Adolphe Kégresse (1879, Héricourt, Haute-Saône - 1943) was a French military engineer who invented the

half-track A half-track is a civilian or military vehicle with wheels at the front for steering and continuous tracks at the back to propel the vehicle and carry most of the load. A half-track combines the soft-ground traction of a tank with the Car handl ...

and dual clutch transmission. Born at Héricourt, and educated in Montbéliard, he moved in 1905 to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

to work for the Russian

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

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 and the Head of the Mechanical Department of the Russian Imperial Garage at Tsarskoye Selo. 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 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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Kégresse was forced to return to his home country, where he was from 1919 employed by the

Citroën Citroën ()The double-dot diacritic over the 'e' is a diaeresis () indicating the two vowels are sounded separately, and not as a diphthong. is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded on 4 June 19 ...

company during the 1920s and 1930s to design half-track vehicles, together with engineer Jacques Hinstin. 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 Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in north-central France. It is a suburban town on the western o ...

Gallery

File:Russian Imperial Tsar's Garages Puskin Tsarskoye Selo 5.jpg, Tsar Nicholas II Car Garages, Pushkin, Saint Petersburg 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, Pushkin, Saint Petersburg 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, Pushkin, Saint Petersburg File:Automobil mit Schneeraupe, Skiern, Mannschaftsschlitten - CH-BAR - 3241598. 15.07.17.jpg, Former Tsar Nicholas II Car Garages, Pushkin, Saint Petersburg in July 2017 File:Automobil mit Schneeraupen beim Geländefahren - CH-BAR - 3241596.tif, Kégresse Track 1914-18 at Tsar Nicholas II Car Garages, Pushkin, Saint Petersburg File:Automobil mit Schneeraupen beim Geländefahren - CH-BAR - 3241596. 15.07.17.jpg, Former Tsar Nicholas II Car Garages, Pushkin, Saint Petersburg in July 2017 File:Automobil mit Schneeraupe und vorne Skiern - CH-BAR - 3241597.jpg, Kégresse Track outside Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, 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 which was damaged during the Polish–Soviet War. In the area of

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( ; see #Names, below for other names) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the Capital city, administrative center of Zhytomyr Oblast (Oblast, province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding ...

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

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

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 "Tax horsepower#Britain, 40/50 h.p." the chassis was first made at Royce's Manchester works, with production moving t ...

with

, converted by the Putilov plant, at Gorki Leninskiye

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