Serpollet

France, 1887 – 1907

(1) Léon Serpollet, Paris, 1887 – 1900

(2) Gardner Serpollet, Paris, 1900 – 1907

Léon Serpollet was one of the pioneers of the steam road vehicle, and Serpollet contributed more to the development of the private passenger steam car than anyone else, not just with his own Serpollet car, but started with Serpollet’s multi-tube flash boiler of 1888. For the first time, steam could be raised quickly, by instantaneous evaporation of water in heated tubes. The Serpollet unit was economical, for it only generated as much steam as was immediately required, and the Serpollet steamer was compact, allowing its use in passenger vehicles of reasonable size. Within eight years, Serpollet was using paraffin oil firing instead of coke, which Serpollet invention again helped the steam passenger car. A dual pump fed oil to the burner and water to the boiler in constant proportions. By 1899 Serpollet had developed a 5hp engine with four vertical cylinders and poppet instead of slide valves, centrally-mounted. So far, very few Serpollet cars/ steam cars had been marketed, but in 1900, backed by finance from the American Frank Gardner, the latest model Serpollet car (a steam car), now with horizontally-opposed cylinders, was put on sale in 5, 8 and 10hp form. Serpollet cars supported competitions, Serpollet himself achieving 75mph over the flying kilometer with a racing Serpollet car in 1902. Serpollet cars finished  3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th in the 1902 Circuit dus Nord. The 6-cylinder Serpollet cars prepared for the 1904 Gordon Bennett Eliminating Trials were less successful. The 1903 Serpollet car models had their water tank at the front instead of the rear, providing a ‘bonnet’ in the fashionable manner. A year later the dual pump of the Serpollet car, previously hand-operated, was driven by a donkey engine on two new Serpollet car models, the Serpollet 15hp and Serpollet 40hp, and the engine as well as the boiler moved up to the front of the Serpollet car. The condenser of the Serpollet car was the ‘radiator’. A small 9hp Serpollet car, an utility model was also new; in this Serpollet car, oil was fed by pressure only. By 1906 engine and boiler of the Serpollet car had retired from their frontal position, which cannot have helped sales of Serpollet cars, and a year later Serpollet, and his Serpollet car company, died.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN

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