|
De Dion-Bouton
De Dion-Bouton was a French automobile manufacturer and railcar manufacturer, which operated from 1883 to 1953. The company was founded by the Marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, Georges Bouton, and Bouton's brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux. Steam cars The company was formed in 1883 after de Dion saw a toy locomotive in a store window in 1881 and asked the toymakers to build another. Engineers Bouton and Trépardoux had been eking out a living with scientific toys at a shop in the Passage de Léon, near the rue de la Chapelle in Paris.Wise, p. 510. Trépardoux had long dreamed of building a steam car, but neither he nor Bouton could afford it. De Dion, already inspired by steam in the form of railway locomotives,Georgano, p. 27. and with ample money, agreed to back them, and Trépardoux et Cie was formed in Paris in 1883. That became the De Dion-Bouton automobile company, the world's largest automobile manufacturer for a time, well known for the quality, reliability, and du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jules-Albert De Dion
Marquis Jules Félix Philippe Albert de Dion de Wandonne (; 9 March 185619 August 1946) was a French pioneer of the automobile industry. He invented a steam-powered car and used it to win the world's first auto race, but his vehicle was adjudged to be against the rules. He was a co-founder of De Dion-Bouton, the world's largest automobile manufacturer for a time, as well as the French sports newspaper ''L'Équipe''. His life Dion was the heir of a leading French noble family, in 1901 succeeding his father Louis Albert William Joseph de Dion de Wandonne as Count and later Marquis. A "notorious duellist", he also had a passion for mechanics. He had already built a model steam engine when, in 1881, he saw one in a store window and asked about building another. The engineers, Georges Bouton and his brother-in-law, Charles Trépardoux, had a shop in Léon where they made scientific toys. Needing money for Trépardoux's long-time dream of a steam car, they acceded to De Di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Land Speed Record
The land speed record (LSR) or absolute land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. By a 1964 agreement between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), respective governing bodies for racing in automobiles and motorcycles (two or three wheels), both bodies recognise as the absolute LSR whatever is the highest speed record achieved across any of their various categories. While the three-wheeled Spirit of America (automobile), ''Spirit of America'' set an FIM-validated LSR in 1963, all subsequent LSRs are by vehicles in FIA Category C ("Special Vehicles") in either class JE (jet engine) or class RT (rocket powered). FIA LSRs are officiated and validated by its regional or national affiliate organizations. Speed measurement is standardized over a course measuring either or , Arithmetic mean, averaged over two runs with flying start (commonly called "passes") going in oppo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rotary Engine
The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its attached cylinders rotated around it as a unit. Its main application was in aviation, although it also saw use in a few early motorcycles and automobiles. This type of engine was widely used as an alternative to conventional inline engines (straight or V) during World War I and the years immediately preceding that conflict. It has been described as "a very efficient solution to the problems of power output, weight, and reliability". By the early 1920s, the inherent limitations of this type of engine had rendered it obsolete. Description Distinction between "rotary" and "radial" engines A rotary engine is essentially a standard Otto cycle engine, with cylinders arranged radially around a central crankshaft just like a conventional radi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Internal Combustion
An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high-pressure gases produced by combustion applies direct force to some component of the engine. The force is typically applied to pistons (piston engine), turbine blades (gas turbine), a rotor (Wankel engine), or a nozzle (jet engine). This force moves the component over a distance. This process transforms chemical energy into kinetic energy which is used to propel, move or power whatever the engine is attached to. The first commercially successful internal combustion engines were invented in the mid-19th century. The first modern internal combustion engine, the Otto engine, was designed in 1876 by the German engineer Nicolaus Otto. The term ''internal combustion engine'' usually r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steam Bus
A steam bus is a bus powered by a steam engine. Early steam-powered vehicles designed for carrying passengers were more usually known as steam carriages, although this term was sometimes used to describe other early experimental vehicles too. History 1830-1895 Regular intercity bus services by steam-powered buses were pioneered in England in the 1830s by associates of Goldsworthy Gurney, Sir Goldsworthy Gurney and by Walter Hancock among others, running reliable services over road conditions which were too hazardous for horse-drawn transportation. Steam carriages were much less likely to overturn, and did not "run away with" the customer as horses sometimes did. They travelled faster than horse-drawn carriages ( over and an average of over longer distances). They could run at a half to a third of the cost of horse-drawn carriages. Their brakes did not lock and drag like horse-drawn transport (a phenomenon that increased damage to roads). According to engineers, steam carri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Dion Tube
De Dion rear axle A de Dion axle is a form of non-independent automobile suspension. It is a considerable improvement over the swing axle, Hotchkiss drive, or live axle. Because it plays no part in transmitting power to the drive wheels, it is sometimes called a "dead axle".Setright, p.515. A powered de Dion suspension uses universal joints on both ends of its driveshafts (at the wheel hubs and at the differential), and a solid tubular beam to hold the opposite wheels in parallel. Unlike an anti-roll bar, a de Dion tube is not directly connected to the chassis, and is not intended to flex. In suspension geometry it is a beam axle suspension. History The de Dion axle was named after Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, founder of French automobile manufacturer De Dion-Bouton. The axle, however, was invented around 1894 by co-founder Charles Trépardoux, Georges Bouton's brother-in-law, for use on the company's steam tricycles. G.N. Georgano, p. 27. Advantages and disadvantages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pneumatic Tyre
A tire (North American English) or tyre (Commonwealth English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over which the wheel travels. Most tires, such as those for automobiles and bicycles, are pneumatically inflated structures, providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock as the tire rolls over rough features on the surface. Tires provide a footprint, called a contact patch, designed to match the vehicle's weight and the bearing on the surface that it rolls over by exerting a pressure that will avoid deforming the surface. The materials of modern pneumatic tires are synthetic rubber, natural rubber, fabric, and wire, along with carbon black and other chemical compounds. They consist of a tread and a body. The tread provides traction while the body provides containment for a quantity of compressed air. Before rubber was developed, tires were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michelin
Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and larger than both Goodyear and Continental. In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the Kléber tyres company, Uniroyal-Goodrich Tire Company, SASCAR, Bookatable and Camso brands. Michelin is also notable for its Red and Green travel guides, its roadmaps, the Michelin stars that the Red Guide awards to restaurants for their cooking, and for its company mascot Bibendum, colloquially known as the Michelin Man, who is a humanoid consisting of tyres. Michelin's numerous inventions include the removable tyre, the pneurail (a tyre for rubber-tyred metros) and the radial tyre. Michelin manufactures tyres for Space Shuttles, aircraft, automobiles, heavy equipment, motorcycles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tricar
A three-wheeler is a vehicle with three wheels. Some are motorized tricycles, which may be legally classed as motorcycles, while others are tricycles without a motor, some of which are human-powered vehicles and animal-powered vehicles. Overview Many three-wheelers which exist in the form of motorcycle-based machines are often called trikes and often have the front single wheel and mechanics similar to that of a motorcycle and the rear axle similar to that of a car. Often such vehicles are owner-constructed using a portion of a rear-engine, rear-drive Volkswagen Beetle in combination with a motorcycle front end. Other trikes include that are specially constructed for off-road use. Three-wheelers can have either one wheel at the back and two at the front (2F1R), (for example: Morgan Motor Company) or one wheel at the front and two at the back (1F2R) (such as the Reliant Robin). Due to better safety when braking, an increasingly popular form is the front-steering "tadpole ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paris–Rouen (motor Race)
Paris–Rouen, ''Le Petit Journal'' Horseless Carriages Contest (''Concours du 'Petit Journal' Les Voitures sans Chevaux''), was a pioneering city-to-city Auto racing, motoring competition in 1894 which is sometimes described as the world's first competitive motor race. The contest was organised by the newspaper ''Le Petit Journal (newspaper), Le Petit Journal'' and ran from Paris to Rouen in France on 22 July 1894. It was preceded by four days of vehicle exhibition and qualifying events that created great crowds and excitement. The eight qualifying events started near the Bois de Boulogne and comprised interwoven routes around Paris to select the entrants for the main event. The first driver across the finishing line at Rouen was Jules-Albert de Dion, but he did not win the main prize because his steam vehicle needed a Fireman (steam engine), stoker and was thus ineligible. The fastest petrol-powered car was a Peugeot driven by Albert Lemaître. The premier prize, the 5,0 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Live Axle
A beam axle, rigid axle, or solid axle is a dependent suspension design in which a set of wheels is connected laterally by a single beam or shaft. Beam axles were once commonly used at the rear wheels of a vehicle, but historically, they have also been used as front axles. In most automobiles, beam axles have been replaced with front (IFS) and rear independent suspensions (IRS). Implementation With a beam axle, the camber angle between the wheels is the same regardless of its location in the travel of the suspension. A beam axle's location in the fore and aft directions is constrained by one of several suspension components, including trailing arms, semi-trailing arms, radius rods, and leaf springs. The lateral location can be constrained by a Panhard rod, a Scott Russell linkage, a Watt's linkage, or some other arrangement, most commonly by the leaf springs. Shock absorbers and either leaf springs, coil springs, or air bags are used to control vertical movement. Li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
