A hydraulic adventure in Lavaldens

At the end of the 19th century, industry began to overtake village windmills, which then disappeared one after the other. Paul Freynet, who lived in Lavaldens, decided to optimise his windmill by using hydraulic force in all its forms. The penstock drives several millstones, as well as a bolter and a sorter, and a saw for cutting wood lengthways, plus a circular saw for short logs. A major development was the introduction of a generator to produce electricity. Paul Freynet provided power to all the village long before the electricity network arrived in the valley, on the eve of the Great War.