Armand Peugeot (1849-1915)

Armand Peugeot, founder of the Peugeot automotive adventure

Armand Peugeot is born in Valentigney in 1849. In 1871, a young engineer, he returns from an internship in England where he studied the techniques of metallurgists in Leeds and where he saw the birth of the “bicycle” craze. Back in his country, he knows how to be persuasive and commits the company “Peugeot Frères” to undertake cycle manufacturing.

Curious about all things, passionate about the times, and a fearless creator, Armand Peugeot presents at The Paris World Fair of 1889 a two-seater tricycle with a steam engine of the “Serpolet” type… unfortunately, it is unsuccessful! Armand looks for other options. In 1885 Gottlieb Daimler files a patent for a “petrol engine”. He feels that the future lies with these petrol engines and no longer with steam. As early as 1890-1891, Armand manufactures in Valentigney “pétroleuses” or petrol burning engines that make a lot of noise, smell and raise clouds of dust… But they astonish villagers as they are rolled out! As early as 1895, Maison Peugeot files a patent for a horizontally arranged 2-cylinder petrol engine.
The automobile is coming out of the “heroic age”, and its production no longer considered an artisan craftsmanship. Armand Peugeot frees himself from the supervision of his cousins. He establishes the “Société Anonyme des Automobiles Peugeot”.

Armand dies on February 4, 1915 in Paris, but the motivation has been given and the groundwork has been laid; the time of artisan craftsmanship production is gone, and that of mass production is approaching.