From the archives of Bob Montgomery, Motoring Historian
SERPOLLET AND IRELAND'S FIRST CAR: The young Leon Serpollet was fascinated by steam, so much so that in 1878, together with his brother Henri, he built a 'flash' boiler steam engine.
Still only 20 years of age, he obtained backing finance, moved to Paris and began work on an improved boiler. In 1887 he built a single-cylinder steam engine almost entirely out of scrap parts and fitted it to a pedal tricycle.
This first vehicle proving a success, Serpollet built an improved version with two seats. Armand Peugeot commissioned four examples from Serpollet and by 1890 improved vehicles were being manufactured for wealthy clients. In April 1891 he received the first official licence to drive his cars on the streets of Paris.
What has this to do with Ireland? Well, in 1895 a Serpollet was one of the first cars to be imported into England and the following March (1896) a Serpollet was the very first car to be imported into Ireland. The distinction of having this first car in Ireland fell to Mr John Brown of Dunmurry, Belfast, a man who was well known to the scientific community of the time for his research in electric theory.
Brown had been interested in some form of mechanical transportation since 1894 and this interest took him to France to examine motor cars of that country, then the centre of the fledgling automobile industry.
There he made the acquaintance of a well-known motorist, M Dozan of St Omer, who was the possessor of a Serpollet steam car. Having sampled the delights of travelling in the Serpollet, Brown and his new-found friend set out for Paris where they visited the workshops of Panhard et Lavassor, and where M Dozan intended to purchase a new automobile of the petrol variety. The purchase having been successfully negotiated, Brown proposed to his friend that he would purchase the Serpollet and this was agreed.
Subsequently, the Serpollet was imported into Ireland on March 6th 1896. Coke-fired, steel-tyred and weighing some 27 hundredweight, the Serpollet had a two-cylinder engine positioned under the driver's seat - which was apparently fine in cool weather but rather uncomfortable in warmer conditions!
Gearing was direct to a differential gear on the countershaft by a shifting pinion, which allowed the engine to be warmed-up and started before connection to the differential. The countershaft drove the rear wheels by means of two chains. The boiler was of the 'flash' type.
Starting the Serpollet was the work of more than a few minutes. The procedure was begun by raising a lid in the middle of the fuel box and placing the coke inside, following which another lid in the bottom of the fuel box was raised.
This allowed the top of the furnace to be removed. Next, a stove pipe some fifteen feet long was attached. With this in place, the fire was started and in two or three hours steam was up.
Apparently the original French owner had a pipe about 40-feet high fixed on the wall of his house, to which he connected the furnace flue, and as a result could get the necessary heat in around 30 minutes. With the boiler warmed and coupled up a few strokes of a hand pump lever started the engine. Steering was of the tiller type and apparently the engine was very quiet in operation, but this can hardly have been of much consequence in a car of this weight running on steel wheels!
Sadly, the car was something of a failure in Ireland owing to the great difference in the quality of Irish roads compared to those in France. As a result of his experiences with the Serpollet, John Brown went on to become a founder member of the Irish Roads Improvement Association. As for Leon Serpollet, this pioneer of steam cars died in 1907 at the young age of 48 from liver disease.