Chapter Six - Lake Annecy Story

6.1 Dr. Servettaz chose his words carefully when naming his two books. The first short version was titled “Life of an alpine lake” since it described the complex web of life in the lake and how it was threatened by pollution. But he made a slight modification to the title of the second, much longer, version, to “Water, the life of an alpine lake”. As he makes abundantly clear in this version, the miraculous substance called water, which many of us are fortunate enough to take for granted, is the basis not just of all biological life in the lake, but also, of the economic life of the community surrounding the lake.

6.2 How water sustains Lake Annecy’s ecosystem is described elsewhere. This chapter tells the story of how water has sustained the local economy. It begins some 5500 years ago, when a community living in wooden houses built on stilts by the edge of the lake enjoyed the lake’s perennial harvest of fish and fresh water. But the story begins to develop rapidly during the past few hundred years. The growing understanding of nature led to the application of hydraulic power to fuel a manufacturing industry that has been a core component of the region’s economy for the past two hundred years. This in turn led to the development of hydroelectric power that has supplied electricity to the region for the past hundred years. The growing appreciation of the beauty of nature has led to the development of a thriving tourist industry, all centred around the blue, clear waters of the lake, and now a second core component of the region’s economy.

6.3 We have already seen how the great cycle of movement of water replenishes, refreshes and enriches the lake’s ecosystem. Water, evaporated from the Atlantic, blows across France to precipitate over the Annecy basin - approximately 250,000 cu metres a year or one quarter of the lake’s volume. This water then flows down mountain rivers and streams, or sinks through the soil and flows underground over layers of non-porous rock ultimately into the lake. This same 250,000 metric tonnes of water flows out of the lake into the canal Le Thiou at Annecy and then falls a further 22 metres at Cran-Gevrier as it cascades into the river Fier, which in turn flows into the Rhone and ultimately into the Mediterranean. This great weight of flowing water came to be understood as a valuable source of free power for wooden water-wheels and eventually metal turbines which were to fuel the beginnings of an industrial revolution in Annecy.

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.4 Five hundred years ago the banks along the 3.5 km stretch of the river Thiou from the lake to the confluence with the river Fier were populated with a variety of religious establishments, many of which had built small water-powered mills to support their community by milling wheat, or cutting wood. This was a cottage industry with no pretensions other than to feed and clothe the devout and care for the sick and destitute. But this was to change with the arrival of a handful of ambitious entrepreneurs, together with a new set of economic circumstances to be exploited by those with the necessary vision, energy and influence.

6.5 The first of these was one Antoine Francois Pingon – a captain of the infantry in Annecy - who made much of his fortune through handsome dowries from three marriages, the first of which was to the last surviving daughter of the Suchet family, and the last when he was in his 60s. But he was evidently a spirited individual and not merely “un chasseur de dots”. He was promoted sergeant of Annecy which, together with his wealth gave him some influence in the town. He negotiated rights to mine lead, copper and tin in the Beaufort region not far south from Annecy, and had a vision to develop an integrated production industry, taking these raw materials and manufacturing them into saleable goods.

6.6 There is a plaque on the wall of “Maison Pingon” at 21 Jean Jacques Rousseau¹, a beautiful house which had belonged to the Suchet family since the fourteenth century, whose garden backed conveniently onto the river Thiou. It tells how Pingon in 1637 “Transformed the house into a nail factory and set up water-wheels and workings on the banks of the Thiou to make the most of the river’s power.” He was by no means the first to erect a water wheel on the Thiou. His neighbours, the ladies of the Convent of Saint Catherine, operated their own waterwheels. (We know this from legal documents from a lengthy legal battle between the two - the ladies complained Pingon’s wheel interfered with the water flow and so rendered theirs useless.) But these other water wheels were part of a cottage industry. Pingon’s was the first attempt at hydraulically powered industrial production.

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.7 This was in the first half of the 17th century. In doing so he was more than a century ahead of his time. Interestingly, at Book 1 Chapter 1 of “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” published 140 years later in 1776, Adam Smith uses the nail (pin) making industry as an archetype for his theory.

“ THE greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour.

To take an example, therefore, from a very trifling manufacture; but one in which the division of labour has been very often taken notice of, the trade of the pin-maker; a workman not educated to this business (which the division of labour has rendered a distinct trade), nor acquainted with the use of the machinery employed in it (to the invention of which the same division of labour has probably given occasion), could scarce, perhaps, with his utmost industry, make one pin in a day, and certainly could not make twenty. But in the way in which this business is now carried on, not only the whole work is a peculiar trade, but it is divided into a number of branches, of which the greater part are likewise peculiar trades. One man draws out the wire, another straights it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving, the head; to make the head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it on is a peculiar business, to whiten the pins is another; it is even a trade by itself to put them into the paper; and the important business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into about eighteen distinct operations, which, in some manufactories, are all performed by distinct hands, though in others the same man will sometimes perform two or three of them. I have seen a small manufactory of this kind where ten men only were employed, and where some of them consequently performed two or three distinct operations. But though they were very poor, and therefore but indifferently accommodated with the necessary machinery, they could, when they exerted themselves, make among them about twelve pounds of pins in a day. There are in a pound upwards of four thousand pins of a middling size. Those ten persons, therefore, could make among them upwards of forty-eight thousand pins in a day. Each person, therefore, making a tenth part of forty-eight thousand pins, might be considered as making four thousand eight hundred pins in a day. But if they had all wrought separately and independently, and without any of them having been educated to this peculiar business, they certainly could not each of them have made twenty, perhaps not one pin in a day; that is, certainly, not the two hundred and fortieth, perhaps not the four thousand eight hundredth part of what they are at present capable of performing, in consequence of a proper division and combination of their different operations.”

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.8 Pingon saw the same possibilities for efficiencies, about which Adam Smith wrote, more than a hundred years earlier. But he was far ahead of his time and his nail business did not last many years. Indeed at one point he leased out his manufacturing facilities to another entrepreneur to produce musket barrels – but this too was a short-lived adventure and the lease was not renewed.

6.9 Roll the clock forward a hundred and fifty years to the end of the eighteenth century and we have a conjunction of fortuitous historical forces not available in Pingon’s time: it is the beginning of the industrial revolution, whose founding text was the aforementioned “Wealth of Nations”. The industrial revolution arose elsewhere, in another town generously endowed with surrounding hills and copiously supplied with rainfall, namely Manchester, England, a city with which Annecy as has many connections culturally and scientifically. Hydraulic power harnessed to a new way of organising workers, in manufactories, and put to textile production, was to launch the industrial revolution in England. Just one generation later this process was to be repeated in Annecy. But first a brief note on the origins in England.

6.10 A century after Pingon’s initiative ceased business, a range of factors came together that led to the birth of the industrial revolution in England, including:

a) rapidly falling cotton prices thanks to the opening up of vast tracts of new land in the American South, and an abundant supply of slave labour to work the fields,

b) Amercian engineering ingenuity in cotton cleaning and spinning - the first modern mechanical cotton gin was created by American inventor Eli Whitney and patented in 1794,

c) English entrepreneurship as individuals commited themselves to investing in building new factories, often living in houses overlooking their life’s work,

d) English engineering ingenuity with key inventions in cotton weaving and steam power, and

e) vast markets opened up by the East India company.

But these five factors are rather general – so why Manchester and then Annecy of all places? It is the rare and happy combination of lakes and mountains around a flourishing city. A goodly supply of cheap labour from the city together with a goodly supply of cheap power from the mountain streams.

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.11 Sir Richard Arkwright (1732 - 1792) was an inventor and leading entrepreneur, credited with inventing the spinning frame. He also patented a rotary carding engine that transformed raw cotton into cotton lap. But Arkwright's principle achievement was to combine power, machinery, semi-skilled labour and the new raw material of cotton to create mass-produced yarn. His skills of organization made him, more than anyone else, the creator of the modern factory system, especially in his mill at Cromford, Derbyshire, now preserved as part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. Later in his life Arkwright was known as 'the Father of the English Industrial Revolution'.

6.12 He chose for his first factory, a site at Cromford Derbyshire, located diametrically opposite Manchester, on the other side of the range of hills and beautiful scenery called the Peak District. (Just as Annecy is situated opposite Chambery across the range of hills and beautiful scenery called the Parc Naturel regional du Massif des Bauges.) The location was next to a year-round supply of warm water from the Cromford Sough. Here Arkwright built a five-storey mill that from 1772, ran day and night with two twelve-hour shifts. He started with 200 workers, more than the locality could provide, so he built housing for them nearby, one of the first manufacturers to do so. Most of the employees were women and children, the youngest being only seven years old. Later, the minimum age was raised to ten and the children were given six hours of education a week, not out of philanthropy, but so that they could do the record-keeping that their illiterate parents could not. Arkwright's Mill at Cromford was not the first, but it was the first successful, cotton-spinning factory. It showed unequivocally the way ahead for the Industrial Revolution and was widely emulated.

6.13 Less than a decade later, in 1781, James Watt patented a ten-horsepower steam engine that produced continuous rotary motion which enabled a wide range of manufacturing machinery to be powered. The engines could be sited anywhere that water and coal or wood fuel could be obtained. By 1883, there were engines that could provide 10,000 horsepower. The stationary steam engine was a key component of the Industrial Revolution, allowing factories to locate where water-power was unavailable or unreliable. Later, high-pressure steam engines were light enough to be applied to vehicles such as traction engines and the railway locomotives. Reciprocating piston type steam engines remained the dominant source of power until the early 20th century, when electric motors and internal combustion engines gradually replaced them in commercial usage, and steam turbines replaced them in power generation. Considering that the great majority of worldwide electric generation is produced by turbine type steam engines, the "steam age" is continuing with energy levels far beyond those of the turn of the 19th century. (Wikipedia)

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.14 With an Industrial Revolution taking place across the channel, we return to Annecy at the outset of the 19th century when France was coming to terms with another revolution - the political revolution of 1789. With two simultaneious revolutions, industrial and political, great change was in the air, for those with the vision, background and of course influence, to seize the opportunity. The particularly fortuitous combination of historical circumstances then facing French entrepreneurs were a variation of those facing their English counterparts: a) access to cheap supplies of cotton and an expanding global market for woven cotton cloth b) access to English engineering inventions which enabled significant increases in the quantity and quality of cloth produced c) a protective tariff regime introduced by a new revolutionary government in France designed to forestall post-revolutionary economic collapse, and keep cheap quality goods from newly industrialised England from entering France, and d) particularly conveniently, a revolutionary government policy of expropriating property from religious orders to turn them over to the people.

6.15 Put these four circumstances together and consider what could be done in Annecy with its fast flowing river Thiou, bordered by a host of large, well-built and well-maintained buildings belonging to religious orders whose water-wheels currently produced no more than was needed to care for the spiritual lives of their occupants and needs of the poor and sick, and a ready supply of labour ready to work for minimum wages since you were one of the few employers in town.

6.16 Jean Pierre Duport did just that and soon set to work. Now in his fifties he had accumulated great experience working in the silk trade in nearby Lyon, the silk capital of Europe. By 1805 he had moved to Annecy and entered into intense negotiations with the Revolutionary Committee of Citizens set up to review such matters. After much persuasion the buildings required by his proposed cotton manufacturing business were expropriated from their lifelong founders and tenants and handed over to Mr. Duport. He at once set about installing the latest spinning machinery copied from his English rivals and, of course, water-wheels to provide the driving force. From the outset he employed around 450 workers, nearly all women and children, working the same relentless day and night shifts as Arkwright’s Cromford mill. Perhaps it was the gates of factories in Manchester and Annecy such as these that gave birth to the expression “Women and children first”. Unlike Pingon, his visionary predecessor, Duport grew his business rapidly and it was to flourish for more than a hundred years providing employment and wealth for the local community. By 1838 the business was called the ‘Royal Manufacture royale d’Annecy et les Tissages de Cran’.

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.17 Today in the heart of the old town of Annecy there remain traces of the cotton manufacturing industry founded by Jean-Pierre Duport. It can be visited at Quai des cordeliers.¹ His manufacturing facility was installed in the ancient convent of the Clarisses which was already supplied with a stream of water. On the other bank the convent of Cordeliers had a wheel whose millpond remains visible today. The success of the cotton industry was immediate and by 1822 employed 1620 workers and a single water wheel installed in 1816 supplied all its energy needs. After Savoie was joined to France in 1860 this manufacturing activity declined until its final closure in 1955. Its buildings were demolished and replaced by a modern district in harmony with the ancient town centre.

6.18 Meanwhile, seeing Duport’s great success with the cotton industry, another Lyonnais entrepreneur, Louis Frerejean, acquired mills by the bridge at Cran Gevrier, on the outskirts of Annecy. A gift of geology had created there a 22 metre drop in water level where the Thiou flows into the Fier, enabling a number of mills to be established there. In 1817 Frerejean installed the Forges and Foundries of Cran which has played a significant economic and social role during the past 200 years and is the last historic industrial site which is still active. It is a heritage worth remembering.

6.19 Just below the bridge at Cran, this small forge has been exploited since the 18th century. It took the name of "Royal Manufacture of Sheet Metal and Tin of Cran". Supplied by mines around Sevrier, Saint-Jorioz and Latheron, it forged kitchenware and household stoves, pots. In 1890, it became a public limited company and new management focused in 1906 on the production of aluminium and created the Alpax alloy. By 1919, hydraulic power had become insufficient, but water once again stepped in to supply the energy as the company turned to hydroelectricity. In the 1930s, these forges produced shells, housings for tanks and shielding for trenches. Today, the site produces discs and aluminum strips for household cookware (pots, pans), parts for the automotive industry and gutters and roofing for the construction industry.²

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.20 A third entrepreneur, perhaps the most successful of them all, and the father of a remarkable dynasty of industrialists, Augustin Aussedat (1756–1825), saw the possibilities of establishing a paper industry driven by the same hydraulic power of river Thiou. Aussedat in fact started out as the tenant of Duport and then Frerejean. Once again English innovation was copied and brought to France. This time it was the manufacturing process of continuous production of paper, rather than sheet-by-sheet. The Aussedat paper manufacturing facility at Cran-Gevrier played a central role in the economic development of the territory for two hundred years until its closure in 2006.

6.21 Founded by Aussedat in 1801 the success of the company led to the birth of a new architecture. In the early 20th century, the growth of the company required construction of on both banks of the Thiou. In the early 1930s, production entered a new area with perforated card. In 1935, the company linked up with the technological company Bull machines which in turn came under the control of IBM. In 1954 and 1959 two new machines enabled the company to be the first French paper supplier of punch cards. Production continued until 2006 when global competition forced its closure. The history of the site lives on, preserved through the neighborhood Gateways (2012-2015) scheme. ¹

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.22 The river Thiou became a motor of manufacturing industry in these times, and today provides a 3.5 kilometre corridor allowing people to stroll from a city environment to open countryside and view all the changes in between. ¹ It then runs along the hillside of Gevrier, where the sandstone rock prevents the digging of a deep bed. In the last kilometer, the river empties into the Fier with a fall of twenty-two meters. The banks beginning with the site of the old former weaving industry and its confluence with the river Fier, were formerly home to artisan crafts and industries which had significant energy needs.

6.23 One challenge for all three fledgling industries was the fluctuation in the Thiou’s water flow – leading during driest months to a drop in production, and even factory closure. This problem was solved by the introduction of coal powered steam engines (see James Watt above) and the construction of vast chimneys which were to dominate the sky line of Cran for the next two centuries.

6.24 Later in the century, in 1888, a fourth entrepreneur Armand Aubry harnessed a cascade of water in the mountains above Venthon, a village 50 km to the south of Annecy, to power his own paper factory. From 1899 to 1905, these paper works were occupied by a talented Swiss chemical engineer and industrialist Paul Girod (1878-1951). He was an inventor and pioneer in the field of metal alloys, including steel, and transformed the site into a metal factory producing a range of alloys such as vanadium, ferro-tungsten, ferro-molybden, ferro-uranium, ferro-chrome and ferro-manganese. In 1900, in order to increase the flow of water from Lake Girotte, he dug a tunnel 15 metres under the surface of the lake which was coupled to a barrage across the lake opposite Col du Joly. This gave access to a water supply of 6 million cubic metres, in order to generate electricity to serve the metal foundries. From a height of a hundred metres the water fall produced 4 MW of power for the factory, making it one of the most powerful in the Alps region at the time. Though just outside the Annecy basin catchment area, many of the workers and managers of the factories built by Girod lived in the Annecy region and so this metal works has had a major direct and indirect impact upon Annecy’s economy.

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.25 In 1902, Paul Girod who had previously been just a tenant, bought out his factory space from Aubry. However, the space was too limited for his rapidly expanding business and he looked for a new location. This he found in nearby Ugine (the next village south beyond Faverges – which is at the boundary of the Annecy catchment area). There he constructed in 1904 a new factory, the ‘Société Anonyme Électro-métallurgique Procédés Paul Girod’, followed in 1908 by "Forges et Aciéries Paul Girod". At the same time he developed the new hydroelectric network of Beaufortain which benefitted from the construction of a high tension power line Albertville-Annecy-Lyon. The factory at Venthon was moved alongside the others at Ugine. By 1909 his factories were the most powerful hydraulically powered factories the French steel industry had ever known.

6.26 Paul Girod is one of three industrialists, along with Henry Gall in electrochemistry and Jules Barut in electrometallurgy who solved, each in his own field of specialism, problems in steel making which no-one else had solved. When the first world war broke out, the demand for armaments and equipment for the army increased dramatically. The Ugine factory, thanks to its specialist abilities in fabricating a variety of alloys, became a key part of the national defence. Production grew, focusing on the manufacture of projectiles, shells, canon barrels, armour plating and turrents for the tanks built by Renault. Girod’s factory accounted for 55% of total French production of specialised metal alloys. The war enabled the factory to win a global reputation for the quality of its products and the service rendered to its country.

6.27 The upheaval to local demographics caused by the war, and the hundreds of young Frenchmen killed on the front, led to a severe shortage of labour for the rapidly expanding factory. Paul Girod appealed to foreign labour to fill the gaps, who today have become an integral part of the life of Ugine. In 1924 a census revealed more than 22 nationalities among the factory workforce with the French in the minority alongside Italians, Spanish, Greeks, Poles, Russians, Armenians, Annamites, Kabyles, Arabs, Chinese. The Italians were the most numerous, comprising by 1932 more than half of all foreigners working there.

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.28 Influenced by his catholic beliefs, Paul Girod determined that it was up to the managing classes to take responsibility for caring for the social needs of the workforce rather than leaving these in the hands of public services. As Richard Arkwright before him, Paul Girod was concerned to provide decent accommodation for his workforce – whose manual labour was so demanding. In 1909 he set up a ‘Society for the provision of affordable and hygienic housing’ and invited the Geneva based architect Maurice Braillard to assist in the work of large scale production of social housing.

6.29 Metal production at Ugine continues to this day, and the impact of Paul Girod on this formerly rural community is clear for all to see. Thanks also to the huge success of his specialist technical capabilities and worldwide reputation, Annecy has come to attract a number of other businesses in the high tech engineering field, together with highly qualified engineers who appreciate the opportunity to practice their technical skills whilst at the same time living in a beautiful part of France.

6.30 Around the time that Paul Girot was developing hydroelectric power for his factory, in 1899, Leo and Louis Laydernier Aussedat created a company called “Fier Forces” to build dams across the river Fier at Brassilly and Chavaroche, near Chavanod, where the water falls 20 metres, in order to generate hydroelectricity. Supply to the Annecy region began in 1904. In 1946, the company was nationalized by the public company Electricité de France.

6.31 A century later, the town of Cran-Gevrier, acquired a turbine from the old barrage and, in homage to its industrial past, the town built a cultural centre called "Turbine" which brings together a cinema, a library and a centre for scientific, technical and industrial culture.¹

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

¹ Here it was French engineers who would take the lead in pioneering technical innovation, and American and English engineers who improved on their work. One of the first was Jean-Victor Poncelet (1788 – 1867) who pioneered the first improvements to traditional water wheels. Benoît Fourneyron (1802 – 1867) next built in 1827, at age of 25, his first prototype for a new type of waterwheel, called a "turbine" - from the Latin word for a ‘spinning top’. In Fourneyron's design, the wheel was horizontal, unlike the vertical wheels in traditional waterwheels. This 6 horsepower (4.5 kW) turbine used two sets of blades, curved in opposite directions, to get as much power as possible from the water's motion. Over the next decade, Fourneyron built bigger and better turbines. Within a few years, hundreds of factories used Fourneyron-style turbines. Other countries adopted the design to power their industrial machinery, including the U.S., most notably the New England textile industry. In 1895 Fourneyron turbines were installed on the U.S. side of Niagara Falls to generate electric power. Fourneyron was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1861.

American engineers then built upon French pioneering. Uriah Atherton Boyden (1804 – 1879) was a civil and mechanical engineer and inventor from Foxborough, Massachusetts best known for the development of the Boyden Turbine around 1844. Boyden improved upon the water turbine developed by Fourneyron. Boyden worked with British-born engineer James B. Francis, who in 1848 developed the Francis turbine, which superseded Boyden's earlier invention. James Francis was born near Witney, Oxfordshire in England. He emigrated to the United States in 1833 and, at age of 19, got a draftsman’s job with the Locks and Canal Company, and four years later was appointed Chief Engineer. James became fascinated with and tinkered with turbine designs, after Uriah A. Boyden first demonstrated his Boyden turbine to him and the two engineers worked on improving the turbine. In 1848, Francis and Boyden successfully improved the turbine with what is now known as the Francis turbine. Francis' turbine eclipsed the Boyden turbine in power by 90%. In 1855, Francis published these findings in the 'Lowell Hydraulic Experiments'. Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today – one hundred and fifty years later, primarily used for electrical power production.

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.33 As if not satisfied with its contribution to the economy of Annecy through fishing and agriculture, and then hydraulic and hydroelectric power, water appears in yet another guise, as snow, to further drive local manufacturing industry. The Alpine slopes stretching from Semnoz (which rises 1200 m directly above Annecy), all the way via la Clusaz, Grand Bornard, Sallanches, Saint-Gervais les Bains and les Houches into Chamonix and Argentiere, around one and a half hours drive away into the Alps, gave rise to yet another key enterprise in Annecy – the Salomon Group or simply ‘Salomon’.

6.34 Salomon is a sports equipment manufacturing company, started in 1947 by François Salomon, his wife, and son Georges (1925-2010). In 1997, it was acquired by Adidas in a $1Bn deal. The family's metalworking shop opened in 1947 to produce saw blades. They soon adapted their equipment to make steel edges for skis and progressed to cable bindings. Bindings were the primary focus until 1979, when the rear-entry SX90 ski boot was introduced; skis came a decade later. As befits a company originating in Annecy, an unrivalled location offering nearly every conceivable outdoor activity, Salomon now produces products for various sports markets, including trail running, hiking, climbing, adventure racing, skiing, and snowboarding, in over 40 countries on five continents. Salomon's dedicated design center is in Annecy, France.

6.35 And as the final, and perhaps most perspective, contribution of water to the economy of the Annecy, there is of course Tourism, attracted by the beautiful clear blue waters of the lake. Tourism to the region came about almost incidentally two hundred and fifty years ago as a necessary, if troublesome, part of a voyage from England to the renaissance world of Italy. However, before long the wonders of the Alps were recognised by these educated and inquisitive tourists and people began to visit the region in the nineteenth century to launch the sports of Alpine climbing and skiing.

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.36 Annecy set about capturing its share of this passing tourist trade by investing in its hospitality infrastructure. One such investment was at the Gorges du Fier in the town of Lovagny some 11 kilometers west of Annecy - a remarkable natural curiosity where the Fier plunges in full force through a narrow gorge more than 100 metres deep. In the mid nineteenth there was an excellent local initiative to build a walkway through the gorge. It was an engineering feat, as the wooden walkway was painstakingly attached to the sheer rock face by abseiling workers who drove in metal stakes and girders to support the walkway. A stroll along this seemingly precarious, but actually perfectly safe walkway, is a tremendous, visual and sensual modern day reminder of the surging water power which drove industry in Annecy 200 years ago.

6.37 Luxury hotels began to follow. The Palace de Menthon was built in 1906-1907 by the Annecy architect Louis Ruphy in the style of the ‘Belle Époque” and was later enlarged by the Gruffaz brothers. In 1912 René Leyraz purchased plots of land on the banks of Lake Annecy to build the Imperial Palace luxury hotel. This was to be the beginning of a remarkable history for both hotels which continue to flourish to this day. Tourism to the area has grown ever since, attracted not just by the unique beauty of the mountain and lake scenery, the historical centre of Annecy and the wide range of restaurants in the area, but in particular by the unrivalled variety of outdoor activities available in one place at the same time.

6.38 Annecy is the place for a healthy as well as relaxing holiday. There are several yacht clubs and sailing schools around the lake. On the lake there is bathing, swimming, sailing, waterskiing, wakesurfing, windsurfing, cruising, diving, canoeing, rowing and fishing and with increasing popularity paddleboarding, and yoga workouts on paddleboards for the really adventurous – only jetskiing is banned for safety and nuisance reasons. Around the lakeside there are numerous walks for a pleasant stroll and a cycle path, 42 kilometres around the lake, part of which is a dedicated cycle path along former railway line running along the entire west side of lake Annecy and then all the way down to Albertville. This latter is frequently by joggers, roller skaters, and casual cyclists. The many hill climbs around the lake are a challenge to professional cyclists and the Tour de France has finished at Annecy twice in recent years, first at the summit of Semnoz and last year at the summit of Col de la Forclaz. There are horse riding stables, and a golf course around the lake and, further into the hills, there are countless hiking trails to follow. Surmounting all this recreational activity there is parapenting from the heights of Col de la Forclaz, and on most days during the summer there are shoals of brightly coloured parapents to be seen circling gently in the thermals way above the lake. In the winter there are more than a hundred ski stations within an hour or so’s drive from Annecy.

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.39 And so water has been, and continues to be, as Dr Servettaz so eloquently stated, the (economic) life of an Alpine lake; from the fishing carried out 5500 years ago in the pile dwellings of St Jorioz, to the cotton weaving, metal forging, and paper manufacturing of the last two centuries, to the sports equipment and tourist industry of today. The way Dr. Servettaz saw it, this precious substance water had contributed so much, and in so many ways, to the life of Lake Annecy and the community around it, that for the same community to treat it with neglect and contempt by dumping sewage into the lake, was not just an environmental crime, it was the height of ingratitude.

6.40 The current structure of Annecy’s economy clearly reflects this specific water-shaped history and character. There are five business sectors which characterise today's economy:

1) precision engineering, applied in the automobile, aeronautic, nuclear and biomedical industries. This is the direct legacy of the metal forging business of Frerejean and the great metal alloy works of Paul Girod in Ugine

2) industrial equipment, again the legacy of manufacturing industry introduced by Duport’s cotton factory and Aussedat’s paper factory

3) the sport, leisure and luxury goods industries launched by Francois Salomon in the mid twentieth century

4) computing and electronics - an indirect result of the presence of a pool of highly skilled engineers working in the metal industry and the spirit of entrepreneurship which the beautiful natural environment of Lake Annecy seems continually to inspire,

5) and not least the food and hospitality industry driven at its heart by the beautiful waters of the lake.

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.41 Annecy's website has the following description of the local economy. "As a result of this unique history and environment the Annecy basin possesses a stable, highly qualified work force. More than 35% of those employed belong to the category of highly qualified technicians and management personnel (against a national average of 17%). Numerous companies are world leaders in their market and make Haute-Savoie one of the leading French departments for exports. Amongst the companies with an international dimension in the five business sectors mentioned above are:

1) precision engineering and metals: Mecalac excavators, Adixen vacuum technology vacuum pumps, NTN-SNR transport technology, Maped supplies for schools,

2) industrial equipment: Staubli robotics, Dassault aeronautic engineering,

3) Sports/ leisure and luxury goods industries: Salomon sports equipment, Millet sports clothing

4) Computing/electronics: Tefal-Seb kitchen utensils, Sopra information technology,

5) Food Industry: Entremont cheese products.

6.42 "In addition to these bigger companies, the presence of numerous competitive small and medium sized companies allows Annecy to have great sub-contracting diversity at its disposal, an advantage enhanced by the proximity of the Vallée de l'Arve (the No. 1 European metal cutting centre) and of the Vallée d'Oyonnax (the No. 2 European plastics technology centre). Moreover, the Annecy urban area offers a very attractive environment to businesses. It has good connections with the rest of France (TGV High Speed Train connections and air connections from the Annecy-Meythet airport), and even with the world (the Geneva and Lyon airports are respectively 30 and 75 minutes away by car). It is a highly efficient economic centre - the leading one in Haute-Savoie - and is very varied, combining industrial and service businesses that are both traditional and innovative, and both large and small in size."

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake

6.43 This specific character of Annecy’s economy points to its future development. The spectacular lake and mountains of Annecy are home to every variety of outdoor recreational activity as well as to a highly educated workforce, particularly skilled in engineering and research, who choose to live in a beautiful environment as well as seek interesting employment. Given its proximity to Geneva, Annecy is also home to many specialists who work over the border in nearby Switzerland - not least those working at the cross-border research facility CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research) where physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe, using the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter – the fundamental particles. Annecy is a place which inspires creativity, innovation and research.

6.44 From the first days when humans came to live around Lake Annecy some 5500 years, water has played a major role in their economy, beginning with the provision of fish to eat and water to drink. Four or five hundred years ago water provided a simple form of power for cottage industries often run by religious foundations. With the arrival of Francois Pingon in the seventeenth century water was used for the first time to power industrial manufacture (of nails). In the nineteenth century hydraulic power was harnessed to develop major manufacturing industries in Annecy by Duport (cotton), Frerejean (metal), and the Assedat family (paper). The Aussedat family later built hyroelectrical power stations powered by new turbine technology which came on line at the beginning of the twentieth century. Around this time Paul Girod founded a highly successful hydroelectric-powered metal-alloy foundry, harnessing the torrents flowing down the mountains south of Annecy. His success in turn encouraged the establishment of a high quality engineering industry in the region which has produced many specialist small-to-medium sized engineering companies working successfully to this day. Frozen water as snow on the slopes of the nearby Alps in the middle of the nineteenth century inspired the development of a thriving winter tourist industry, which in turn inspired the development of a significant sports goods industry in the middle of the twentieth century, which again thrives to this day. And the power of the crystal clear waters of the lake to attract tourists in the summer for a wide variety of outdoor activities provides the basis for an all-year-round tourist industry well into the twenty-first century. So Dr Servettaz chose the title of his story well - “Water, the life of an alpine lake” - since it is water that sustains not just the complex web of animal life in the lake, but also the economic livelihoods of people working in the complex web of enterprises around the lake.

The Story

Chapter One. From the Times, 1977, Article by Alan McGregor. The only account of the story published in English

Chapter Two. From French Journal Clés, by Patrice van Eersel and Martine Castello. Update to the story, published July 2011.

Chapter Three. Dr Paul Louis Servettaz publishes three versions of his account.

Chapter Four. La Vie d'un lac alpin The first account of the story, 75 pages by Dr Paul Louis Servettaz published in 1971

Chapter Five: L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine Updated version of the above with 280 pages, published in 1977, reprinted in 1991

Chapter Six: Water, the economic life of an alpine lake