The machine at Marly, which supplied water to Versailles and the ponds in the park, was condemned. Its disappearance brings to mind the first machine, whose memory is linked to the Château de Modave, in the Ardennes, 50 metres above the banks of the Houyaux, and for which a lot of water was needed. A carpenter from Liège, Rennequin Sualem, who was illiterate but an expert in hydraulics, succeeded in raising the water. In 1667, at a time when the park at Versailles was beginning to run out of water, Arnold de Ville, after admiring the pump at Modave, used his contacts to get himself accepted by the King, who entrusted him with the hydraulic works at Versailles. But the hasty survey of the gears at Modave was not enough, and he had to call in Rennequin Sualem, who, showered with honour, claimed to be the inventor of the machine, while Sualem was content with a pension and an epitaph on his tombstone in the church at Bougival, recognising him as “the sole inventor of the Marly machine”.