Charles-Armand Trépardoux
Charles-Armand Trépardoux (born February 26, 1853 in Paris , † May 4, 1920 in Arcueil-Cachan ) was a French engineer, steam car builder and pioneer of the French automotive industry .
youth
Charles Trépardoux was born in 1853 on Rue Ferou in VI. Born in the 4th arrondissement in Paris. His father encourages him to pursue a technical career; from 1868 to 1871 he attended the École impériale des Arts et Métiers in Angers , which he completed with an engineering degree. During the Franco-Prussian War he did his military service in a pioneer regiment and was honorably discharged in 1873. He then worked as a technical draftsman in Paris. In 1877 he married Marie Joly , but his wife died a few months after the marriage.
Georges Bouton and the Count de Dion
At that time Trépardoux lived on Rue de Clignancourt in the 18th century in Paris . Arrondissement . Here he made the acquaintance of Georges Bouton , a mechanic from the same quarter. Together they open a workshop for physical apparatus and high-precision devices in the Passage Léon , near the Rue de La Chapelle in the 18th century. Arrondissement . To broaden the range, her workshop also accepts orders for steam-powered model ships and trains for the Giroux store on Boulevard des Italiens . In 1879 Trépardoux married Bouton's younger sister Eugènie Ernestine (1854–1890).
Her work is able to support her two families, but her dream of building her own steam car cannot be financed from it. Nevertheless, they are working on the development of a boiler that should be suitable for a light steam vehicle. At the end of 1881, Count Albert Jules de Dion noticed her when he was impressed by a model steam engine from her workshop that he saw in the Giroux shop window . He tries to get in touch with the manufacturers and agrees to finance the boiler project. The three found the company Trépardoux et Cie, ingénieurs-constructeurs . The name comes from the fact that only Trépardoux completed an engineering degree.
Establishments De Dion, Bouton & Trépardoux
Their steam boiler is patented and installed in boats and pleasure yachts on the Seine. In 1884 the company moved to Puteaux and in 1887 it was renamed De Dion, Bouton & Trépardoux . In 1888, Trépardoux was elected to the Puteaux City Council, where he headed the Transport Commission. In this position he drives the extension of the tram from the Porte Maillot in the 16th arrondissement of Paris to Marly-le-Roi . As the mayor's deputy, he was later involved in the construction of a bridge near Puteaux.
His wife Eugénie died in childbirth in 1890 while giving birth to their second child. Trépardoux changes and finds himself less and less satisfied with the development of the company that Count de Dion is driving forward: away from the steam-powered vehicle towards the gasoline vehicle. Nevertheless, he carried out the main work on a new type of rear axle, which was patented in 1893. It is now known as the De Dion axle and is used for the first time in the company's last generation of steam cars. It is also installed in the voiturette from 1899 and most of the brand's subsequent passenger cars.
In 1889 the count put the first sketches for an internal combustion engine on paper. Trépardoux is strictly against it: "Working on the explosion engine means working against the steam - working against ourselves." It seems for a while that he can actually slow the engine down. Then an external design office is commissioned. In 1893, Georges Bouton took over development and completed the first prototype.
When the Count announced his intention to forego steam engines altogether in the future, there was a dispute with Trépardoux, who did not consider the combustion engine to be reliable enough for anything else. In 1893 there was a separation in anger, which, according to some sources, was so violent that the Count not only erased Trépardoux's portrait from the clichés of all printing documents, but even the old ones in the archive, on work pictures and on the brass plates on the machines The company name De Dion, Bouton & Trépardoux was removed. The brand called De Dion-Bouton from then on delivered the last steam-powered commercial vehicles in 1904.
Later years
Trépardoux later had a third marriage to Héloïse Godot and moved to 36 rue de Paris in Colombes . He mainly dealt with possible uses for his light steam boiler. In 1896 he again submitted patents. It is possible that the enraged Count de Dion later used his influence to harm Trépardoux. In any case, he capitulated, now bitter, and in 1902 moved to his brother-in - law's estate in Saint-Aubin-les-Forges , Nièvre department . He died on May 4, 1920 in Arcueil-Cachan .
Individual evidence
literature
- Anthony Bird: De Dion Bouton - First automobile Giant. (Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Car marque book No 6). Ballantine Books, New York 1971, ISBN 0-345-02322-6 . (English)
- Anthony Bird: The single-cylinder De Dion Boutons. (Profile Publications No. 25). Profile Publications, Surrey, England 1966, OCLC 46354890 . (English)
- Jacques Rousseau: Guide de l'Automobile française , Éditions Solar, Paris (1988); ISBN 2-263-01105-6 hardcover (French)
- Richard J. Evans: Steam Cars (Shire Album). Shire Publications, 1985, ISBN 0-85263-774-8 . (English)
- Anthony Bird, Edward Douglas-Scott Montagu of Beaulieu: Steam Cars, 1770-1970. Littlehampton Book, 1971, ISBN 0-304-93707-X . (English)
- Floyd Clymer, Harry W. Gahagan: Floyd Clymer's Steam Car Scrapbook. Literary Licensing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-258-42699-6 . (English)
- John Headfield: American Steam-Car Pioneers: A Scrapbook. 1st edition. Newcomen Society in North, 1984, ISBN 99940-65-90-4 . (English)
Web links
- Biography of Charles-Armand Trépardoux at the Fondation Arts et Métiers (French)
- Story of De Dion Bouton at gazoline.net (French)
- Amicale De Dion-Bouton; Brand Club (French and English)
- La Marquise from 1884 at conceptcarz.com (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Trépardoux, Charles-Armand |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Trépardoux, Charles-Armand (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French automobile manufacturer, designer and steam car builder |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 26, 1853 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 4, 1920 |
| Place of death | Arcueil-Cachan |