From pneumatics to highway logistics : André Michelin, instigator of the Automobile Revolution, Part I - article ; n°3 ; vol.7, pg 9-19

Georges Ribeill

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Flux - Année 1991 - Volume 7 - Numéro 3 - Pages 9-19
11 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: FLUX0
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1991
• Nombre de lectures: 696
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Georges Ribeill
Judith Crews
From pneumatics to highway logistics : André Michelin,
instigator of the "Automobile Revolution", Part I
In: Flux n°3, 1991. pp. 9-19.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Ribeill Georges, Crews Judith. From pneumatics to highway logistics : André Michelin, instigator of the "Automobile Revolution",
Part I. In: Flux n°3, 1991. pp. 9-19.
doi : 10.3406/flux.1991.1144
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/flux_1154-2721_1991_num_7_3_1144FROM PNEUMATICS TO HIGHWAY LOGISTICS:
ANDRÉ MICHELIN, INSTIGATOR OF THE
"AUTOMOBILE REVOLUTION11: PART I
by GEORGES RIBEILL
1 he history of the Michelin corporation, a company which, Georges Ribeill, historian and sociologist
at the Centre d'Enseignement et de within the properly industrial branch of automobile manufact
Recherche Technique et Société at the uring, limited itself to specialization in rubber tires, has been
Ecole National des Ponts et Chaussées recounted elsewhere in various ways1. Here we shall be (Paris), conducts research on the history dealing rather with one of Michelin's most original facets, of technical milieux related to public
namely, the company's strategic contribution, beginning at the works and their innovative processes.
turn of the century, to the promotion of automobiles and
He was guest editor for the special issue highways. In other words, the recourse to a specific mode of
on Transportation of Culture Technique, transportation which from the very outset had to carve out its
no. 19; the article published here is the place and force a breach in the almost monopolistic hold of
English translation of a section of the the railroads over medium and long distance transportation. text. He is also the author of numerous
articles and of a book, Les Cheminots,
The railroad - the union of the cylindrical boiler with iron on the railroads.
rails - was part of the first "industrial revolution," but the
automobile belonged to the second, characterized as much by
the development of electricity as by the invention of the
internal combustion engine. Numerous historians2 have
described and analyzed the first steps of the automobile
industry, characterized in particular by stiff competition
among the types of energy modes being developed (steam,
electricity, hydrocarbons, compressed air, etc.) before Daiml
er's combustion engine finally carried the day. This was
followed by a proliferation of contractor-builders all making
automobile vehicles, and almost all of whom were more or
less engineers or self-made mechanic types, more intent on
new inventions and technical perfection than concerned with
commercial efforts on a large scale. It was not until the
thirties, in France, that we find a few builders, Citroën in par
ticular, who was a pioneer in the field, who were concerned
about promoting the automobile outside of a narrow market
reserved until that time to the rich, whether amateurs, fond
of taking over the wheel for themselves, or rich middle class
bourgeois who were bying not only the automobile but a
liveried chauffeur as well. The early car builders, limited by a FLUX 3 Spring 1991
BAUDRY DE SAUNIER
LA SIGNALISATION ROUTIÈRE
BOURNE O7AINIOLE
10 FLAMMARION - Pneumatics to Highways Ribeill
rather enduring tradition, in fact built only engines ing tires, to the most recent models in the "M"
and chassis; the customer then went elsewhere to series, by way of the famous radial tires patented
fit his car with the body. in 1946 and baptized "X" in 1949, Michelin maps
and guides have today become familiar household
Within this context, it is remarkable indeed to objects for every motorist in France. And yet their
observe the original and without unquestionably conception and promotion nonetheless date from
effective role played by a mere supplier of tires for the "Belle Epoque"...
the automobile industry in turning the "automobile
revolution" into an ordinary element of French
society. And this held not just for the technical
instrument of the automobile itself, but for every A FAMILY BUSINESS BOUNCES BACK
thing which would facilitate its easy and efficient WITH RUBBER TIRES
utilization, in terms of the performance and actual
practice of motorized transportation made possible The Michelin Brothers were not, in the strict sense
by the highway. While the younger brother of the term, the founders of a corporation; they
Edouard (1859-1940) would run the practical end were the heirs to the family business. Edouard
of the Michelin family business, we owe to the Daubrée had originally moved to the region of
older brother André (1853-1931) the precocious Clermont-Ferrand to set up a sugar refinery. This
understanding that the automobile in itself could was washed away by a flood on the Allier River in
not be promoted except in combination with the 1831. His wife was the niece of Charles Macintosh
organization of usage facilities in the French road who was using his patented process on the other
system itself, by means of specific maps and guides side of the English Channel to make rubber water
which every motorist would need to have on hand, proof so it could be applied to garments. Because
and also by means of specific auxiliary equipment, of her, Edouard Daubrée turned to rubber manuf
consisting of a system for identification of high acturing the following year, in 1832. At first he
ways, mileage delimitation, and road information. produced rubber balls, drive-belts and rubber
tubing. A cousin, Aristide Barbier, became associa
This article proposes to review the work carried ted in the business, which diversified to include
farm equipment. In 1863, Barbier, Daubrée and out by André Michelin, as a pioneering promoter of
the automobile, who had understood the basic Co. became incorporated and offered a public sale
notion that, while tires were needed for a car to of stock. One year later, the two associates having
perform - and this was of course the primary died, Ernest Daubrée took over the business which
interest of the Michelin company - it was also and promptly collapsed. Even the family lawyer, Bideau,
equally necessary to find a complete, organized as associate, could not improve the situation. In
1886 the temporary management of the new firm system, which meant highway infrastructures as
well as the supplies and logistics needed for auto J.G. Bideau and Co. was handed over to Victor
mobiles, and finally methods of topographic indicat Chantrot and André Michelin, son of Aristide
Barbier's son-in-law Jules Michelin, a customs ors, both on the road itself and in the automobile.
Steering the car along a straight course on the official.
road was basically easy, but nonetheless insuffi
cient; it was really a matter of being able to navi André Michelin, aged 33 at the time, knew ab
gate, of finding stopping points by means of land solutely nothing about rubber. He was the oldest
marks, as much for the "restoration" of the car as of three children and had graduated from the
for the motorist. The Michelin Company may have Ecole Centrale in 1877. He held an engineering
provided a lot of tires: but it accomplished as degree, but had not opted for a career in en
much, if not more, in the feat of transforming the gineering. He shared his father's artistic inclina
image of the automobile into something ordinary, tions, and after graduation, had taken art courses
at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. His first job, a rather even banal.
banal one, was as second in command in the
Department of French maps at the Ministry of the Along with Michelin tires, which were continuously
improved over the years, from the first Interior. In 1883, he left the dull and boring
11 FLUX 3 Spring 1991
routine of his office job in order to start his own ized in September, 1891, was one such opport
business in funerary locks and metal carpentry, unity, although they only learned about it a mere
next to the Parisian cemetery of Père-Lachaise. two weeks in advance... André after inviting the
When he was called on to take over the co-man racer Charles Terront to a copious luncheon, had
him sign a contract which had been prepared in agement of the Bideau Company, he did not entire
ly give up his little business in Menilmontant. But advance, much to the displeasure of Terront's
manager. And thus equipped with the brand-new during the economic recession of the 1880's,
neither he nor Chantrot were able to turn the Michelin inflatable tires, an exhausted Terront, after
company's financial affairs around. numerous but successful reparations of flats, ar
rived in first place at the Porte Maillot in Paris,
after 71 hours and 35 minutes a full eight hours' And so in 1889 André asked his younger brother
Edouard to join, in a final effort to save the com ahead of the nearest competitor and the racer
pany. Edouard, the most artistically inclined of the picked to win, Jiel-Laval3.
entire family, had studied painting at the Beaux-
Arts. In spite of financial difficulties, he stuck to André Michelin would thereafter prove his talent
the business in Clermont-Ferrand as manager of