Jules Salomon

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Jean Marie Jules Salomon (* 1. February 1873 in Cahors , France ; † 31 December 1963 in Suresnes ) was a French automobile - designer and industrialist .

Youth and Early Activities

As a child, Salomon wanted to be a musician, but this did not meet his mother's expectations. His parents attached great importance to a good education, which is why Jules Salomon began studying at the Bordeaux Industrial and Commercial School.

In 1891 he was hired as a draftsman in the Rouart brothers' workshop. Jules Salomon participated in the development of internal combustion engines . Among other things, there was a model with which London taxis were equipped for a very long time.

He found his shortest employment around 1900, when he took up his position at Delaunay-Belleville at eight o'clock in the morning and left the company after two hours because he did not accept that his work was checked every 15 minutes.

Jules Salomon then worked for the Bardon company in Puteaux, which was already producing individual vehicles. When Bardon closed its doors in 1902, the Georges Richard company moved into these rooms. In 1904 this company was renamed Unic and vehicles were produced in small quantities.

Foundation of Le Zèbre

Jules Salomon's dream was to build a cheap vehicle that would meet the economic criteria of the time. Driven by this idea, he developed and built a small vehicle with a single-cylinder engine with the financial support of Jacques Bizet , whom he had met while working at Unic . Its construction was successful and ran so well that it drove to work every day.

In 1909 important decisions had to be made due to the increase in orders. Salomon left the UNIC company and founded Le Zèbre together with Jacques Bizet .

The Type A was presented as the first product in 1910 at the Paris Motor Show . The price of 2624 CHF at the time was the lowest on the market, other comparable cars cost 4000 CHF and more. The cost of use, estimated at twenty thousand kilometers, was competitive. Each kilometer with this car cost only 8 cents, compared to 20 cents with a horse-drawn carriage, which achieved Salomon's plan to produce a vehicle in large numbers and to offer it really cheaply.

During the First World War

Disagreements with Jacques Bizet and great difficulties with the company's new shareholders drove Salomon further and further away from Le Zèbre. A representative from Stahlwerke Jakob Holtzer advised Salomon to contact the then large ammunition supplier, André Citroën. In February 1917, Citroën asked Salomon in a 10-minute interview whether he could suggest a plan for a suitable passenger car . After five months all the documents were together and André Citroën decided to build a prototype of the vehicle designed by Jules Salomon.

In the meantime, Jules Salomon had already left Le Zèbre and was working part-time at Automobiles Charron , another automobile designer. This half-day work was incompatible with the development of the future company Citroën. On July 14, 1917, Jules Salomon started his full-time job at Citroën .

After internal struggles over significant changes in design had removed him from his position of power, he left Citroën in 1925. From 1926 to 1928 Jules Salomon was an engineer at Peugeot . From 1928 to 1939 he worked on small automobiles at Rosengart . After the Second World War, despite the pressure of numerous designers who wanted to use his services, he no longer continued his professional activity. He died at his home in Suresnes, at 12 Rue des Carrières, on December 31, 1963, at the age of 90, leaving no children.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .