The De Dion-Bouton Steam Bogie, Part 2

Welcome The Huffington Post readers - Note: This is Part 2 of an on-going essay. For the Part 1 link with the La Marquise reference, click here.

Updated 1/30/12 - Names of passengers for the Paris-to-Rouen race added.
Updated 12/7/11 - See *Note at bottom of post

As noted in the last post, the De Dion-Bouton Steam Bogie received praise throughout the motoring world and remained an engineering discussion topic long after the last one had been retired.
Fig. 242. — Scheme of the De Dion and Bouton steam tractor.
1, Steam engine; 2, boiler; 3, water tank, forming seat; 4, coke (fuel) box 5, steam valve; 6, steering; 7, reversing gear; 8, hand brake; 9, start lever; 10, water circulation pump; 11, brake pedal; 12, driving wheels; 13, steering wheels; 14, chassis.
Illustration from Manuel Théorique et Pratique de L'Automobile Sur Route: Vapeur — Pétrole — Électricité (Theoretical and Practical Manual of the Car on the Road: Steam — Petrol — Electric), Gérard Lavergne, 1900
The tractor was the first to use the de Dion tube suspension or "dead" axle, which only carries weight (below). This suspension system was still in use at least as late as 2004 in AWD Dodge Caravans.
Fig. 7 illustration from the August 14, 1896 issue of Engineering magazine.
Rare photo taken during the actual 1894 Paris-to-Rouen race.  Comte Jules-Albert de Dion (front, right) is driving with his stoker seated to his left.  Georges Bouton sits with his back to de Dion, and Bouton's brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux is to his right with his back to the stoker.  The other two passengers were Captain Émile Driant and the Baron de Zuylen de Nyevelt.  The name of the stoker is unknown to me at this writing.  Image from Le Blog de Rouen.
One unique thing about Trépardoux's design of the De Dion-Bouton Steam Bogie was that the firebox's smokestack was not mounted vertically, as it was on nearly every other steam powered vehicle of the day (including even later De Dion-Bouton vehicles), such as the 1899 Crowden Steam Brake show below:
From the July 26, 1899 issue of The Horseless Age magazine.
Instead, the stack ran down and to the rear of the steam drag (below). At speed, the draft of the vehicle would suck the exhaust under the trailer and out the back. At idle things could get a bit smokey for the passengers if the stoker didn't keep a clean stack.
Illustration from Motor Vehicles for Business Purposes: A Practical Handbook for Those Interested in the Transport of Passengers and Goods, A. J. Wallis-Tayler, 1905
Not long after the 1894 Paris-to-Rouen race, the Count de Dion led a group of enthusiastic organizers (who later formed the Automobile Club of France, the world's first such organization) in setting up a 732 mile long race — the winner of which would be the first to cross the finish line — to be run from Paris to Bordeaux and back in 1895. De Dion-Bouton entered three vehicles: a Steam Bogie converted into a four-seat brake; a petrol tricycle; and the now famous Steam Bogie/carriage combination that ran the 1894 race. After dominating the early lead, the converted Steam Bogie/brake snapped part of its running gear and was out of the race. Up until then, the 15-horsepower steam brake had been running in first-place at speeds close those at which it had been tested — 30 to 38 miles an hour, making it the unofficially fastest auto of its time. It would be three more years before the first official World Land Speed Record (timed by stop watches) was established. After some modifications and upgrades, the converted Steam Bogie was sold to the Michelin brothers who continued to race it for some time.

The veteran Steam Bogie/carriage combination (below) also ran strong at first, but developed problems and had an excruciatingly slow second half, finishing last and so late that it was declared out of the race. The petrol tricycle finished a surprising third overall (and in no small part helped to contribute to the future direction of the company). In keeping with an apparently nascent tradition, the first vehicle to cross the finish line was disqualified because it only carried two people as opposed to the four carried by the next vehicle to cross the line some twenty minutes later.
Original caption reads: The ancestors of the De Dion-Bouton factory. Steam tractor towing a carriage, comes in first in the Paris-Rouen race (1894). However, this picture is from the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race since in the Paris-Rouen contest, only the Count de Dion drove and the Steam Bogie wore the racing number 4. In the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race there were multiple drivers and various contemporary journals referred to it as "No. 1" (note racing number 1 in above photo).
The De Dion-Bouton Company continued their racing and trials efforts with mixed results. In 1896 the next major race sponsored by the newly-formed Automobile Club of France was 300 miles longer (Paris to Marseilles and back), but now broken up into ten stages (five each way) rather than being a marathon. De Dion-Bouton ran the only two steam entries — the other 30 were all petrol powered (which included 5 De Dion-Bouton tricycles — three of which finished, earning De Dion-Bouton a trophy for their motors). They actually started with three steam entries. The venerable Steam Bogie veteran of the 1894 and 1895 contests was scheduled to pull a 40-seat omnibus owned by the Paris Company, which was usually pulled by three horses (drawing below).
From the September 26, 1896 issue of Scientific American Supplement.
For this race Bouton was to drive and the Steam Bogie was to run on large new pneumatic tires for the first time, rather than the usual solid steel tires on the artillery-style wheels. Michelin supplied the tires, but in their haste to get their own entries ready,* the brothers failed to sufficiently study the Bogie, and so did not make a proper fit. The weight of the steam drag ruptured all of the tires before it even got to the staring line, rendering it a non-starter. *One Michelin brother entered a Michelin-built Bollée style Voiturette (a tri-car), while the other brother drove an actual Voiturette Bollée (example below). The Michelin-built No. 39 Bollée came in dead last out of 14 finishers, while his brother finished 5th, but on the No. 51 De Dion-Bouton tricycle! But that, as they say, is another post.
"The tandem small car of Mr. Leon Bollee." A Voiturette Bollée from the May 10, 1896 issue of Le Petit Journal.
The other two De Dion-Bouton entries were listed as a Steam Wagon and a Steam Brake. In the 1902 book Motors and Motor-Driving by Alfred C. Harmsworth, the Marquise de Chasseloup-Laubat, who drove one of them, recalled that they were nearly identical and had been special-built just for this race.
Image from the October, 1896 issue of The Horseless Age magazine, which described the De Dion-Bouton No. 12 car as: "Steam wagon conducted by the Count de Dion, and carrying three more persons."
The Count de Dion's car suffered a hotbox (overheated wheel bearing) and dropped so far back that it was pulled from the race by the second stage. The No. 10 entry driven by the Marquise was described as: "Steam break for six, conducted by MM. the Marquise and the Count de Chasseloup Laubat, and carrying three mechanics." One of the mechanics was actually the fireman (stoker).

The Marquise de Chasseloup-Laubat recounted that the No. 10 car (below) was beleaguered with "every break-down conceivable, except for an absolute explosion of the boiler." They spent a total of 47 hours making repairs, which put them far out of contention. However, they decided to continue and finish the race for the "honour of the steam-principle." Alas, it was not to be, as the vehicle broke down for the last time at Lyons. They too, did not even make to the end of the second stage.
The six-seat De Dion-Bouton No. 10 steam brake as driven by the Marquise de Chasseloup-Laubat and his brother the Count de Chasseloup-Laubat. The 1892 date on the later issued commemorative postcard is incorrect, as this particular vehicle was special-built in 1896.
The Horseless Age opined that the De Dion-Bouton failures "means the death-blow of steam." They were somewhat premature. Just three months later, after making improvements and modifications, the No. 10 was driven by the Count de Chasseloup Laubat to a decisive victory in the 145 mile Marseilles-to-Monte Carlo race (today known as the Marseilles-Nice-La Turbie race). It averaged a stunning 18.7 miles per hour.* It would be this same Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat who, on December 18, 1898, would set the world's first official Land Speed Record near Paris at 39.245 mph in a Jeantaud electric vehicle, earning him the sobriquet "The Electric Count." It has been said that this was the first time that a steering wheel was used in place of a steering lever.

*Note - The Marquise de Chasseloup-Laubat was remembering his late brother's exploits six years after the fact. The February, 1897 issue of The Horseless Age reported that the race was 150 miles long, making his average speed 19.35 mph. He ran the final stage at an average of 21 mph.

The De Dion-Bouton Steam Bogie was proving to be a hit, especially among the omnibus and coach trade, and the company catered to the industry with new tractor-trailer combinations. We'll take a look at some of those in the next installment.

Land Tugs: The De Dion-Bouton Steam Bogie

Updated 1/30/12

By the end of the 19th century the concept of the tug/drag/tractor style of motive power was gaining popularity, both here and in Europe, as the mechanical devices gained in reliability and shrank in size. Addressing the reliability factor, a tractor style vehicle pulling a converted carriage won what was thought at the time to be the world's very first automobile race in July of 1894, but that's a whole separate essay. For now, see this earlier post.

The De Dion Steam Bogie on race day with cabriolet style carriage converted into a vis-a-vis (face-to-face) trailer with addition of rear-facing jump seat (above). It is difficult to make out the vehicle's race number 4, which is clearly seen in the commemorative postcard shown below.
This and subsequent commemorative postcards were original factory photos that were supplied to contemporary publications from circa 1884 on (these copies from delcampe.net). These photos would then be used by the various publications as-is, or converted into engravings. Compare the original factory photo below - as represented on the later commemorative postcard - of a De Dion-Bouton Steam Bogie pulling a converted brake, with the engraving from Motor Cars and the Application of Mechanical Power to Road Vehicles by Rhys Jenkins, 1902.

Comte (Count) Jules Félix Philippe Albert de Dion (he didn't become Marquis until his father Albert died April 26, 1901) was an enthusiast for all things mechanical, and as a member of a prominent French noble family, he had money to invest. Engineers Georges Bouton and Charles-Armand Trépardoux (Bouton's brother-in-law) built model steam engines and other scientific toys in their shop in Léon, where Trépardoux harbored a long-time dream of building a steam car. In 1882 Bouton and Trépardoux built a rudimentary steam vehicle (below).
In 1883 they partnered with Jules-Albert de Dion to form Trépardoux et Cie, ingénieurs-constructeurs (Trépardoux and Co., engineers and builders), which later became De Dion, Bouton et Trépardoux, and then just De Dion, Bouton et Compagnie (usually shortened to De Dion-Bouton) when Trépardoux left the company in 1894 to continue steam development, as the company was turning more and more to gasoline powered engines. By 1900, De Dion-Bouton was the world's largest car maker with a total of 400 vehicles and 3,200 gasoline engines (used by hundreds of other automobile manufacturers) produced that year. In 1904 they produced 2,000 vehicles and had shipped 40,000 engines to date.

Left to right: Georges Bouton, Jules-Albert de Dion, and Bouton's brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux. Images of Bouton and de Dion from Et la terre enfanta blog. Image of Trépardoux from Les gadz'arts.
That first year of 1883 they produced a steam car that had a boiler and engine mounted up front, which drove the front wheels via belts (below). The rear wheels were steerable. It reportedly burned to the ground during testing.

The next year they built a second, more refined vehicle dubbed La Marquise after de Dion's mother, that had more conventional steering and rear wheel drive, with seating capacity for four. This was the first of their famous De Dion, Bouton et Trépardoux Dos-A-Dos Steam Runabouts, the vehicle that 'won' the 1887 non-race with Georges Bouton driving (again, see earlier post). Dos-A-Dos means back-to-back seating arrangement. That very vehicle, La Marquise, now 127 year-old, still runs - making it the oldest running car in the world - and recently sold for 4.62 million dollars. Story here.
Contemporary view of the La Marquise.
The La Marquise today. Image from Hemmings Blog.
Within a few years the De Dion-Bouton catalog offered built-to-order buses, dog-carts, steam phaetons, carriages and even a steam tricycle with a two-cylinder engine.

The steam powered tricycle (above) should not to be confused with their later extremely successful single-cylinder gasoline engine sporting tricycle (below), which before 1900 was the most popular vehicle in France. According to an 1894 issue of La France Automobile, the large steam-powered one only sold about 20 copies up to that date.
The catalog soon included the subject of this post - the larger trailer-pulling tractor. Placing first in that 1894 race (and yet not winning), the De Dion-Bouton Road Motor - or Steam Bogie, as the company called them - was the direct descendant of the successful De Dion, Bouton et Trepardoux Dos-A-Dos Steam Runabout of 1884.


Writing from Weimar, Germany on November 14, 1895, Commercial Agent (a position, abolished in 1906, that was just below a Deputy Consul) Thos. Ewing Moore included in his monthly Consular Report to the U.S. State Department a section titled Horseless Carriages in Europe. In describing the De Dion-Bouton Steam Bogie he noted:

The "Boggie," or steam tug (fig.5), [above] may be attached to any carriage or omnibus and then run at a speed of 25 miles per hour. Its motive power is a two-cylinder, triple-expansion engine producing 20 to 30 horsepower. The engine is fed by one of De Dion & Bouton's patent boilers. One handle only is used to start and back the machine. Coke is the fuel used, a quantity sufficient for a journey of 80 miles being carried in the front part of the machine. The water tank is in the rear, under the conductor's seat; enough can be carried for a journey of 35 miles. It gets steam up very quickly, only fifteen minutes being necessary. The cost of running is about 2 cents per mile. The cost of the "Boggie" varies from 13,000 to 14,000 francs ($2,500 to $2,700), according to the weight designed to carry.

The De Dion-Bouton Steam Bogie would go on to be described in detail and to garner accolades in the motoring, scientific, and engineering journals of the world's major automotive innovators: the United States; France; the United Kingdom; and Germany. Long after it went out of production, the Steam Bogie was still being featured in books on automotive development and engineering.

Next: The De Dion-Bouton Steam Bogie part 2

Land Tugs Part 1: The Gurney Steam Drag

It's the late 1800s/early 1900s and you are a farmer/merchant/fireman or the like, and you are convinced that it is time to switch from horses to motorized vehicles. The only problem is, you have a very heavy investment in horse-drawn wagons and other equipment. What are your options? With common farm wagons or buggies, you could pretty much get the same thing with a motor attached in the form of a truck or runabout, respectively. Specialized farm or fire equipment, however, was a different matter. Replacing a relatively new horse-drawn steam pumper could be ruinously expensive.

A neat solution was a tractor made specifically for the purpose of motorizing horse drawn vehicles. These were designed to replace the front running gear by either permanently attaching to the equipment (thus creating a semi-new one-piece vehicle), or designed to fit to a number of rigs, and so making a tractor-trailer combination. The idea wasn't new – the first railroad locomotives pulled modified stagecoaches. In fact, an early example of a road-going combination tractor-trailer was in commercial service on rural roads in England even before the first American chartered railroad, the Mohawk & Hudson (absorbed by the New York Central in 1853), launched service with their locomotive, the DeWitt Clinton, in 1831 (shown below).
Illustration of the DeWitt Clinton from Self-Propelled Vehicles: A Practical Treatise on the Theory, Construction, Operation, Care and Management of All Forms of Automobiles by James E. Homans, A.M., Theo. Audel & Company, 1902.
In 1829 Sir Goldsworthy Gurney was experimenting with self-propelled steam carriages. In response to passenger anxiety over riding on top of a potentially explosive boiler, he soon switched to the tractor-trailer system, using a passenger carriage pulled by a separate steam carriage (below).
Illustration from Omnibuses and Cabs: Their Origin and History by Henry Charles Moore, Chapman & Hall, 1902.
Dubbed the ‘Gurney Steam Drag,’ two of these were shipped to Glasgow in 1830, where one was eventually tested in service (the boiler on the other exploded when unauthorized persons steamed it up in Gurney’s absence). Soon contractors were buying Gurney steam drags to put in commercial service. Among them, Sir Charles Dance purchased three for rotating service on a Cheltenham-to-Gloucester route, making four runs a day. Unfortunately for the endeavor, jealous owners in the horse-coach trade got Parliament to impose a £2 levy steam carriages per trip, while the toll for horse-drawn carriages remained at 2 shillings. Over 50 other bills placing excessive tolls on steam-carriages were passed in 1831, which eventually shut down the steam-carriage industry throughout England. However, this did not end Sir Charles’ business venture, so devious Cheltenham magistrates clandestinely covered a long section of the road with a foot deep layer of loose gravel, which brought the steam-carriages – and Sir Charles’ business – grinding to a halt.

Sir Goldsworthy Gurney kept his factory open as long as possible, but the withdrawal of contractors coupled with bad press from the Glasgow explosion teamed to bankrupt Gurney, who suffered a £232,000 loss despite selling off his inventory and tools.

See the Wikipedia entry for more info on Sir Goldsworthy Gurney and his inventions.

Next: The De Dion Bouton Steam Bogie