 by Fons Alkemade: During the past twenty years or so I have been intrigued by the often curious inventions and vehicles proposed (and sometimes built) by the French engineer Hippolyte Lepape. Now and then he pops up again: recently I found him in the nice E-magazine Serpolette's Tricycle. The most recent issue contains an article on a rare French motorcycle called the Bichrone. As the name of the bike already suggests, the engine is a two stroke one but not of the usual architecture. More details can also be found in the patent which Lepape got in 1903. It seems M. Lepape was involved in the construction of the elevators on the Tour Eiffel (1889). Appararently, he turned his attention to vehicles shortly afterwards and in the early 1890s presented his first vehicle, a heavy tractor (locomoteur) much like the well-known vehicle entered by De Dion and Bouton in the 1894 Paris-Rouen race. Thereafter one can find his name attached to ingenious proposals for a carburettor, 'forced' air cooling of engines, a system for friction transmission, a system for driving in reverse and (in 1896!) a small radial three-cylinder engine. Besides, Lepape was active as an author in some of the French automotive journals, writing about technical stuff. Some years ago I was surprised to learn that one Lepape car seems to have survived. The curious thing is, however, that in the literature nothing can be found about it. But it is clear that it has some typical Lepape characteristics. Transmission is by perpendicular friction plates and the four-cylinder engine has a cooling system which has been mentioned in the French journal Le Chauffeur in 1900. According to M. Lepape neither air nor water was needed for cooling, one could just as well use the mass of the cylinders! That is why the engine of this mystery car is of such robust appearance. The amount of cast iron was just enough to prevent the engine from becoming hotter than 200 degrees Celsius, the temperature at which the lubraction oil would start to 'decompose'. Editorial note: we wonder if the current owner has the courage to bring this aspect of his car to the test... Editorial UPDATE: several readers comment that this car indeed has watercooling, which is true. The owner of the car just has confirmed that the current watercooling is a later addition. The idea as described in the patent didn't work out and a second brass layer around the engine was built. |
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Lepape: no cooling by air nor by water... (update: that is to say in the beginning..!)
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