Edouard

"on August 20, journalist Pierre Giffard from the Petit Journal, the most read and influential daily newspaper of the time, organizes a great race for velocipedes over the Paris-Brest-Paris distance: twelve hundred kilometers! The event is scheduled to start fifteen days later, on Sunday, September 6. New correspondence exchange between the two brothers: André: “That would make a fantastic launch. We need to win it.” Edouard: “The deadline is too short, we will never be ready.” André: “We are the only ones with a detachable. It’s an advantage we have and we may never find it again. There are no deadlines to hold us back. Figure it out.”"

"Arnaud, the chief assembler whom Edouard sent to follow the race from start to finish, has exerted himself tirelessly. Especially at the end of the course, he took turns with Terront’s manager to ring a large cowbell bought along the way, each time their man closed his eyes. Edouard will soon appoint him chief of manufacturing, in the “A” service as the initial of his name[5](private://read/01jkqdqdgs7t399cyecbezrhj0/#ftn_fn5)."

"⁠Edouard then decides to “make a big splash”, contacting the two manufacturers De Dion-Bouton, who make motorized tricycles, and Léon Bollée, who specializes in three-wheeled cars. “My big tubes will completely transform the use of your machines, try them.” He offers to buy their entire production for six months, “to relieve them of any commercial concerns and allow them to focus on quality and production costs.” In reality, for Edouard, the operation is twofold. He encourages the two brands to invest in order to switch to larger production series by temporarily guaranteeing their outlets, and he creates a significant captive market for himself. Priority to manufacturers: this will henceforth be the essential axis of the company’s commercial policy.⁠"

"Everything is to be done. You have to rely on yourself, make do with nothing. There is no rubber school, no books, and this time, no teacher. It’s a field too marginal, too uncertain. Engineers, even if they graduate from the Central School, the Arts and Crafts, or even chemical schools, can only provide partial answers. Graduates, therefore, in Edouard’s eyes, will only have secondary importance. The workers—because they are in direct contact with manufacturing problems—are best positioned to solve them. They must be trusted. For the new boss—who openly admits his total incompetence—his role is clear: he must help these workers make progress. It’s necessary to go into the field, question their ideas and methods. The company’s philosophy is being developed."

"Edouard gets back to work. After further improvements, it takes only about ten minutes to change a tire. “From now on,” declares the triumphant new boss of the Carmes factory, “a flat tire is no longer a disaster but a mere incident.”"

"In 1921, André and Edouard proposed the “million prize” to promote long-endurance engines. In 1922, they created a prize of fifteen thousand francs “for the development of gliding.” André multiplied conferences on “the German danger” or on “chemical warfare and aviation.”"

"When after the armistice, he undertook to convert at a lightning speed his workshops on the Quai de Javel to make it the most modern automobile factory in Europe, he quickly got in touch with tire manufacturers. And Edouard spared neither his efforts nor his funds to provide him with these special tires and removable steel sheet wheels, lightweight and affordable, required by the Citroën “10 HP type A.” André Citroën completely shared the views of the founder of the Carmes factory and his brother, the Parisian, on the necessity of manufacturing automobiles on a very large scale — thanks to Taylorism in particular — in order to reduce the price and expand its distribution."

"Throughout the year 1907, however, he devoured all the newspapers that talked about these new devices — a very small market for tires — and became passionate about the feats of Voisin, Blériot, Trajan Vuia, Bréguet, de La Vaulx. He shares the analyses of Archdeacon — an old friend who has often participated in car races with the company’s tires — about the indifference of engineers “who dismissively walk past” this new aeronautics where everything is to be invented or on “the inertia of the country’s major industrialists.” He approved when “Archdec” was outraged: “To say that there is no one among our major automobile manufacturers who understands that with the means at their disposal, they could in a small corner of their workshops, create a flying machine at little expense in a few weeks.” And he applauded when this grandson of a Scot — like the Daubrée cousins — wanted to lead by example by founding the cup for the first kilometer to encourage the marvelous “mad fliers.” At the end of the evening, in honor of the new world record holder, the organizers announce “cinematographic projections.” Like those which, under the impulse of Léon Gaumont and Charles Pathé, attract the curious to the major boulevards. On the program: the first flights of heavier-than-air machines. André Michelin is thrilled. “Since one of these tools has been able to leave the ground,” he immediately writes to Edouard, still absorbed in Clermont-Ferrand with his molds and vats, “there is no reason, given the speed of progress we have seen happening in the automobile industry and the great similarity between the engine for a car and the engine for an airplane, that soon we could not travel very long distances. Here, then, is an industry full of promise, both from the perspective of civilian life and from the viewpoint of war. What if we embarked on the manufacturing of birds?”"

"On March 6, 1908, André and Edouard took their finest pen to write to the President of the Aero Club of France:   Mr. President, Desiring to contribute to the development of aviation, this new industry that has also taken root in France, we take pleasure in offering you: a Cup and a Special Prize intended for devices referred to as “heavier than air.” 1. The Cup, which will represent an artistic object valued at at least ten thousand francs, will be endowed with an annual sum of fifteen thousand francs in cash, for ten years. 2. The special prize will be one hundred thousand francs in cash. These prizes will bear our name. They will be awarded under the following conditions. ANNUAL CUP (fifteen thousand francs per year for ten years). Each year, before January 31 (and exceptionally for 1908, before the current March 31), the Aero Club of France will finalize the contest program, which will close on the following January 1*er*. It will determine the dimensions of the track, the significance of the turns, the heights of ascents, etc., as well as the conditions under which this track must be covered, which must be a closed circuit."

"Edouard wants nothing to hear of it. The tire, just the tire. Let us not get distracted. Parisian sirens are seductive but dangerous. In response, he writes back to his brother. “We have too much to do with our tire to embark on anything else; besides, this industry is thrilling, it will revolutionize the world. I am like you, I cannot resign myself to seeing it grow without contributing to it a little. What if we clearly posed to this new tool a well-understood and striking problem, for example: passing over the Arc de Triomphe and landing like a sparrowhawk on the summit of the puy de Dôme, triumphing over both the distance, four hundred kilometers, and altitude, one thousand four hundred and fifty-six meters.” The engineer refines and completes the idea. “Yes,” he confirms to Edouard, “that will capture imaginations, but let’s add an annual prize for the longest distance flown in the year without touching the ground.”"

"Imperative instruction: never tell anyone—except the hierarchy—what you know, what you do, or what you prepare. Silence is more than a law; it is a duty. “Reckless chatter,” Edouard had said, “can be costly to the House.” Or again: “Discretion is an essential quality just like honesty and work.” This is true within the company as well as outside working hours. Clermont-Ferrand lives under a pall of silence, in fear of spies and informers."

"Born in Paris in 1892, Robert Puiseux is the son and grandson of astronomers. The war interrupted his studies when, as a “taupe” at Lycée Henri-IV, he was preparing for Polytechnique. His passion for mountains led him to meet the Michelins. Two years after the marriage of his sister Marguerite with Jean Michelin, André’s eldest son, he married Anne, Edouard’s third daughter. Tested like everyone else, entrusted with various missions, he was ultimately given the responsibility of “the technique,” the heart of the citadel. Punctual, discreet, solid, hardworking, and tireless, the adopted Auvergnat immersed himself in the mold that was imposed on him."

"Edouard would later recount: “I had to run a factory with fifty people in it. “Some of the productions were good, another part bad. There were no engineers; only a foreman, who was not capable and only knew part of the manufacturing process. “I was completely ignorant of rubber manufacturing. “The first necessity was for me to learn my trade. I could only learn it by questioning the workers. “So I had to have a conversation with them where I was their inferior, and the best way to get them to talk was to openly and completely admit my ignorance."

"Edouard is nevertheless not a man to put all his eggs in one basket. He puts tires on wheelbarrows (1894), on children’s cars (1896). His daughter Marguerite takes her first outing in her pram ‘on air’[7](private://read/01jkqdqdgs7t399cyecbezrhj0/#ftn_fn7)."

"Since there is no other solution, Edouard decided to establish a regency and entrusted it to the two men closest to him: his son-in-law Robert Puiseux, and his most faithful lieutenant Pierre Boulanger, whom he sent to restore order at Citroën. Two men who are, moreover, very dissimilar."

"André Michelin, who participated in the event as a passenger in Serpollet’s steam car, is convinced that special steel-spoked wheels and inflatable tires are needed for the automobile to be lighter, go faster, last longer, and become more accessible to new customers. In Clermont, Edouard is hesitant. He lists the technical problems that need to be overcome. “The carriage tire rolls on the smooth pavements of cities, the car tire must roll on the most hostile ground, on rolling stones, on sharp flint. The carriage tire is used at low speed. The car tire is destined for fast speeds and, moreover, equips the driving wheels. Wouldn’t it be better, under these conditions, to concentrate all efforts on horse-drawn carriages which offer a practically unlimited customer base?”"

"It is necessary to dip into the reserves and scrape the bottom of the barrels to survive. The “genius” of Edouard, nevertheless, during this period when everything seems oddly upset and irreparably broken, will be to believe improvement possible. With the energy of his early days — he is seventy-one in 1930 — he launches large research budgets. Observing the accumulated delay coldly, he decides to revisit many questions from scratch. Rather than making improvements — what Edouard calls “doing pastry” — to products that clearly do not provide satisfaction, it is better to redo fundamental studies on materials, on the architecture of tires, on tests. Efforts that will not pay off for several years. He knows this, but the Company works in the long term."

"Edouard, the manager, gives in. And Michelin will be the first among the hundreds of tire manufacturers that exist in the world at that time to attempt adapting the new product to the automobile."

"André Citroën against this solution that would compromise his independence and endanger national heritage. Edouard reassuringly promises, “If you need money, we are here.”"