George Bouton
Georges Bouton (1847–1938) was a French engineer, who along with fellow Frenchman Marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, founded De Dion-Bouton in 1883. The pair had first worked together in 1882 to produce a self-propelled steam vehicle. The result gave birth the company which, at the time went under the name De Dion.
Georges Bouton was the nominal winner of the 'world's first motor race' on April 28, 1887, when he drove a de Dion-Bouton vehicle 2 kilometres from Neuilly Bridge to the Bois de Boulogne. He and his passenger, Jules-Albert de Dion, were the sole entrants and thus the event is not officially regarded as the 'world's first motor race'.
Georges Bouton and his brother-in-law Charles Trepardoux ran a 'scientific toys' shop in Léon, Landes.
The genesis of De Dion-Bouton was in 1881 when de Dion saw a toy locomotive in a store window at Léon and asked the toy makers to build another. The engineers Georges Bouton and Charles Trépardoux, who had been making a starvation living selling scientific toys, and Trépardoux had long dreamed of building a steam car but could not afford it. De Dion was inspired by steam railway locomotives) and could finance the work. De Dion, Bouton et Trépardoux was formed in Paris in 1883.
This later became the de Dion-Bouton automobile company, world's largest automobile manufacturer for a time, becoming well-known for their quality, reliability, and durability
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Wikipedia