The North Bay Nugget - EU- French Car Industry: Louis Renault - by Steven Reive

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The North Bay Nugget - EU- French Car Industry: Louis Renault - by Steven Reive

Louis Renault; Of all the brilliant people who acquired patents for inventions and built empires, he was one of the most successful, but also one of the most tragic. Born in February 1877 to a wealthy family of Paris merchants, Renault was the last of five children but the first one interested in all things mechanical. He could wrap his mind around any idea. Electricity and engines were his passion and, during a time of hectic technological change, he was on the cutting edge. He was intuitive and practical. It was obvious he was different.

Renault failed his school entrance exam but by the time he turned 20 he had converted his De Dion-Bouton tricycle into a small, four-wheeled vehicle. The "direct drive" followed, the first gearbox that instantly eliminated the transmission chains and cogs that had been used until then. A year later, on Christmas Eve, Renault was so confident his new invention would work, he bet a group of friends he could climb the 13-degree slope of the Rue Lepic on the way to Montmartre, the highest hill in Paris. He made the climb and took cash deposits for 12 orders. Within a few months, Renault had established a patent for the direct-drive system. Within a decade, every manufacturer was using it.