Gardner-Serpollet

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Serpollet (1881–1900)
Gardner-Serpollet (1900–1907)

logo
legal form
founding 1881
resolution 1907
Reason for dissolution Death of Léon Serpollet
Seat Paris
management Léon Serpollet, Frank L. Gardner, Alexandre Darracq
Number of employees 140
Branch Automobile manufacturers , commercial vehicle manufacturers , tram manufacturers

The Société Gardner-Serpollet , previously Société des Moteurs Serpollet Frères & Cie. and Société Anonyme des Générateurs à Vaporisation Instantanée Serpollet , was a French manufacturer of automobiles , commercial vehicles and trams . The brand name was Serpollet until 1900 , then Gardner-Serpollet .

Company history

Société des Moteurs Serpollet Frères & Cie.

Steam engine of a Serpollet Tricycle (1888)

Léon and Henri Serpollet founded the Société des Moteurs Serpollet Frères & Cie in 1886 with a partner, the industrialist Larsonneaux . in Paris - Montmartre , and started developing automobiles. In 1887 the first vehicle with a single-piston engine of 1 hp was completed, and on May 7, 1888, Léon Serpollet reached 30 km / h.

Société Anonyme des Générateurs à Vaporisation Instantanée Serpollet

Serpollet steam tricycle (ca.1890)
Serpollet steam railcar, French automotrice à vapeur Serpollet, in Geneva (1889)

In 1888 the Serpollet brothers separated by mutual agreement. At home in Culoz ( Département Ain ), Henri wanted to continue working on faster vaporization, while Léon found a bank as an additional investor in Paris with the Comptoir National d'Escompte and the company as Société Anonyme des Générateurs à Vaporisation Instantanée Serpollet , based on the avenue de l'Opéra 5 reorganized. The production facilities remained at the old location.

In the same year, Les Fils des Peugeot frères & Cie. in Valentigney and the Société de l'Horme et de la Buire in Lyon . While such a collaboration did not actually take place at La Buire until 1900, four tricycles emerged at Peugeot in 1889, which became known as Peugeot Type 1 , but did not find any successors with a steam drive.

The steam drive initially came under pressure from the combustion engine. Serpollet responded with new applications such as buses and the sometimes very popular tram. Serpollet soon faced new competition from clean and increasingly reliable electricity. Although his products became quieter, less odorous and more powerful, they could not withstand electric trams in the long run. The last of them left the factory in 1898.

Serpollet had an assembly plant in Great Britain to avoid the high import duties there.

Société Gardner-Serpollet

Gardner-Serpollet 18 CV Type L Phaéton tulipée by Carosserie Labourdette (1905)

In 1898 the American entrepreneur Frank L. Gardner took a share in the company. From 1898 in Paris he had manufactured the Gardner , a light automobile with a combustion engine. However, he owed his considerable fortune to his gold mines . Serpollet's company was reorganized as Société Gardner-Serpollet . The brand name was now Gardner-Serpollet . The new capital was used to move into large facilities at Rue Stendhal 9–11 in the XX Parisian arrondissement ; Since Gardner's former car factory was also on this street, it can be assumed that these were at least partially their former premises. It is also possible that Gardner brought his former company to Serpollet.

Serpollet improved its steam technology one last time. One of the innovations was an automatic regulation of the petroleum supply of the burner. The new Gardner-Serpollet also received modern, very attractive bodies, which did not reveal how the vehicles were powered. After De Dion-Bouton had given up building steam-powered passenger cars, Gardner-Serpollet was the last well-known manufacturer in France to remain loyal to steam propulsion; in the meantime, the company's patents relating to general automobile construction had even been sold. Gardner-Serpollet received a gold medal for the new passenger car at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 ; the jury found their ease of use, comfort and performance to be superior to contemporary gasoline vehicles. This last triumph of steam engines was followed by rising sales figures for a short time.

In 1906 the small manufacturer Società Italiana Costruzione Automobili Ricordi-Molinari in Milan was taken over and reorganized as Serpollet Italiana . The company mainly manufactured Serpollet passenger and delivery vehicles under license, but also had a gasoline-powered Voiturette in its range.

Darracq-Serpollet

Darracq-Serpollet steam omnibus of the Metropolitan Steam Omnibus Co. (1907)

The financial problems created tension between Serpollet and Gardner. In 1905 he sold his shares to Alexandre Darracq (1855-1931). In 1906 not a single passenger car could be sold, but the commercial vehicles presented at the Paris Salon met with a very positive reception. At a reliability trip for heavy trucks from Paris to Marseille and back organized in army circles , two trucks and a bus of the brand took the first three places.

Darracq had big plans for the company, but they were limited to building commercial vehicles. Corresponding developments were accelerated and a new factory for their production was built in Suresnes next to the Darracq plant. Léon Serpollet did not live to see the completion; He died of throat cancer in February 1907 at the age of 52 .

In the first year of production, 1000 Darracq-Serpollet chassis were built, including a larger number for buses. The production of steam vehicles ended shortly afterwards.

vehicles

Serpollet 4 CV Tricycle with Serpollet Steam Boiler (1891)

Tricycles

The company manufactured steam cars, initially only tricycles , probably because of the steering system, which was much easier to construct . The Serpollet boiler , patented as early as 1881 , had been significantly improved by 1886, which significantly reduced construction costs and heating times. In 1888, a boiler with multiple coils was introduced.

A version from 1889 was reproduced under license as a Peugeot Type 1 by the company Les Fils des Peugeot frères in Valentigney . Léon Serpollet and Ernest Archdeacon (1863–1950) drove such a vehicle from Paris to Lyon in January 1890 to attend a business meeting. The arduous tour, interrupted by numerous breakdowns, is likely to have been the first motorized business trip in history.

In 1891 a seven-seater three-wheeler with a two-piston engine appeared, which was launched the following year in an improved version as the last three-wheeled vehicle and is said to have been able to travel at 25 km / h.

Automobiles

Gardner-Serpollet, body as a coupé limousine by Jacques Kellner (1905)

In the same year, Serpollet vehicles with four wheels were presented for the first time, initially a Phaeton with parallelogram steering . About 12 copies of this automobile were sold. Like all of the company's later passenger cars, it had two rigid axles and semi-elliptical leaf springs all around .

In 1892 Serpollet put a double phaeton with a liquefier on the market. With this, the water produced from the cooled steam was fed back into the steam cycle. After briefly using copper pipes, Serpollet returned to iron pipes with this model. However, the coiled pipes were replaced by a T-shaped construction. Above all, however, the fuel was switched from coal to lamp kerosene .

In 1896, the automatic dosing of the kerosene furnace using a double-acting pump was introduced, which reduced operating costs.

In 1900 the 5 CV came onto the market. In 1901 the 8 CV with V4 engine followed, as well as the 6 CV (Voiturette), 9 CV (sedan) and 12 CV (touring or touring car) models with a machine with two pairs of counter-rotating, horizontal pistons. An internal combustion engine could be called a four - cylinder boxer engine . The performance resulted from the number of tubes in the steam generator.

In 1903 the 15 CV and Simplex models with four-cylinder engines appeared. 1904 followed with the Type L 18 CV, an improved version of the 15 CV and the 40 CV , both with automatic fuel charging. The last model was the 40 CV with six-piston engine presented in 1906 .

Commercial vehicles and trams

In 1893 the production of trucks began , most of which were sold to the French army. At the end of this year, the first Serpollet tram was delivered to the Compagnie des Tramways de Paris . Their development and subsequent success meant that hardly any private cars were produced between 1891 and 1895.

Racing and a world record

Race Paris - Rouen 1894

On July 22, 1894, the historic race for “horseless” carriages from Paris to Rouen took place. The organizer was the newspaper Le Petit Journal . The occasion is considered to be the first "real" car race in history. The route was 127 km; 12 vehicles, mostly petrol-powered, were reported. In the end, 21 automobiles were at the start, including four Serpollet. The fastest was Count Albert de Dion (1856-1946) with a De Dion, Bouton & Trépardoux steam car in front of two petrol engines. Under rather flimsy reasons, the victory was denied on site. M. Le Blant crossed the finish line just 3 hours and 55 minutes after Count de Dion and was 15th. The second Serpollet at the finish was Ernest Archdeacon's Omnibus, who took exactly 13 hours and was 17th. De Prandières did not even make it to the finish with a 6-seater tonneau and the Chastel & David-Serpollet Omnibus from Étienne le Blant

All in all, the limits of steam cars were already shown in this very first car race.

World record

On the occasion of the first edition of the Coupe Rothschild in Nice in 1901, Serpollet completed the flying kilometer at 100.55 km / h. The flying kilometer resp. "kilomètre lancé" was a motorsport category that was widespread until the 1950s, in which you had to accelerate on a given route and then cover exactly one kilometer from a given point. The speed was calculated from the stopped time.

On April 13, 1902, on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice , Léon Serpollet set the land speed record of 120,797 km / h with a specially built custom-made product with an output of almost 100 hp - as the first non-electric vehicle. After the record run of the racing car called mituf de Pâques ("Easter egg") because of its shape, it was only once possible to break the world record with a steam car. Fred H. Marriott hired him on January 26, 1905 at Daytona Beach with the Stanley Rocket at 121.57 mph (195,647 km / h).

The vehicles were also used in car races such as Paris – Madrid in 1903 and the Gordon Bennett race in 1904 , but with little success.

Production figures (private cars)

Between 1900 and 1904 around 100 copies were made each year. That was the highest figure for steam car manufacturers in Europe. For comparison: Locomobiles from the USA produced 2,750 vehicles in 1902 alone.

Commercial vehicles and trams

Serpollet tram of the Geneva ( Switzerland ) tram in Corsier GE

Commercial vehicle production began in 1893, and it became more and more important for steam vehicle manufacturers in general. One of the first customers for Serpollet- lorries was the French army .

Léon Serpollet correctly interpreted the signs that internal combustion engines would prevail for cars . He intensified the work on steam trams . The first result was presented in 1893. This route turned out to be the right one and the Compagnie Générale des Omnibus responsible for the greater Paris area alone ordered over 250 Serpollet trams. The first of them operated from 1893 between the Place de la Madeleine and Clichy resp. between the Place de la Madeleine and Asnières . Many other French cities were soon added, as well as Berlin , Stuttgart and Geneva . Serpollet trams even sold as far as Japan . After production of rail-powered vehicles was discontinued in 1898, capacities were also made available for the commercial vehicle department. Innovative omnibuses appeared. Gardner-Serpollet also brought the technical improvements to this area. There was even tougher competition here when car construction was already beginning to crumble, for example from De Dion-Bouton, where steam-powered commercial vehicles were built up until 1904; the company was also a rival in the bus sector, even though these vehicles had petrol engines earlier.

The Société Gardner-Serpollet was happy to demonstrate the performance of its vehicles on reliability drives and similar occasions. On February 16, 1905, a 17-person omnibus climbed Montmartre in Paris to attract the public.

gallery

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Serpollet, à tout Vapeur. Retrieved November 22, 2016 .
  2. ^ Georgano: Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars (1973), p. 620.
  3. a b histomobile.com: Serpollet
  4. ^ Schmarbeck: All Peugeot automobiles 1890-1990. (1990), p. 29.
  5. teamdan.com: Grand Prix 1894
  6. ^ A b c Gallica, French online archive: Le Petit Journal of July 22, 1894.
  7. ↑ Zwischengas.com : The flying kilometer
  8. a b speedrecorde.club: Features - Steam and Speed ​​(English). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 5, 2013 ; Retrieved April 16, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.speedrecordclub.com
  9. Bird: De Dion-Bouton (1971) p. 49.

literature

  • Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .
  • George Nick Georgano : The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Volume 3: P – Z. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 . (English)
  • GN Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present. 2nd Edition. Dutton Press, New York 1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 . (English)
  • Collective of authors: Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Brands · Models · Technology. Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 1989.
  • Richard v. Frankenberg, Marco Matteucci: History of the Automobile. Sigloch Service Edition / STIG, Torino 1973, DNB 760297916 .
  • Hans-Otto Neubauer (ed.): Chronicle of the automobile. Chronik Verlag in Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1994, ISBN 3-570-14338-4 .
  • 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 Services, 1971, ISBN 0-304-93707-X . (English)
  • Floyd Clymer, Harry W. Gahagan: Floyd Clymer's Steam Car Scrapbook. LLC, 2012, ISBN 978-1-258-42699-6 . (English)
  • 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)

Web links

Commons : Gardner-Serpollet and Serpollet  - collection of images, videos and audio files