Museo Usina Molet, Industrial heritage museum in Pedanía Calera, Argentina.
Museo Usina Molet occupies the hydroelectric plant built for Alfred Molet's calcium carbide factory on the Suquía River, at kilometre 22 of Provincial Route E 55. The building keeps its original electrical controls and turbines over three levels: the Sala Ingreso, the Sala de Piedra with meters, instruments and a period office and workshop recreation, and the lower Sala de máquinas with the generators (Brown Boveri, now ABB) and the control-room desk. Beside it stands the wall of the original San Roque dam.
Alfred Molet, a French-born industrial chemist, founded the Compañía Molet de Carburo de Calcio in 1899 and built a plant on the Suquía River to make calcium carbide; to power it, a hydroelectric station was added in the early 20th century. Molet sold his shares and left the company in 1902. The station's equipment ran for over 50 years and withstood the 1955 earthquake, and the museum opened on 18 May 2005.
The museum is named after Alfred Molet, a French-born chemical engineer from Cattenières who settled in Argentina and founded the Compañía Molet de Carburo de Calcio in 1899. He had the hydroelectric plant built on the Suquía to power his calcium carbide factory, then sold his shares and left the company in 1902. He later obtained a railway concession in 1908 and is buried in the Recoleta cemetery in Buenos Aires.
The museum stands at kilometre 22 of Provincial Route E 55, on the bank of the Suquía River in the Valle de Punilla. The three levels are connected by stairs, with the machine hall on the lowest floor and the entrance hall at the top, so visitors descend through the building. The original San Roque dam wall stands next to the main building.
The museum still houses the original Brown Boveri generators, now known as ABB, sitting in their original spots from when the plant operated. These machines are rare examples of early Swiss electrical engineering that was installed in South America.
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