RVHotlineCanada.com - RV History

In the 1890s the motor car was the latest advance in a century of remarkable transportation developments; an opportunity for established engineering businesses, entrepreneurs and every backyard inventor. By the mid-nineties there were hundreds of car makers in Europe and the USA, the petrol engine and the steam engine were vying for pole position as the preferred means of propulsion but the motor car was still not big business. By contrast, the bicycle market was blooming and far, far bigger. So when can manufacturers wanted to present their products to the public they first made use of the hugely popular cycle shows.

This outfit made its appearance at the Salon du Cycle in Paris in 1896. It had been commissioned by the Prince of Oldenbourg to enable him to go in search of the sun in Southern Russia. The main living quarters were divided into two compartments and would have been lavishly appointed A servant would have travelled in the partly open rear compartment; a footman among whose duties might have been the fending off of small boys and others tempted to try to itch a ride. At night screens may have been fitted to enclose the compartment and with bunks it could have served as sleeping quarters for the footman and the driver of the de Dion-Routon steam tractor which pulled this caravan.

De Dion-Bouton was established in 1883 and became on of France’s leading car manufacturers. The company built a few light steam carriages in the 1880s, then a steam tricycle and in 1893 the first of a series of steam tractors. Developed for these was the famous De Dion axle system in which a dead axle caries the load and a non-load-bearing half shafts transmit the drive from the differential to the wheels The original tractor was coupled to the rear section of a Victoria horse-drawn carriage and took part in the 1894 Paris-Rouen Trial, in which it achieved the best performance but was disqualified from an award because two men were needed to operate it. The tractor was put on the market in 1895 for drawing both passenger carriages and commercial trailers, one being used in 1897 to pull a 35-trailer bus trailer.