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A.M. (automobile)

May 07, 2024

The A.M. was a range of automobiles manufactured by the French firm of Ateliers Veuve A. de Mesmay. The vehicles were produced in Saint-Quentin, Aisne, France, from 1906 to 1914 and marketed under the name Automobiles 'Abeille' de Mesmay (hence the AM nomenclature). They were powered by petrol engines of various sizes made by the de Mesmay firm, all marketed under the 'Abeille' (En:'Bee') trade name. The same engines and chassis were used in the AML and AMC range of commercial vehicles.

The company was run by Amélie de Mesmay (née Belin), the widow (fr:'veuve') of Adolphe de Mesmay, who had started manufacturing his 'Abeille' marine petrol engine in 1898.

The de Mesmay company also manufactured light agricultural tractors from 1911 to 1914; they also sold marine and stationary engines in 1-, 2-, and 4-cylinder configurations. Vehicle production ceased at the beginning of World War I. The firm continued to manufacture proprietary engines after the war, and closed in 1936.

History edit

'Abeille' engines edit

(Marie Charles?) Adolphe de Mesmay was an engineer who had previously worked for the fr:Société française de constructions mécaniques in Saint-Quentin.[1] He built a factory in 1898 on the Quai Gayant (a quay on the Canal de Saint-Quentin) to manufacture his 'Abeille' marine engine. His wife Amélie (née Belin) collaborated with him in running the business.[2] The 'Abeille' trade mark was registered in 1899; the Abeille engines were originally conceived as marine engines, and fitted to competition-winning motor boats.[1]

The de Mesmay firm developed a number of 'Abeille' engines of different capacities. The two and four-cylinder engines were described (in French) in 1901 by the journal La Locomotion.[3] 'Abeille' engines were fitted in cars by other makers, such as the Rocourt-Merlin of Marseille of 1901[4] and the 2-cylinder Brush car of 1902.[5]

Car and truck manufacture edit

Adolphe de Mesmay died in May 1903; the business was carried on by his widow (fr:'veuve') Amélie and reconstructed as Ateliers Mme Veuve A. de Mesmay, with Louis Demilly as director.[6] From c1906 the Ateliers Vve A. de Mesmay company fitted 'Abeille' engines to a chassis; advertised as Automobiles 'Abeille' de Mesmay, these were sold as complete automobiles, or as rolling chassis to be finished by other body-makers.[7] In 1906, they were reported as offering for sale two 4-cylinder models producing 12 and 20 hp, as well as a 2-cylinder, 12 hp car.[5] Abeille also manufactured a carburettor in c1909, similar to a Daimler device.[8] The factory was expanded in 1908–1911 to include three sites in Saint-Quentin.

Catalogues dating from c1910-1914 shows that the company made 4-cylinder automotive engines in five different sizes, fitted to 'Abeille' de Mesmay (AM) automobiles (models AM 1–5), vans (fr:'livraisons', AML I-III) and trucks (fr:'camions ', AMC I-II). These were sold as chassis or as complete vehicles. The cylinders of the two smaller engines were cast as monoblocs, the larger three had separate cylinders.[9] Abeilles were available with different bodies ranging from 2-seater runabouts to Landaulettes, limousines and Double-Phaetons.[10]

'Abeille' marine engines were available in 1, 2 and various 4-cylinder configurations. The 4-cylinder T-5 of about 30 hp was chosen by the French Navy to power armed patrol boats ('vedettes-canonniers') for export to a foreign navy.[9]

At the Paris General Agricultural Exhibition in 1910, the firm exhibited a motor powered by naphthalene. Granules of naphthalene were heated to a liquid state (around 79 °C) by a pipe through which the hot exhaust gas was drawn. The liquid was forced by a small pump into the carburettor. The calorific value of naphthalene is about 8,765 calories/kg (36.6 MJ/kg) compared to normal gasoline, which is approx. 11,400 cal/kg (44.8 MJ/kg).[11]

From 1911 the de Mesmay company also used the 'Abeille' engine to power a four-wheel drive light agricultural tractor, the 'Tracteur FT'.[3] With a plough permanently fitted underneath, between the front and rear wheels and weighing about 1,050 kg, it was sold as the 'Houe-tracteur'.[12]

The de Mesmay firm sold 'Abeille' engines in various configurations such as stationary engines and generator sets for lighting and cinemas (in 1913 the factory installed a 4-cylinder Abeille 25-30 hp engine coupled to a Jacquet dynamo[13] (60 A - 150 V) to power the electric lighting),[1] as well as making gas engines sold under the name Moteurs A. de Mesmay.[10] Production of vehicles ceased on 26 August 1914 soon after the outbreak of war.[10] Total annual production of Abeille engines up to 1914 is estimated at 215 units.[10] The enterprise employed 20 to 30 workers in 1900, 80 to 90 in 1914, and around 40 in 1924.[1]

First World War edit

The town of Saint-Quentin was overrun by the German Army in September 1914, and the factory was taken over as an extension of Krupp to repair guns and machine guns, and also to make barbed wire. When the town became the centre of fighting in 1916 the Germans expelled the populace and systematically stripped the town of industrial equipment.[14]

Post-war edit

Mesmay's widow Amélie restarted partial engine production after the war in Mantes-la-Jolie, a western suburb of Paris, and returned to the newly built factories in Saint-Quentin in 1920. She died in May 1922, succeeded in business by her legal heir François Thellier.[1] Ateliers Veuve A. de Mesmay continued to make 'Abeille' marine engines into the 1930s[10] and finally closed in 1936.[1] In 1949 the workshops were integrated into the business of a foundry and valve or tap (US:faucet) maker, Maumaire Dubua et Cie. The site closed in the 1990s.[1]

Engines and applications edit

This table contains an incomplete list of 'Abeille' engines; the firm made a wide range of 1, 2, and 4-cylinder engines in both separate and monobloc configurations and with different cylinder dimensions.

Model range c.1910 of Automobiles 'Abeille' de Mesmay (AM)[15]
Bore x stroke
(mm) 		Power (hp) Auto
model 		Commercial
model 		Marine
model
70 x 106 8/11 AM 1 AML-I Monobloc I-IV
82 x 110 10/14 AM 2 AML-II Monobloc J-IV
90 x 130 14/18 AM 3 AML-III
100 x 130 18/24 AM 4 AMC-I F-IV?
112 x 130 24/30 AM 5 AMC-II
112 x 140 ? Monobloc T-5

A 40 hp Abeille engine was used to power a Renard Road Train exhibited at the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition, White City, London. A second train was used to carry passengers for pleasure around the ground for 6d. (21⁄2p, 12 cents)[n 1] The Technical Director of the French Société des Trains Renard was Frédéric Airault who, like Adolphe de Mesmay, had worked at the fr:Société française de constructions mécaniques, also based in Saint-Quentin.[16] Airault had previously worked at the firm of Anciennes usines Buchet in Levallois, a north western Paris suburb. The Filtz motor company was also based there, whose 72 hp engine was also used in the Renard train.[17]

Disambiguation edit

Abeille was also the name of a horse-drawn hire cab firm in Paris; before the introduction of the Renault Taxi de la Marne of 1904, Abeille were among the biggest cab companies along with the Compagnie Générale des Voitures, and Urbaine.[18][19]

References edit

Notes
  1. ^ "Motors and Machinery at Shepherd's Bush". Commercial Motor: 3. 25 June 1908. Retrieved 20 March 2016. NB The name of the engine is misreported as a 'Beille' engine.
Citations
  1. ^ a b c d e f g Pillet 2005, p. 1.
  2. ^ Pillet 2005, p. 2.
  3. ^ a b (in French). Archived from the original on 30 March 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  4. ^ Suman-Hreblay 2000, pp. 9, 17, 246.
  5. ^ a b Sedgwick 1974, p. 40.
  6. ^ Pillet 2005, pp. 2, 5.
  7. ^ Pillet 2005, pp. 7–8.
  8. ^ Carpenter & Diedrichs 1909, pp. 189–90.
  9. ^ a b Pillet 2005, p. 8.
  10. ^ a b c d e Pillet 2005, p. 10.
  11. ^ "Les Machines au Concours Général Agricole de Paris - IV: Moteurs". Journal d'Agriculture Pratique. New Series: 74th year, 1910, 2nd quarter (in French). 20: 90. July 1910.
  12. ^ Pillet 2005, p. 9.
  13. ^ Photo at "Les dynamos". Retrieved 21 March 2016
  14. ^ Pillet 2005, pp. 5–6.
  15. ^ Pillet 2005, pp. 8–9.
  16. ^ "Airault, Frédéric". symogih.org (in French). Laboratoire de recherche historique Rhône-Alpes (LARHRA). Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  17. ^ Martin, Liz (February 2013). . Transmission (20): 8–12. Archived from the original on 2016-03-31. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  18. ^ Genèse du Fiacre Renault (Genesis of the Renault Taxi) (in French). Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  19. ^ "The Paris Cabman" by Vance Thompson. Outing, vol. XLIII, no. 3, (December 1903), p. 243. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
Sources
  • Carpenter, Rolla C.; Diedrichs, H. (1909). Internal combustion engines, their theory, construction and operation. New York: N. van Nostrand.
  • Pillet, Frédéric (2005). "Ancienne usine de construction mécanique de Mesmay..." (PDF) (in French). Région Picardie - Inventaire général, and Communauté et ville de Saint-Quentin. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  • Sedgwick, Michael (1974). "A. M.". In Georgano, G. N. (ed.). The Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars 1885-1968. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co.
  • Suman-Hreblay, Marián (2000). Automobile Manufacturers Worldwide Registry. McFarland. ISBN 9780786409723.

External links edit

  • Photo of large engine under test at the de Mesnay works c1910-1914
  • Photo gallery with AM badge, factory and automobiles (Russian site). Accessed 21 March 2016
  • Forum with photos including various de Mesnay stationary engines, and video of a Winterthur gas engine, installed in the factory. (in French) Retrieved 21 March 2016

May 07, 2024
automobile, range, automobiles, manufactured, french, firm, ateliers, veuve, mesmay, vehicles, were, produced, saint, quentin, aisne, france, from, 1906, 1914, marketed, under, name, automobiles, abeille, mesmay, hence, nomenclature, they, were, powered, petro. The A M was a range of automobiles manufactured by the French firm of Ateliers Veuve A de Mesmay The vehicles were produced in Saint Quentin Aisne France from 1906 to 1914 and marketed under the name Automobiles Abeille de Mesmay hence the AM nomenclature They were powered by petrol engines of various sizes made by the de Mesmay firm all marketed under the Abeille En Bee trade name The same engines and chassis were used in the AML and AMC range of commercial vehicles The company was run by Amelie de Mesmay nee Belin the widow fr veuve of Adolphe de Mesmay who had started manufacturing his Abeille marine petrol engine in 1898 The de Mesmay company also manufactured light agricultural tractors from 1911 to 1914 they also sold marine and stationary engines in 1 2 and 4 cylinder configurations Vehicle production ceased at the beginning of World War I The firm continued to manufacture proprietary engines after the war and closed in 1936 Contents 1 History 1 1 Abeille engines 1 2 Car and truck manufacture 1 3 First World War 1 4 Post war 2 Engines and applications 3 Disambiguation 4 References 5 External linksHistory edit Abeille engines edit Marie Charles Adolphe de Mesmay was an engineer who had previously worked for the fr Societe francaise de constructions mecaniques in Saint Quentin 1 He built a factory in 1898 on the Quai Gayant a quay on the Canal de Saint Quentin to manufacture his Abeille marine engine His wife Amelie nee Belin collaborated with him in running the business 2 The Abeille trade mark was registered in 1899 the Abeille engines were originally conceived as marine engines and fitted to competition winning motor boats 1 The de Mesmay firm developed a number of Abeille engines of different capacities The two and four cylinder engines were described in French in 1901 by the journal La Locomotion 3 Abeille engines were fitted in cars by other makers such as the Rocourt Merlin of Marseille of 1901 4 and the 2 cylinder Brush car of 1902 5 Car and truck manufacture edit Adolphe de Mesmay died in May 1903 the business was carried on by his widow fr veuve Amelie and reconstructed as Ateliers Mme Veuve A de Mesmay with Louis Demilly as director 6 From c1906 the Ateliers Vve A de Mesmay company fitted Abeille engines to a chassis advertised as Automobiles Abeille de Mesmay these were sold as complete automobiles or as rolling chassis to be finished by other body makers 7 In 1906 they were reported as offering for sale two 4 cylinder models producing 12 and 20 hp as well as a 2 cylinder 12 hp car 5 Abeille also manufactured a carburettor in c1909 similar to a Daimler device 8 The factory was expanded in 1908 1911 to include three sites in Saint Quentin Catalogues dating from c1910 1914 shows that the company made 4 cylinder automotive engines in five different sizes fitted to Abeille de Mesmay AM automobiles models AM 1 5 vans fr livraisons AML I III and trucks fr camions AMC I II These were sold as chassis or as complete vehicles The cylinders of the two smaller engines were cast as monoblocs the larger three had separate cylinders 9 Abeilles were available with different bodies ranging from 2 seater runabouts to Landaulettes limousines and Double Phaetons 10 Abeille marine engines were available in 1 2 and various 4 cylinder configurations The 4 cylinder T 5 of about 30 hp was chosen by the French Navy to power armed patrol boats vedettes canonniers for export to a foreign navy 9 At the Paris General Agricultural Exhibition in 1910 the firm exhibited a motor powered by naphthalene Granules of naphthalene were heated to a liquid state around 79 C by a pipe through which the hot exhaust gas was drawn The liquid was forced by a small pump into the carburettor The calorific value of naphthalene is about 8 765 calories kg 36 6 MJ kg compared to normal gasoline which is approx 11 400 cal kg 44 8 MJ kg 11 From 1911 the de Mesmay company also used the Abeille engine to power a four wheel drive light agricultural tractor the Tracteur FT 3 With a plough permanently fitted underneath between the front and rear wheels and weighing about 1 050 kg it was sold as the Houe tracteur 12 The de Mesmay firm sold Abeille engines in various configurations such as stationary engines and generator sets for lighting and cinemas in 1913 the factory installed a 4 cylinder Abeille 25 30 hp engine coupled to a Jacquet dynamo 13 60 A 150 V to power the electric lighting 1 as well as making gas engines sold under the name Moteurs A de Mesmay 10 Production of vehicles ceased on 26 August 1914 soon after the outbreak of war 10 Total annual production of Abeille engines up to 1914 is estimated at 215 units 10 The enterprise employed 20 to 30 workers in 1900 80 to 90 in 1914 and around 40 in 1924 1 First World War edit The town of Saint Quentin was overrun by the German Army in September 1914 and the factory was taken over as an extension of Krupp to repair guns and machine guns and also to make barbed wire When the town became the centre of fighting in 1916 the Germans expelled the populace and systematically stripped the town of industrial equipment 14 Post war edit Mesmay s widow Amelie restarted partial engine production after the war in Mantes la Jolie a western suburb of Paris and returned to the newly built factories in Saint Quentin in 1920 She died in May 1922 succeeded in business by her legal heir Francois Thellier 1 Ateliers Veuve A de Mesmay continued to make Abeille marine engines into the 1930s 10 and finally closed in 1936 1 In 1949 the workshops were integrated into the business of a foundry and valve or tap US faucet maker Maumaire Dubua et Cie The site closed in the 1990s 1 Engines and applications editThis table contains an incomplete list of Abeille engines the firm made a wide range of 1 2 and 4 cylinder engines in both separate and monobloc configurations and with different cylinder dimensions Model range c 1910 of Automobiles Abeille de Mesmay AM 15 Bore x stroke mm Power hp Auto model Commercial model Marine model 70 x 106 8 11 AM 1 AML I Monobloc I IV 82 x 110 10 14 AM 2 AML II Monobloc J IV 90 x 130 14 18 AM 3 AML III 100 x 130 18 24 AM 4 AMC I F IV 112 x 130 24 30 AM 5 AMC II 112 x 140 Monobloc T 5 A 40 hp Abeille engine was used to power a Renard Road Train exhibited at the 1908 Franco British Exhibition White City London A second train was used to carry passengers for pleasure around the ground for 6d 21 2 p 12 cents n 1 The Technical Director of the French Societe des Trains Renard was Frederic Airault who like Adolphe de Mesmay had worked at the fr Societe francaise de constructions mecaniques also based in Saint Quentin 16 Airault had previously worked at the firm of Anciennes usines Buchet in Levallois a north western Paris suburb The Filtz motor company was also based there whose 72 hp engine was also used in the Renard train 17 Disambiguation editAbeille was also the name of a horse drawn hire cab firm in Paris before the introduction of the Renault Taxi de la Marne of 1904 Abeille were among the biggest cab companies along with the Compagnie Generale des Voitures and Urbaine 18 19 References editNotes Motors and Machinery at Shepherd s Bush Commercial Motor 3 25 June 1908 Retrieved 20 March 2016 NB The name of the engine is misreported as a Beille engine Citations a b c d e f g Pillet 2005 p 1 Pillet 2005 p 2 a b De Mesmay le tracteur FT 4x4 et les moteurs Abeille in French Archived from the original on 30 March 2016 Retrieved 20 March 2016 Suman Hreblay 2000 pp 9 17 246 a b Sedgwick 1974 p 40 Pillet 2005 pp 2 5 Pillet 2005 pp 7 8 Carpenter amp Diedrichs 1909 pp 189 90 a b Pillet 2005 p 8 a b c d e Pillet 2005 p 10 Les Machines au Concours General Agricole de Paris IV Moteurs Journal d Agriculture Pratique New Series 74th year 1910 2nd quarter in French 20 90 July 1910 Pillet 2005 p 9 Photo at Les dynamos Retrieved 21 March 2016 Pillet 2005 pp 5 6 Pillet 2005 pp 8 9 Airault Frederic symogih org in French Laboratoire de recherche historique Rhone Alpes LARHRA Retrieved 20 April 2016 Martin Liz February 2013 The Renard Road Train system Transmission 20 8 12 Archived from the original on 2016 03 31 Retrieved 20 March 2016 Genese du Fiacre Renault Genesis of the Renault Taxi in French Retrieved 20 March 2016 The Paris Cabman by Vance Thompson Outing vol XLIII no 3 December 1903 p 243 Retrieved 20 March 2016 Sources Carpenter Rolla C Diedrichs H 1909 Internal combustion engines their theory construction and operation New York N van Nostrand Pillet Frederic 2005 Ancienne usine de construction mecanique de Mesmay PDF in French Region Picardie Inventaire general and Communaute et ville de Saint Quentin Retrieved 20 March 2016 Sedgwick Michael 1974 A M In Georgano G N ed The Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars 1885 1968 New York E P Dutton and Co Suman Hreblay Marian 2000 Automobile Manufacturers Worldwide Registry McFarland ISBN 9780786409723 External links editPhoto of large engine under test at the de Mesnay works c1910 1914 Photo gallery with AM badge factory and automobiles Russian site Accessed 21 March 2016 Forum with photos including various de Mesnay stationary engines and video of a Winterthur gas engine installed in the factory in French Retrieved 21 March 2016 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title A M automobile amp oldid 1109856076, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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