Giovanni Battista Ceirano
Giovanni Battista Ceirano (* 1860 in Cuneo ; † 1912 in Bordighera ) was an Italian pioneer in automobile manufacturing and the founder of various local automobile companies.
Life
Giovanni Battista was the eldest son of the Ceirano family and had three other brothers named Giovanni , Matteo and Ernesto . In 1886 he founded a bicycle shop with Attilio Calligaris , Pietro Fenoglio , Emanuele di Bricherasio and Cesare Goria Gatti with a start-up capital of 6,000 lire , and later produced bicycles there himself under the brand name Welleyes, which sounds English for promotional reasons . The young, technology-loving Vincenzo Lancia also often visited the small workshop and gained his first knowledge and skills as a mechanic here.
On May 18, 1895, Ceirano took part in the Esperimento di corsa di veicoli automotori from Turin to Asti and back on a German Hildebrand & Wolfmüller motorcycle . This race is considered to be the first ever Italian automobile race. Behind Simone Federmann , who on a Daimler - automobile with an average speed won 15.5 km / h Ceirano finished second. Third was the inventor of the machine himself, Alois Wolfmüller from Landsberg am Lech . Of the five starters, only these three reached the finish. Only a few weeks later, both Ceirano and Wolfmüller had to give up in the Paris – Bordeaux – Paris race around the middle of the race.
In October 1898 the bicycle company became the Ceirano Giovanni Battista & C. in Turin, which in the spring of 1899 was the only car with a two-cylinder engine , 663 cc and two-speed gearbox, a small car designed by Aristide Faccioli under the brand name Welleyes . Vincenzo Lancia also worked in the company. Four months after the presentation of the Welleyes, the newly founded Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino ( Fiat ) took over the small company, the workforce and all patents and construction plans of the small Welleyes for 30,000 Lire and presented it in a further developed version with a boxer engine with the same output of 3.5 HP as their first car with the designation Fiat 3.5 HP . Giovanni Battista was initially general agent for sales at Fiat, but in 1901 he again founded the company Fratelli Ceirano & C. with his brother Matteo , which until 1903 co-operated the Ceirano 5 HP and Ceirano 6/8 HP with single-cylinder engines and a four-cylinder Ceirano 16 HP 4562 cm³ displacement developed. Matteo left the company in 1903 and initially founded Ceirano Matteo & C. With the partnership of his brother Giovanni from 1904, the company that later became the Società Torinese Automobili Rapid (STAR) was renamed GG Fratelli Ceirano & C. Giovanni later left the company and founded his own Ceirano Giovanni Junior & C. and later the Società Ceirano Automobili Torino (SCAT) with his son Giovanni junior, who was also called "Ernesto" .
Giovanni Battista turned more to his private life after 1905 and went to Bordighera, where he died in 1912.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Torinosette.it: Piemonte patria dell'auto - Ai f.lli Ceirano la paternità dell'automobile in Italia , as of April 2004.
- ↑ Agency N4S: http://www.need4speed.at/fahrzeugmarken/lancia/s_lancia.html lancia @ Need4Speed , as of April of 2007.
- ^ A b IN THE CURRENT FAMILY OWNERSHIP SINCE THE LATE 1960S, c. 1894/1895 HILDEBRAND & WOLFMÜLLER, Engine no.47. In: Bonhams . www.bonhams.com, January 6, 2011, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ May 18 Torino, Villanova d'Asti, Villafranca Asti, Asti, Torino - 93 km. racecarstory.netsons.org, January 6, 2011, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Fiat500.ch: Fiat - the 100-year history
- ↑ Auto-Bike24.com: http://www.auto-bike24.com/cms/modules/wordbook/entry.php?entryID=1642 History - Ceirano , as of April 2007.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ceirano, Giovanni Battista |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian automobile manufacturer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1860 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cuneo |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1912 |
| Place of death | Bordighera |