Charles Jeantaud (1840-1906) was a French engineer who invented the
parallelogram steering linkage
A parallelogram steering linkage is called such because like its namesake, the two sides of the linkage run parallel to each other and are equal in distance. This type of steering linkage uses four tie rods, one inner and one outer on each side (l ...
in 1878.
Early life
He was born in
Limoges
Limoges ( , , ; , locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated o ...
, in what is now the
Haute-Vienne
Haute-Vienne (; , ; Upper Vienne) is a département in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwest-central France. Named after the Vienne River, it is one of the twelve départements that together constitute Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The prefecture an ...
department of central France.
Birthplace
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Career
In 1881 he built his first electric car
An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...
, with help from Camille Alphonse Faure
Camille Alphonse Faure (21 May 1840, Vizille – 14 September 1898) was a French chemical engineer who in 1881 significantly improved the design of the lead-acid battery, which had been invented by Gaston Planté in 1859. Faure's improveme ...
, who had built the first modern day car battery in 1881. The vehicle had a Gramme
The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one thousandth of a kilogram.
Originally defined in 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube o ...
-design electric motor with a Fulmen-made battery.
From 1893 to 1906 he built vehicles under the trademark Jeantaud
The Jeantaud was a make of France, French automobile manufactured in Paris from 1893 until 1907. It was the brainchild of Charles Jeantaud, a coachbuilder who built his first electric carriage in 1881. Among the vehicles he constructed was the ...
in Paris.
Personal life
He committed suicide in 1906.
See also
* History of the electric vehicle
Crude electric carriages were invented in the late 1820s and 1830s. Practical, commercially available electric vehicles appeared during the 1890s. An electric vehicle held the vehicular land speed record until around 1900. In the early 20th c ...
References
http://www.lepopulaire.fr/limoges/loisirs/art-litterature/2015/03/22/le-limougeaud-charles-jeantaud-fut-lun-des-peres-de-la-voiture-electrique_11374211.html
1840 births
1906 suicides
French automotive pioneers
Automotive steering technologies
19th-century French inventors
French mechanical engineers
People from Limoges
Suicides in France
1906 deaths
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