Automobile Biographies: An Account of the Lives and the Work of Those Who Have Been Identified with the Invention and Development of Self-Propelled Vehicles on the Common RoadsWeeks, Lyman Horace
History
Automobile Biographies: An Account of the Lives and the Work of Those Who Have Been Identified with the Invention and Development of Self-Propelled Vehicles on the Common Roads
Weeks, Lyman Horace
Automobiles -- History
JEAN JOSEPH ETIENNE LENOIR
Born at Mussy-la-Ville, Luxembourg, January 12, 1822. Died, July, 1900, at
La Varnne Chemevieves, near Paris.
When Lenoir came to Paris in 1838 he had but an ordinary education and was
without resources. For a time he served as a waiter in order to earn money
to become an enameler and decorator. In 1847, he invented a new white
enamel and four years after invented a galvano plastic process for raised
work. Many other inventions were made by him, among them being an electric
motor in 1856, a water meter in 1857, an automatic regulator for dynamos,
the well-known gas motor that bears his name, and a system of autographic
telegraphing.
It is claimed that in September, 1863, Lenoir put a gas engine of his
non-compressor type, of one and a half horse-power, on wheels and made an
experimental run to Joinville-le-Paris and back. The motor, running at one
hundred revolutions, it is said, took them there in one and a half hours.
He thereupon abandoned such trials, and tried his engines in a boat, and
in 1865 put a six horse-power in one, but the insignificant speed possible
with his engine caused him to abandon that also.
The Academy of Science of Paris decorated M. Lenoir and the Society of
Encouragement gave him the grand prize of Argenteuil, amounting to twelve
thousand francs. For his patriotic services at the siege of Paris, during
the Franco-Prussian war, he was made a naturalized Frenchman. In 1880, he
published in Paris a work treating of his researches into the tanning of
leather.
AMEDÈE BOLLÈE
In April, 1873, Amedèe Bollèe, of Le Mans, France, the noted French
engineer, filed a patent for a steam road vehicle and two years later he
built the steam stage that he named Obeissante. Toward the end of that
year this stage was run in and about Paris, where it created something of
a sensation. It was even chronicled in the songs of the day and was made a
topic of amusement at the variety theatres. This steam omnibus made
twenty-eight kilometers in an hour. It is claimed to have been the first
creation of the man to whose family much credit is due for the modern
French automobile.
Between 1873 and 1875, Bollèe made several carriages. In 1876, he worked
with Dalifol and made a tram-car that would carry fifty passengers. This
vehicle was put into the steam omnibus service in Rouen. Two years later
he made another steam omnibus that he called La Mancelle. This vehicle, in
June of that year, was run from Paris to Vienna and developed a speed on
level roads of twenty-two miles an hour. In Vienna this vehicle was the
subject of much talk and was largely caricatured.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account