Léon Serpollet

Léon Serpollet ( born November 25, 1858 in Culoz; † February 1, 1907 in Paris) was a French entrepreneur and automobile pioneer. Known are his steam car.

Designer

Growing up in a family of carpenters Culoz in the department of Ain, he contributed in 1880 to the completion of the first steam generator with direct steam generation, by his older brother Henri ( 1848-1915 ) invented and patented in 1881.

Léon found in the entrepreneur Larsonneau an enthusiastic partner, with which he could create his company in Paris with his brother in 1886. Here he developed with the Serpollet steam tricycle one of the first industrially manufactured motor vehicles with an oil-fired boiler and a Serpollet for that time quite advanced four-cylinder engine with poppet valves and crankcase.

Four built under license Serpollet steam tricycles were the first self-built automobiles in the Peugeot brothers, which he also used as a Peugeot Type 1 in the automobile history.

Speed record

Besides his work as a designer and manufacturer of vehicles Léon Serpollet held the first driver of a non- electrically powered vehicle land speed record. His egg-shaped steam car Œuf de Pâques ( Easter Egg ) reached on 13 April 1902 in Nice on the Promenade des Anglais, a speed of 120.8 km / h He broke the record of electric car designer Camille Jenatzy, who was the first man to run more than 100 km / hour.