De Dion Bouton
Georges Bouton and his brother in law Charles Trepardoux had a shop in Paris manufacturing scientific instruments and toys. The Marquis De Dion purchased one of their steam engined toys, and this eventually led to a partnership between them all in 1883. The new venture De Dion, Bouton et Trepardoux was to build full size steam vehicles, with the finance coming from De Dion. A number of vehicles were produced before De Dion came to the realisation that the future of transportation lay with the internal combustion engine, rather than steam, which resulted in Trepardoux resigning. With the new De Dion-Bouton concern, Bouton designed and perfected his single cylinder engine which had an automatic inlet valve, initially 137cc and later on 185cc (1 1/4hp) in their first tricycle of 1896. The power was increased to 1 3/4hp for 1897 and had been improved to 2 3/4 hp by the time production of their tricycle ceased. 1900 was the year that the first De Dion-Bouton car was made, the vis a vis Model D, developed over time with engines appearing at the front by late 1901 into the models E, G, I, J and finally K and O models with larger engines. By 1903 the engines were put in front of the chassis with 6 and 8CV models, along with the 2 cylinder 12CV, and a 4 cylinder. By 1904 De Dion-Bouton was the worlds largest vehicle manufacturer, as can be guessed at these days from the London to Brighton Run where such a large proportion of the cars running are De Dion-Bouton! In addition, the De Dion-Bouton factory provided engines for the bulk of the other vehicle manufacturers at the time. For example companies such as Renault and Delage started with De Dion power plants, as well as the hundreds of brands we no longer think of. De Dion-Bouton car production ceased in 1932, after which the company specialised in truck manufacture. Georges Bouton died in 1938, and the Marquis DeDion in 1946. As a point of interest, the DeDion rear suspension design used on those earlier cars, which is how so many have heard of the DeDion name, was designed by the original third partner Charles Trepardeux, in 1893.
Some DeDion-Bouton vehicle models, and the tyre sizes they used:
26x3 (700x80) tyre size was used on many Voiturette DeDion-Bouton models.
710x90 tyre size was quoted for the year 1900 for the DeDion Vis-a-Vis model as replacement for earlier 700x80. Please see note below the model lists.
760x90 tyre size for the DeDion-Bouton Type ID , IS , IT , IV , IW
815x105 tyre size for DeDion-Bouton type IB , IL , IM , JZ
880x120 tyre size for DeDion-Bouton Type HG , HF , IF , IN , IR , JD
895x135 tyre size for DeDion-Bouton type JD1 , JE , JH , JK , KF
Blockley produce all these beaded edge / clincher tyre sizes listed above, with bespoke (i.e. one tube size per tyre, unlike other multi sized combination tubes that everyone else supplies) thick correctly sized butyl inner tubes to suit each size. There were plenty of brands of beaded edge tyres being sold by the old car tyre wholesalers like Vintage Tyre Supplies or Longstone etc. when we made our Blockley tyres, and we made the Blockley beaded edge tyre range because many customers as well ourselves were seriously unimpressed with what was on offer, with their incorrect dimensions, feeble and incorrect construction, poor reliability and wear rate, tyres leaving rims and so on - hence doing the job properly with the superb range of well researched Blockley tyres, along with the highest quality inner tubes to suit. Why anyone would want to buy or use anything else is a mystery to us, but they do, while usually paying more for these inferior products as well! Our low prices are possible only because we sell direct, avoiding these wholesalers. You can see full details of any of these beaded edge / Clincher tyre sizes at the links below.
Note that for the earlier De Dion cars such as Vis a Vis customers often ask for the 710x90 tyre size and it later turns out they should have had 700x80 (26x3). This is because they removed a 710x90 tyre which you shouldn't be able to fit, but some of the beaded edge / clincher brands are so pathetic in construction (particularly the Michelin) that this was possible to do. If you are in doubt about what your wheel rims are feel free to contact us for advice.
