LE MARQUIS DE DION (1856 - 1946) De Dion began his life-long fascination with the automobile at a very young age. Appparently, whilst shopping for a costume for a masked ball to be given by the Duc de Mori he fell in the road in front of an earfy steam vehicle. Enraptured by the device, he requested the name of the maker - Bouton and Trépardoux - and promptly went to their works to seek a Job. His first creation was the "Dog Cart", a steam vehicle capable of attaining a speed of 50 km/h., followed by a succession of tricycles and cars of increasingly better design. The company moved premises eight times before the first petrol driven automobile was produced, the engine capable of 2000 r.p.m. The engine itself was in fact sold to several manufacturers: Renault, Delage, Corre, Clément and I hébus in France, Pierce-Arrow and Peerless in the United States. In 1898, De Dion won a bet of 400 Francs for designing and building a car in less than two months, that was capable of journeying from Paris to Rouen and back at an average speed of more than 15km/h. Founder of the automobile manufacturers syndicate, of which he was president until 1926, he also created the Aeroclub in the same year. In 1899, the famous De Dion axle was developed , and in the following ten years the firm was to produce some outstanding cars: a two cylinder vehicle of 8 horsepower in 1903, a four cylinder model in 1905 and a V8 in 1910; the latter being one of the first luxury cars to be made in series. The business passed into German control in 1927, following negotiations with Peugeot and Mercedes and although an 8 cylinder, 16 horsepower car was produced in 1930, the firm ceased trading in 1932. The Marquis de Dion was a man of considerable vision, predicting and championing the future of the automobile from its earliest days. Already in 1906 he published an article entitled "The Automobile, Queen of the World".