Adolphe Kégresse (1879,

Héricourt, Haute-Saône Héricourt () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. Héricourt is the second most populated commune in the department after Vesoul. The town is part of the functional area of Mo ...

- 1943) was a French

military engineer Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics ...

who invented the

half-track A half-track is a civilian or military vehicle with regular wheels at the front for steering and continuous tracks at the back to propel the vehicle and carry most of the load. The purpose of this combination is to produce a vehicle with the cro ...

and

dual clutch transmission A dual-clutch transmission (DCT) (sometimes referred to as a twin-clutch transmission) is a type of multi-speed vehicle transmission system, that uses two separate clutches for odd and even gear sets. The design is often similar to two separa ...

. Born at Héricourt, and educated in

Montbéliard Montbéliard (; traditional ) is a town in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France, about from the border with Switzerland. It is one of the two subprefectures of the department. History Montbéliard is ...

, he moved in 1905 to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

to work for the Russian

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

Nicholas II. To improve the mobility of the imperial car park, he invented the

Kégresse track A Kégresse track is a kind of rubber or canvas continuous track which uses a flexible belt rather than interlocking metal segments. It can be fitted to a conventional car or truck to turn it into a half-track, suitable for use over rough or soft ...

to modify normal motor vehicles into half-tracks. He was also a personal chauffeur of

Tsar Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Polan ...

and the Head of the Mechanical Department of the Russian Imperial Garage at

Tsarskoye Selo Tsarskoye Selo ( rus, Ца́рское Село́, p=ˈtsarskəɪ sʲɪˈlo, a=Ru_Tsarskoye_Selo.ogg, "Tsar's Village") was the town containing a former residence of the Russian imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the c ...

. The Aide-de-camp to Tsar Nicholas II, Prince Orlov wrote in a letter to the Tsar's Minister of the Court on May 15, 1914: "... I consider Kégresse an irreplaceable worker and I am afraid his leaving will be a great loss for the garage. Your Highness knows, of course, how much His Majesty appreciates Kégresse." In 1908, the architect Lipsky VA designed a second two-storeyed Art Nouveau building for the Russian Imperial garage at Tsaskoye Selo /

Pushkin, Saint Petersburg Pushkin (russian: Пу́шкин) is a municipal town in Pushkinsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located south from the center of St. Petersburg proper, and its railway station, Tsarskoye Selo, is direct ...

it had a total area of 367.6 sq. M. It housed the garage-residence Adolphe Kégresse. The building is noteworthy and identifiable for inclusion of a grand staircase with an external bas-relief image of one of the first car races held regularly in Tsarskoe Selo before the First World War. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Kégresse was forced to return to his home country, where he was from 1919 employed by the Citroën company during the 1920s and 1930s to design half-track vehicles, together with engineer

Jacques Hinstin Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...

. After leaving the Citroën company he developed in 1935 the AutoServe gearbox-transmission system. In 1939 he pioneered the development of modern small guided tracked bombs. Kégresse died in 1943 at

Croissy-sur-Seine Croissy-sur-Seine (, literally ''Croissy on Seine'') is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is a suburban town on the western outskirts of Paris. Many expatriates reside in Croissy, give ...

Gallery

File:Russian Imperial Tsar's Garages Puskin Tsarskoye Selo 5.jpg, Tsar Nicholas II Car Garages,

where Kégresse was Head of the Mechanical Department File:Russian Imperial Tsar's Garages Puskin Tsarskoye Selo 4.jpg, bas-relief image of a car race, Tsar Nicholas II Car Garages,

Image:Kegresse pt1913.jpg, Kégresse's 1913 design File:Automobil mit Schneeraupe, Skiern, Mannschaftsschlitten - CH-BAR - 3241598.tif,

1914-18 at Tsar Nicholas II Car Garages,

File:Automobil mit Schneeraupe, Skiern, Mannschaftsschlitten - CH-BAR - 3241598. 15.07.17.jpg, Former Tsar Nicholas II Car Garages,

in July 2017 File:Automobil mit Schneeraupen beim Geländefahren - CH-BAR - 3241596.tif, Kégresse Track 1914-18 at Tsar Nicholas II Car Garages,

File:Automobil mit Schneeraupen beim Geländefahren - CH-BAR - 3241596. 15.07.17.jpg, Former Tsar Nicholas II Car Garages,

in July 2017 File:Automobil mit Schneeraupe und vorne Skiern - CH-BAR - 3241597.jpg, Kégresse Track outside Alexander Palace,

, January 1917 File:Russo-balt5.jpg, " Russo-Balt "C24-30" from the garage of Tsar Nicholas II with

design of Adolphe Kégresse. Adolphe Kégresse possibly seated on the right of the photograph Image:Kegresse tsar17.jpg, A Packard Twin-6 car with

from the personal car park of the Tsar Nicholas II File:Automobil mit Schneeraupen im Tiefschnee - CH-BAR - 3241599.tif, Russia 1914 File:Automobile mit Schneeraupen und Skiern ausgerüstet - CH-BAR - 3241595.jpg, Russia 1914 File:Austin-Kegress «Ukrainets» in Zhytomyr, 1920.jpg, An Austin-Putilov Armoured Car with

s of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

which was damaged during the

Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (Polish–Bolshevik War, Polish–Soviet War, Polish–Russian War 1919–1921) * russian: Советско-польская война (''Sovetsko-polskaya voyna'', Soviet-Polish War), Польский фронт (' ...

. In the area of

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( uk, Жито́мир, translit=Zhytomyr ; russian: Жито́мир, Zhitomir ; pl, Żytomierz ; yi, זשיטאָמיר, Zhitomir; german: Schytomyr ) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the administrative ...

, 21 March 1920 File:Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Kégresse.jpg,

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost name refers both to a car model and one specific car from that series. Originally named the " 40/50 h.p." the chassis was first made at Royce's Manchester works, with production moving to Derby in July 1908, ...

with

, converted by the

Putilov plant The Kirov Plant, Kirov Factory or Leningrad Kirov Plant (LKZ) ( rus, Кировский завод, Kirovskiy zavod) is a major Russian mechanical engineering and agricultural machinery manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was esta ...

, at

Gorki Leninskiye Gorki Leninskiye (russian: Го́рки Ле́нинские) is an urban locality (a work settlement) in Leninsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, located south of Moscow city limits and the Moscow Ring Road. Its population is: The est ...

References

Informationen über Leben und Werk von Adolphe Kégresse
(German language)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kegresse, Adolphe 1879 births 1943 deaths People from Héricourt, Haute-Saône French military engineers 20th-century French engineers 20th-century French inventors French expatriates in Russia

Gallery

See also

References