The Hydrotechnical Society of France was founded in 1912. Its purpose was to adequately represent the interests of the French hydropower industry. The SHF history from its creation to World War II is described, including the Beauvert Hydraulic Laboratory at Grenoble with its main projects and its actors, the journal La Houille Blanche, and its difficult years in the 1930s. It is thus intended to look back into the era of the glorious French advances in hydraulic engineering, but also to the re-creation after WWII.