Giovanni Battista Ceirano

Giovanni Battista Ceirano (* 1860 in Cuneo, † 1912 in Bordighera ) was an Italian pioneer in the automotive manufacturing and founder of a number of domestic automobile companies.

Biography

Giovanni Battista was the eldest son of Ceirano family and had three more brothers named Giovanni, Matteo and Ernesto. He founded in 1886 with a starting capital of 6,000 Lira with Attilio Calligaris, Pietro Fenoglio, Emanuele di Bricherasio and Cesare Goria Gatti a bike shop and produced there later even first bicycles under the - from promotional reasons, English-sounding - brand name " Welleyes ". The young tech-savvy Vincenzo Lancia often visited the small workshop and gathers here first knowledge and skills as a mechanic. In October 1898 arose from the bicycle company the Ceirano Giovanni Battista & C. in Turin, the one constructed by Aristide Faccioli small car with a two-cylinder engine and 663 cc and a two-speed transmission introduced in the spring of 1899 under the brand name " Welleyes " as a single car. Vincenzo Lancia also worked in the company. Four months after the presentation of the " Welleyes " took over the newly founded " Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino " (Fiat ) for 30,000 lire, the small business, the workforce, and all patents and design plans of the small " Welleyes " and presented it in a further developed version now with a boxer engine with unchanged power of 3.5 PS as its first passenger car with the name " Fiat 3.5 HP ". Giovanni Battista was initially at Fiat general agent for the sale, founded in 1901 but again with his brother Matteo Fratelli Ceirano & C., which until 1903 the " Ceirano 5 HP " and the " Ceirano 6/8 HP " with single-cylinder engines and a four-cylinder " Ceirano HP 16 " with 4562 cc capacity developed. Matteo left the company in 1903 and founded the first Ceirano Matteo & C.. With the partnership of his brother Giovanni in 1904, the company was, emerged from the later Società Torinese Automobili Rapid (STAR), in "GG Fratelli Ceirano & C. " renamed. Giovanni left the company and later founded his own " Ceirano Giovanni Junior & C. " and later with his also " Ernesto" recalled son Giovanni junior Società Automobili Torino Ceirano ( SCAT ).

Giovanni Battista turned after 1905 more his private life and went to Bordighera, where he died in 1912.