In 1915, the Marmont forge disappeared, replaced by a cable factory whose buildings were moved to the railroad tracks where ArcelorMittal now stands. This last episode is illustrated by a wall of contemporary photographs by Claire Jachymiak.
The “puddleur” (furnace worker) “loaded a load of cast iron weighing 225 kilos, which had to yield 195 kilos of iron... At arm's length! Using an iron poker, the puddler stirred, pierced, felt and “stirred” the molten iron inside the furnace. Finally, at the decisive moment, which he judged by his esteem, ... he extracted from the furnace a white tumor, with an unbearable glow, full of flaming pustules.
Through models, engravings, and photographs, discover the Sainte-Colombe-sur-Seine forge, a major industrial site of the 19th century in France.
The blast furnaces were built in 1777 and later transformed in the 19th century by Marshal Marmont into an English-style factory with blast furnaces and puddling furnaces powered by coal. This was the golden age of the forge: by 1850, it boasted 16 puddling furnaces, 8 reheating furnaces, 3 rolling mills, and 500 horsepower, powered jointly by water and steam.
The Châtillonnais region is particularly suited to the metallurgical industry due to the presence of three essential ingredients for its growth: water, iron ore, and wood. Along the three valleys – the Seine, Ource, and Aube – structures for the extraction and transformation of iron were established throughout the 18th century.
