Emile Lamm (24 November 1834 – 12 July 1873, in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

) was a French-born American

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

and

dentist A dentist, also known as a dental doctor, dental physician, dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry, the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. The dentist's supporting team aids in provi ...

. Lamm was born in

Aÿ Aÿ ( ; also Ay) is a former communes of France, commune in the Marne (department), Marne Departments of France, department in northeastern France. On 1 January 2016 it was merged into the new commune Aÿ-Champagne. Champagne Aÿ is most famous a ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, but moved to

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

in 1848 at the age of 14. He patented various improvements in techniques of gold dental fillings, and developed a number of innovative designs for

street railway A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

s. These later were inspired by wishes to improve the

Streetcars in New Orleans Tram, Streetcars have been an integral part of the public transportation network of New Orleans since the first half of the 19th century. The longest of the city's streetcar lines, the St. Charles Streetcar Line, St. Charles Avenue line, is th ...

, as there was a desire for faster and more powerful propulsion than

horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is a tram or streetcar pulled by a horse. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public transport, public rail transport, ...

s could provide, while

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s created noise, smoke, and soot that was undesirable in city streets. The most successful of Lamm's designs was " Lamm's Fireless Engine", which ran on the St. Charles Streetcar Line in New Orleans in the 1870s and 1880s, and also saw wide use in the street railways of Paris.

Biography

Émile Lamm was born in

, Marne, France. After emigrating to the United States in 1848, he registered various patents in the field of dental medicineAmerican Society of Dental Surgeons, Florida Dental Society, Georgia Dental Association, South Carolina Dental Association, American journal of dental science, 186
intégral en ligne
/ref> and turned his attention to improving the operation of the tramway locomotives of the city of

. He died accidentally in Mandeville, Louisiana, on July 12, 1873.

References

1834 births 1873 deaths 19th-century American inventors People from New Orleans American people in rail transportation French emigrants to the United States {{France-engineer-stub