Rennequin Sualem

Rennequin Sualem was a Walloon carpenter and engineer (Jemeppe-sur-Meuse (Walloon Country) 1645 - Bougival (France 1708 ).

In 1667-1668 Lieutenant-Governor of the castle of Huy ordered the building of an hydraulic machine in order to pump up the water of the Hoyoux to his Castle in Modave 50 m higher. Rennequin Sualem was commissionned to build the mechanism.

This mechanism is the model of the huge Machine de Marly which lifted the waters from the Seine to the palace of Louis XIV in Versailles, in this case 150 m higher.[1] Rennequin built also a pump for the coalmine of Decize.[2] According Robert Halleux, the originality of the Rennequin's performance in Versailles was a transfer of a Walloon technology with a change of size which let reach it to its limits... [3] Rennequin was ennobled by Louis XIV and died in Bougival.

References

  1. ^ Profil de la Machine de Marly (An image with a comment in English)
  2. ^ Robert Halleux, Professor of the University of Liège, La Machine de Marly, in Les Wallons à l'étranger hier et aujourd'hui, Institut Destrée, Namur, 2000, pp 97-107 ISBN 2-87035-016-3
  3. ^ Robert Halleux, French un transfert de technologie wallonne qui avec le changement d'échelle entraîne sa saturation, Opus citatus, p. 106