The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-06-18
Famous FOUNTAINS.
The Poor Mechanic Who Invented the
Marty Water-WOrIxs at Versailles.

The Poor Mechanic who Invented the
Marty Water-WOrIZs at Versailles.
There is a curious history about
these Marty water-works. When Louis
XIV. was laying out the gardens at
Versailles he discovered that the springs
and ponds included in the grounds
were insufficient for supplying the
fountains of the park with water. His
engineers studied over the matter, and
finally it was determined on the con-
struction of a machine to bring it from
the Seine by means of an aqueduct.
The plan accepted out of the several
presented was one by the Chevalier de
Vile, an engineer connected with the
works in progress at Versailles, but the
real author of the Marty machine, con-
sidered at the time one of the wonders
of the world, and the scientific chef
d'euvre of Louis XIV, was poor
carpenter named Renequin Sualem
Shut up in a little cottage at Bongival
he patiently elaborated the diagrams
of the complicated ensemble of beams,
wheels, and dams, for which Chevalier
de Vile got all the credit, and ne sub
IlIlbCN ~ UulS lu5bICG LHdn lose
his only means of support, the small
salary paid him as a subordinate to the
Chevalier de Vile The machine was
intended to force the water of the Seine
to the top of the aqueduct This was
accomplished by IA wheels, each 80
feet in diameter, working 81 pumps,
which carried the water to q first
reservoir dug in the side of the hill,
whence 70 other pumps carried it to
second reservoir, and from there it was
forced by 78 pumps to the reservoir
from which it flowed into the
aqueduct. In all there were 221
pumps to raise the water to a height of
504 feet from the surface of the stream
and to carry it a distance somewhat
less than two miles The Inauguration
took place in 1882, in the presence of
Louis XIV. and his court, who were
stationed on the top of the great tower
of the aqueduct. At signal given by
the King the fourteen wheels COM
menced turning and in a few minutes
the water W IS flowing into the granite
basin at his feet. The Chevalier was
overwhelmed with praise, and rewards
in the shape OF titles, honors and
money were freely bestowed on him,
but poor Sualem got nothing and soon
=
his name has been given to the quai on
the river nearest to the machine he
erected, a tardy and sterile reparatiOn.
The machine cost 100000 livres, a
sum which would nowadays be equiva-
lent to $4,000, 600. Its capacity was
six thousand cubic yards of water per
day; but this was found to be an insult
ficient quantity to realize the project of
Louis XIV, which was to have the
fountains playing all the time. Then
another scheme was devised, that of
turning the little river Eure into a
reservoir, and of utilizing its water for
the purpose. Work was commenced
and pushed forward actively. The
erection of an aqueduct, the remains of
which still exist, near the village of
MaritenOn, was undertaken, canals
were dug and more than thirty thou
sand soldiers labOred on the enterprise
The sickness caused by the turning
over of such masses of earth was so ia
tai among the troops that wagon loads
of dead bodies were carried away from
the hospitals by night, and as Sc
to cause a panic among those
who were well enough to work. The
project was persisted in for several
years, and only abandoned in 1888,
when the war required the presence of
the soldiers elsewhere. According to
Dangeau, Louis XIV. was not sorry to
have good excuse to abandon an I'M
dertaking the cost of which far ex-
ceeded the estimates. 1t is a we'll
known fact that the King was so
ashamed of the sums spent at Yer
sailles that with his own hands he
burnt the records relating to the mat
ter. Since its completion the cost of
maintaining the Marty machine has
constantly increased, and at the same
time the quantity of water it could sup
ply constantly diminished. At the
commencement of the present century
the supply dropped to 300 cubic yards
of water per day. The machinery was
repaired and improved several times,
but the results were still unsatisfac-
tory. In 1857 it was entirely rebuilt,
and two years later the Mansart aque-
duct was constructed, which supplied
the grounds at Versailles with from
10000 to $4,000 cubic yards of water
per day. This instead of being a
masked fortress of rafters and wheels
which occupied a surface of 900 square
yards and deafened the neighborhoOd
with its noise, and which it took Sua-
lem seven years to build, was ma
chine, simple in its parts, working with
accuracy and nOiselessly. From the
small brick house that sheltered the
machine, the water is pumped directly
into an aq1educt that carries it to
reservoir with a capacity of $50, 900
cubic yards and from the reservoir it
is distributed through three mains to
Marty, Versailles and st. Cloud
Paris Cor. N. D. PicGyame.