Léon Bollée (1 April 1870 – 16 December 1913) was a French
automobile
A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
manufacturer
Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the
secondary se ...
and
inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
.
Life
Bollée's family were well known
bellfounders
Bellfounding is the casting and tuning of large bronze bells in a foundry for use such as in churches, clock towers and public buildings, either to signify the time or an event, or as a musical carillon or chime. Large bells are made by castin ...
and his father,
Amédée Bollée (1844–1917), was the major pioneer in the automobile industry who produced several
steam car
A steam car is a car (automobile) propelled by a steam engine. A steam engine is an external combustion engine (ECE), whereas the gasoline and diesel engines that eventually became standard are internal combustion engines (ICE). ECEs have a low ...
s. Both Léon Bollée and his older brother Amédée-Ernest-Marie (1867–1926) became automobile manufacturers.
The third brother was Camille.
Early invention
In 1885, at the age of 14, an early inventor, Léon Bollée made himself known by the construction of a kind of pedalo.
Calculating machines

In 1887, in order to help his father, a founder of bells, and to avoid errors in many calculations required for their manufacture, Bollée began work on three calculating machines: the ''Direct Multiplier'', the ''Calculating Board'' and the ''Arithmographe''. Bollée's ''Multiplier'' was the second successful direct-multiplying calculator (the first was
Ramón Verea's) and it won a gold medal at the
1889 Paris Exposition. Three versions of the large multiplier and several smaller machines were developed by Bollée and the devices were patented in France, Belgium, Germany, the USA and Hungary.
Transport
Steam locomotive
In 1892, his father,
Amédée Bollée produced a
steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...
for the
Chemin de fer du Finistère.
Automobiles
Bollée and his father entered a steam car,
La Nouvelle, in the 1895
Paris–Bordeaux–Paris race and Bollée went on to develop a
gasoline-powered vehicle in 1895 which was entered in the
1896 Paris–Marseille–Paris.
Car manufacturing
Bollée founded the company ''
Léon Bollée Automobiles'' in 1895 in
Le Mans
Le Mans (; ) is a Communes of France, city in Northwestern France on the Sarthe (river), Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the Provinces of France, province of Maine (province), Maine, it is now the capital of ...
. In 1896 he patented and began manufacturing the three-wheeled vehicles he had invented in 1895 which he called the ''
Voiturette''.
The position of the passenger, at the front, earned the ''
Voiturette'' the nickname "Mother-in-law killer" ("Tue Belle-mère", in French). These had a horizontal motor and were equipped with rubber tires. A new model with many modifications was brought to the 1897
Paris-Dieppe race, driven by Paul Jamin, and the
Paris-Trouville race and won both events with respective speeds of and .
In April 1898, in France, Bollée won the "Critérium des Motocycle".
In 1903, Bollée produced his first big car. The company built two 4-cylinder models, one 28hp 4.6-liter, and one 45hp 8-litre engine. Both won the "Blackport Southport Speed Trials", in September 1904, in front of
Dorothy Levitt's Gladiator.
In 1908, when
Wilbur Wright
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
visited France to demonstrate the Wright Brothers aircraft, Bollée let Wilbur use his
Le Mans
Le Mans (; ) is a Communes of France, city in Northwestern France on the Sarthe (river), Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the Provinces of France, province of Maine (province), Maine, it is now the capital of ...
automobile factory.
Bollée's wife Carlotta (née Messinisi) (c.1880-?) was fluent in Greek, French and English and acted as interpreter as neither man spoke the other's language. She translated the technical discussions over a period of several weeks, whilst heavily pregnant. In recognition of this, Wright promised that his first French flight would be on the day her baby was expected, 8 August 1908. Baby Elisabeth actually arrived on 9 August, Wilbur Wright became her godfather.
Carlotta Bollée flew for the first time on 8 October 1908, alongside Wright. Her flight was at an altitude of about 25 metres and lasted around four minutes.
Bollée was injured in a flying accident in 1911 and never really recovered as he also had a pre-existing heart problem. He died in 1913. In 1920, his widow Carlotta Bollée travelled to visit the Wright family in America after the death of Wilbur and gave them an album and memorabilia of Wilbur’s time with her family. In 1927 she donated an engine to the Museum of Le Mans, which had been reassembled by Wilbur Wright and her husband from the two originally sent out from the USA. Madame Bollée continued to run the company successfully but in 1924 it was bought by
Morris Motors
Morris Motors Limited was a British privately owned motor vehicle manufacturing company formed in 1919 to take over the assets of William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, William Morris's WRM Motors Limited and continue production of the same ve ...
and the company was renamed ''Morris-Léon Bollée'', the intention being to use the new company to sell Morris designs in France and circumvent the then current French import restrictions. Morris sold the company in 1931 to a group of investors who renamed it ''Societé Nouvelle Léon Bollée'' and production continued until 1933.
Family
The Bollée's daughter Élisabeth, a poet, married the Count Jean Maurice Gilbert de Vautibault in 1927, and later divorced de Vautibault to marry the artist
Julien Binford. She published under the name
Élisabeth de Vautibault, and died 11 July 1984.
References
External links
Picture of Léon BolléeThe 'Institut international d'informatique Léon Bollée'of
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025.
The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...
(
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
) is named from the French engineer.
Histomobile
Video
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bollee, Leon
1870 births
1913 deaths
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of France
People from Le Mans