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Arts and Crafts engineer and one of the first French manufacturer of motorcycle. In 1887 the engineer Félix Théodore Millet designs a star five cylinder petrol engine. At first he adapts his motor in the front wheel of a tricycle. Satisfied with his essays in 1893, he implemented the motor in the rear wheel of a bicycle, creating the first multicylinder motorcycle. His invention is particularly inventive because the motor is an integral part of the wheel. The cylinders rotate around a fixed axis of the crankshaft, which is none other than the axis of the wheel. This revolutionary engine was remarkable in every details at the time. Mudguard with incorporated tank, clutch with rotary handle, controlled valves, front / rear oscillating suspension, electric ignition which spark is provided by a Bunsen cell, invented in 1841. In 1897, he produced, probably in the workshop of Alexandre Darracq Suresnes (currently in Hauts-de-Seine), a motorcycle, a copy is at the Hippolyte Fontaine school, the oldest authentic motorised two wheels currently existing. Hippolyte Fontaine, who was also part of the Arts and Crafts fraternity, financed the construction of the Félix Millet's motorcycles. This machine was given to the heirs of Hippolyte Fontaine after the death of Félix Millet, and finally came out for Hippolyte Fontaine school. The Félix Millet motorcycle was illustrated in the Paris-Bordeaux race in 1895. The engine displacement of 1925 cm3 , and in normal use, the performance equals those of a Vélosolex (27 km / h) and the consumption is a liter of petrol for 40 km. The complexity and the randomness of handling the Millet's motorcycle have been fatal. Since 1900, customers prefer the Werner's motorcycle, the name of two Russian-born Swiss. Millet unfortunately falls into oblivion. But these inventions anyway experiencing a great success in the field of aviation, with its radial engine manufactured and improved by Gnome Rhone in 1903. |
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variant spelling: MILLET, Félix-Théodore |
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