Serpollet Dampfdreirad
1888 · Steam Tricycle with Flash Boiler · Work 269 of 1,871
A Serpollet steam tricycle on a Paris boulevard, flash boiler of flattened tubes stowed under the seat, single steered front wheel, slim chimney, water tank between the rear wheels.
- What it was used for
- Léon and Henri Serpollet were mechanics from Culoz in the Ain. The Musée des Arts et Métiers holds the tricycle as inventory number 16795, names Armand Peugeot and Léon Serpollet as makers, and gives the weight as 900 kilograms. In 1888 Serpollet joined with the businessman Larsonneau; manufacture was in the rue des Cloys in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, and customers included the industrialist Gaston Menier and the writer Robert de Montesquiou. In 1890 Serpollet drove a new tricycle to Lyon and, according to Mon Petit 20e, arrived ten days later after some technical mishaps. A four-wheeler went on sale in 1891 and this production ended in 1893. Twelve years after the run to Lyon, on 13 April 1902, Serpollet drove the Œuf de Pâques at Nice at 120.805 kilometres per hour, the fastest speed yet driven. The record stood until early August 1902, when a petrol-engined Mors took it.
- What was new
- The flash generator: each piston stroke feeds a very small quantity of water into a flattened, heated tube, where it vaporises at once, so the boiler itself holds no water, raising steam is quick and the risk of explosion is lower than with an upright boiler. The museum calls the boiler the brothers' "découverte majeure" and the tricycle "le prototype d'une courte série"; it makes no claim of a first. On its origin: Bugey Sud Tourisme names a first patent of 25 October 1879 from the father's workshop at Culoz; Mon Petit 20e also dates the invention to 1879. I could not find the patent number, so it cannot be said whether the flash generator stands in the claims or only in the description. The common statement that Serpollet received the first French driving licence in 1891 refers to a "permis de circulation dans Paris" of 17 April 1891 (Stages Points Permis); the certificat de capacité was only created by a ministerial circular of 14 August 1893.