Author: GENNETÉ, C.L. [Engineer].- LULOFS.- MUSSCHENBROEK.- ALLAMAND, J.N.S.-
Title: EXTRACT uyt de Re- / solutien van de Heeren Staa- / ten van Holland en West- / vriesland, ...Vergadering ... 19 Maart 1761. ... zynde de Advisen of Reflectien van ieder lid... over de machine van L. Genneté, soo als deselve in de Vergaderng van de Faculteit zyn overgegeeven; ... [First leaf recto in margin & Final leaf verso:] ADVIS / van de / Philosophische Faculteit te / Leyden op de Machine van L. Genneté, met een / Teekening en Beschrijving / der voorschreve Machi- / ne. / Copie aan de Leeden. / 19 maart / 1761./ [Introduction and report signed by Johan Lulofs, Dean of the Faculty, & Pieter van Musschenbroek and J.N.S. Allamand, members of the committee].
Description: No place [Leyden], No publ., 1761. [16 - 17 maart 1671]. Folio. W. 8 engr. figs. on 1 large engr. folding plate ['A. Delfos, del. et Sc.1761.'], meas. appr. 38. 5 x 48 cm, engraved surface appr. 37.5 x 44.5 cm]. 19th c. blue dull paper cover. [n1, A - F2 (F2 blank), n1 (conjugate blank w.n1]. (I, I (blank), (1) - (22), II (blank, II (blank) pp.). Clear Pro Patria watermark, countermark 'W.B' indicative of the period. See Churchill, ... Heawood... items ... Van der Aa, VII, pp. 100 - 101: Claude Leopold Genneté [1706 - 1782] constructed a machine to reclaim the Haarlemmermeer, but he turned out to be a crook. For legal reasons the hydraulic construction was examined by the Leyden Faculty of Philosophy under the direction of Johan Lulofs, assisted by the members Pieter van Musschenbroek and J. Allemand. Their conclusion was that the machine could never be effective. It was demolished in 1762. Comp. Bierens de Haan, 1618: 5 years before in 1756, a large 'hekeldicht'/ poem dedicated to Lulofs was published under the title 'Dichtharpoen voor den beruchten werktuig-kunstenaar Genneté, en zyne befaamde Pesthuis-Pomp' by an unknown author. This poem was published in the year that Genneté fled the country in August and was never heard of again. His pump, intended to reclaim the land in the Haarlemmermeer polder, built and situated behind the Leyden 'Pesthuis', was ready to be tested in October 1754, but a leak in in one of the pumps, caused the test to be postponed for months. Genneté, who had studied physics and maths at the University of Leiden, under the guidance of 's Gravesande no less, could not deliver the machine he had promised. The above mentioned committee under Lulofs, Musschenbroek and Allamand, tested the machine and came to the conclusion that it would never work. Wagenaar 'Vaderlandsche Historie', vol. II, pp. 180 - 188:

Keywords: reclaiming instruments technology droogmaking hydraulics Zolder polders Gennete