"It is a small hydroelectric power plant that hides a great technical monument. The history of this industrial plant dates back to the first half of the 19th century. At that time, Czaniec belonged to the Habsburgs from Żywiec. The enterprising owners established here a distillery, a brewery and the most modern in Galicia, the so-called American mill, which milled about 20 thousand bushels of grain per year. However, it was soon converted into a paper factory. In 1888, the factory in Czaniec was purchased by the Fijałkowski family - the owners of the paper mill in Bielsko, whose buildings have survived to this day, as well as the neo-baroque palace of Alfred Fijałkowski, standing at ul. Ratuszowa they opened a cardboard factory in Czaniec. As it turned out, the plant was to operate for the next 100 years. A brick power plant was built for the plant, housing two Girard water turbines with a capacity of 90 HP each, powering the factory machines bought by the Weiss family, and after World War II it was nationalized. At the beginning of the 21st century, the new - private - owners of the gym launched a small hydroelectric power plant here, replacing one of the Girard turbines with a modern structure - a Kaplan turbine. It is worth mentioning that this still operating Girard turbine is unique on a global scale. Its inventor was Philipp Girard, a French emigrant who worked in the Kingdom of Poland in the first half of the 19th century. He is known primarily as the founder of a linen factory and a workers' estate near Warsaw, which was later called Żyrardów. However, he also had many pioneering technical solutions to his credit. Already in the 1820s, he launched the first turbine of his own design in Poland. Later they gained recognition all over the world.