Why don't we celebrate 1863? The 150th birthday of the car

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You may remember that the French in 1984 celebrated the centenary of the (French) automobile. In the years 1883-1884 Edouard Delamare-Deboutteville and Léon Maladin had patented and constructed and even driven a tricycle equipped with a gas engine. Many have argued against the French claim and if you take a look at the 'evidence' (there are no contemporary pictures or testimonies) you may not be convinced that 1884 really was the beginning of automobilism.

One can wonder why the French took 1884 as a starting point and not the year... 1863! In 1897 an old man recalled: “In '63 I have made a voiture automobile with which -in the month of September- we went to Joinville-le-Pont. One hour and a half to get there, and the same to return. The 1.5 CV engine ran at 100 rotations per minute, with a quite heavy flywheel.” It was Etienne Lenoir (1822-1900) who said this and he can even claim more: already in 1862 he put one of his gas engines in a voiture and took it out for some short trips in Paris. Again, it is hard to find evidence for these claims. At the Rétromobile show in 2000 a vehicle was presented which has been identified as a Lenoir and even an old photograph of it could be shown. But if this really was the voiture automobile which took Lenoir to Joinville in 1863?

It is a fact that the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris had a large exhibition in 1962 to celebrate the centenary of the achievements of Lenoir (and of Alphonse Beau de Rochas). The Dutch author Rudy Kousbroek visited this exhibition and wrote about it in the 1980s after the French had made their claim concerning Delamare-Deboutteville and the Germans theirs, concerning Benz and Daimler. Kousbroek was not surprised about all these centenaries. “Each of these commemorations and exhibitions bring forward aspects which cannot be denied as such and which all together have to lead to the conclusion that the automobile is not an invention but a form of art … and that it makes no sense to ask: who is its inventor.”

Whatever his merits for the development of the car, Lenoir is still recognized as an important innovator in the field of gas engines: e.g. the spark plug is regarded as one his inventions. Those who want to see Etienne Lenoir busy in his workshop should visit the diorama in the Motorcycle and Bicycle Museum in Amnéville, France.

(research and text Fons Alkemade)

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