In reading your article about the Large Hadron Collider (A Step Closer To The Beginning Of Time - March 31), I noted a remarkable visual similarity to an equally revolutionary machine, the Marly Engine built by Louis XIV, the Sun King, in the seventeenth century to raise water from the Seine river up to the fountains of Versailles, using the force of the current to drive the pumps. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.