decreased in the course of the 18th century to the interest its becoming more and more expensive maintenance. To 1758 parts of the plant were taken out of service, so that they worked only with reduced performance. Although neglected more and more, especially after the French Revolution, she remained - albeit limited - to 1817 operational. Napoleon was on a visit to Schloss Nymphenburg so impressed by the fountain in the castle park, which was driven by the new Joseph installed Baader pumping stations that he called Baader in 1805 to Paris, to make proposals for the technical improvement of the machine of Marly. However, his ideas were never carried out. On August 25, 1817, she was finally stopped and the demolition began.

Despite the great effort the performance of the machine of Marly and their gigantic water wheels was modest: Under optimal conditions, they could pump up the slope within 24 hours only from 2000 to 2500 cubic meters of water.

The second machine of Marly

After the extensive dismantling of the old machine of Marly offers a steam-powered pumping station was built with the involvement of some remaining parts at the same place, which supplied since 1827 the park of Versailles, but also the surrounding communities with 2,000 cubic meters of water per day. The operation, however, was expensive because the steam engines this required large amounts of coal.

Since the steam drive in the long run was extremely expensive, was - led by Napoleon III. - 1854 on the same site started construction of a new, now again hydraulically operated pumping station. This second machine of Marly was designed by the engineer Xavier You Frayer and was incomparably more powerful than its predecessor of 1684th Six water wheels of 12 meters in diameter and 4 meters wide, encouraging the pumps that were able 18000-20000 cubic meters of water per pumping day of the Seine uphill. In normal operation, 7,000 cubic meters of water were transported up.

After its inauguration on June 9, 1859, the second machine of Marly knew over 100 years of their service, in the end, however, only to generate electricity. On 20 June 1963 she was taken out of service due to damage and demolished in 1967. The water supply was taken over by electrically driven pumps.

Today's state

Of the two machines of Marly no remains have been preserved; however, can be found to this day the water lines of the recent machine. From the elderly exist on the Seine river some administrative and outbuildings dating from the 17th century.