The workshop of André Bourgeois

1948
The pipe maker André Gustave Léon BOURGEOIS-PHILIPPET (1911-1983) inherits the workshop at 16 du Plan du Moulin, formerly occupied by his father who was a woodturner.
The different machines are driven by a paddle wheel.
See details of the workshop and mechanism in the following map.

▲ Inside views of the Bourgeois workshop.
Transmission of the driving force by pulleys and belts was quite common prior to WWII.

1977
The municipality decides to get rid with the water conveyance for the hydrolic system. André Bourgeois was the last pipe maker in Saint Claude who used this driving force. He will keep the belt driven machines until closing down. The paddle wheel has been replaced by an electric engine.

1983
Death of M. Bourgeois.
This atypical pipe maker hadn't any distribution network. Almost the totality of his production was sold in place to visitors: the shop was situated just under the workshop.