CEMSA (Construzioni Elettro Meccaniche di Saronno) was an Italian engineering company which operated from 1925 to 1948.

History

CEMSA was founded in

Saronno Saronno (; ) is a ''comune'' of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Varese. It received the honorary title of city with a presidential decree in 1960. With an estimated population of inhabitants, it is the most densely populated among the big m ...

in 1925 by engineer Nicola Romeo and backed by

Credito Italiano ''Credito Italiano'', often referred to by the shorthand Credit, was a significant Italian bank based in Milan. It was established in 1895, succeeding the ''Banca di Genova'' established in 1870 in Genoa. In 1998 it merged with Unicredito to form ...

. It used the former factory of

Costruzioni Meccaniche di Saronno Costruzioni Meccaniche di Saronno was an Italian company producing steam locomotives and cars, active from 1887 to 1918. Origins The origins of the engineering company are to be found in a framework of political agreements of the economic-mili ...

which had closed in 1918. In 1935, after a series of writedowns of the share capital, the company was bought by

Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale The Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI; English: "Institute for Industrial Reconstruction") was an Italian public holding company established in 1933 by the Fascist regime to rescue, restructure and finance banks and private compani ...

(IRI) and the following year it was sold to the aeronautical engineer

Gianni Caproni Giovanni Battista "Gianni" Caproni, 1st Count of Taliedo (July 3, 1886 – October 27, 1957) was an Italian aeronautical engineer, civil engineer, electrical engineer, and aircraft designer who founded the Caproni aircraft-manufacturing company ...

who already controlled

Isotta Fraschini Isotta Fraschini () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer, also producing trucks, as well as engines for marine and aviation use. Founded in Milan, Italy, in 1900 by Cesare Isotta and the brothers Vincenzo, Antonio, and Oreste Fraschini, in 195 ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, CEMSA built light weapons and, at the end of the war, the company started producing cars thanks to collaboration with the engineer Antonio Fessia, who in 1946 had left

FIAT Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...

. In a few months Fessia, who had transformed CEMSA into a company dedicated to the construction of sports cars, succeeded in designing a car with innovative technical characteristics, the , which was presented at the

Paris salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

in 1947. Only 10 sedan cars of this model were produced. A cabriolet version was also planned but it was not realized due to the financial crisis that hit the company in 1948 and forced it to close. One of the prototypes of the F.11 was shipped to the United States, in the hope of concluding an agreement with the Tucker sales network for the distribution of the model in the US, but this project did not come to fruition because of the closure of the company. In 1953, the Belgian company,

Minerva Minerva (; ; ) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She is also a goddess of warfare, though with a focus on strategic warfare, rather than the violence of gods such as Mars. Be ...

, bought an F.11 in an attempt to put it into production, but even this project failed.

The car

The F.11 was designed by Antonio Fessia and had revolutionary technical characteristics. These included a 4-cylinder

boxer engine A flat engine is a Internal combustion engine#Reciprocating engines, piston engine where the cylinders are located on either side of a central crankshaft. Flat engines are also known as horizontally opposed engines, however this is distinct ...

which was cantilevered with respect to the front axle, steering column gear change, front suspension with transverse leaf spring and front wheel drive. All these innovations were later incorporated into the 1960

Lancia Flavia The Lancia Flavia (Tipo 815/819/820) is an executive car produced by Italian automaker Lancia from 1961 to 1971. The Flavia was launched with a 1,488 cc engine at the Turin Motor Show#1960, 1960 Turin Motor Show and introduced in major Eur ...

, also designed by Fessia. The body design was by the company's technicians and was styled by

Bertone Gruppo Bertone, commonly known as Bertone, was an Italian industrial design company which specialized in Automotive design, car styling, coachbuilder, coachbuilding and Contract manufacturer, manufacturing. It was also a Automotive industry in ...

. When CEMSA closed, most of the ten cars were dispersed but one F.11, in excellent condition, survives on display at the

Volandia Volandia Park and Flight Museum is the largest Italian aeronautical museum, as well as one of the largest in Europe. Volandia displays over 100 aircraft. The museum covers an area of ca. 60,000 m2 (645,000 sq ft) of which 20,000 m2 (215,000 sq f ...

museum.

Railway rolling stock

Steam locomotives

Examples of steam locomotives built by CEMSA include:

Railcars

In 1924 a delegation of FS officials, at the Seddin railway station in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, took an interest in some German

railcar A railcar (not to be confused with the generic term railroad car or railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coa ...

s during a railway convention. They were two-axle vehicles driven by Benz engines. The 6-cylinder

Otto cycle An Otto cycle is an idealized thermodynamic cycle that describes the functioning of a typical spark ignition piston engine. It is the thermodynamic cycle most commonly found in automobile engines. The Otto cycle is a description of what happ ...

engines with

carburettor A carburetor (also spelled carburettor or carburetter) is a device used by a gasoline internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the Vent ...

s were fuelled by

benzole In the United Kingdom, benzole or benzol is a coal-tar product consisting mainly of benzene and toluene. It was originally used as a "motor spirit", as were petroleum spirits. Benzole was also blended with petrol and sold as a motor fuel unde ...

. The transmission comprised a clutch and mechanical gearbox. In the same year, the Romeo company of Milan obtained the construction license and put it into operation in the new CEMSA factory in Saronno, launching series production. The FS ordered three units, fuelled by a mixture of

naphtha Naphtha (, recorded as less common or nonstandard in all dictionaries: ) is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Generally, it is a fraction of crude oil, but it can also be produced from natural-gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and ...

and

petrol Gasoline (North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When formul ...

with the application of a special patented carburettor by Aliverti, although two were actually built in Germany. The units were: * C.8701, later N.8701, of 160 bhp * C.8801-02, later N.8801-02 of 100 bhp. Two other units were purchased by the Italian Railway and Tramway Company and by the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Midi de Italie (CFMT) which operated the

Ferrovia Alifana The Alifana Railway (in Italian ''Ferrovia Alifana'') is a regional railway line located in the Campania region of Italy, historically divided into two different sections, "alta" (high) and "bassa" (low, in a geographical sense), of which the fi ...

Electric locomotives

Electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a Battery (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...

s built by CEMSA included: ;Notes # It appears that some locomotives attributed to CEMSA were built by Nicola Romeo before 1925.