LOUIS RENAULT (1877-1944)

Neetu Sinha

INTRODUCTION

Louis Renault, a man who is an inventor, racing driver and French entrepreneur, born on February 12, 1877, in a Parisian family at 14 places de Laborde in Paris and died on October 24, 1944, in the prison of Fresnes near Paris. He is the youngest of all as he has a sister Marie Berthe (1868-1889), and three brothers, Marie Joseph (1863-1886), Fernand (1865-1909) and Marcel (1872-26 May 1903).Mr. Alfred Renault,  father of Louis Renault was master in the trade of fabrics and buttons and Mrs. Louise Berthe Magnien, his mother was the daughter of great traders. He belongs to an old Alsatian Jewish family.
LIFE
In his childhood, though he was shy, lonely and little talkative but was passionate about mechanics and electricity. In 1891 at an early age of 14, he set up a workshop at the end of the garden of the family second home in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris. His passion drives him to lock himself in his creative solitude. Though he neglected his studies, he modifies a Pan hard engine, multiplies inventions, tirelessly draws plans and files his first patent. He spends a lot of his time in the workshop where Leon Serpollet makes steam car engines.
He completed his baccalaureate at the Condorcet high school and decided to abandon his studies so that he could rely on his prolific imagination, intuition, and pragmatism.
In 1898, at the age of 21, he created his first cart, Renault Type A which he took on the entire Lepic street with his brothers and friends on December 24, 1898, during  the Christmas Eve. Thereafter he pocketed 12 orders and then he decided to become a car manufacturer. A few months later, he filed the patent of the gearbox to "direct catch". On February 25, 1899, his two brothers Marcel and Fernand founded the company Renault Frères at 10 rue du Cours in Boulogne-Billancourt with 60 employees including Louis who was just simple employee put to the test and beneficiary of his patent.
In August 1899, Louis lined up with his brother Marcel at Amateur Drivers Cup and won his first race and thereafter Renault brothers got success in several others. Due to this, the brand name of Renault got on high with an increase in a number of orders for cars. This was the phase when Renault was on top in its category.
First World War
During the First World War, Louis Renault took active participation and in addition to cars, trucks, tractors, shells, and rockets, he builds elements of rifles and cannons and aircraft engines. Though initially in August 1914, the factories of Billancourt were partly closed due to the advancement of the German army forced to reopen the factory. He was sent to Bordeaux to meet Minister Millerand, folded with the Poincaré government and was ordered for making shells for the army. Due to harsh working conditions until 1917, he introduced an important social reforms and created large worker cooperative in consultation with Albert Thomas in 1916. His exceptional contribution to the Allied victory makes him an international hero and increases the image of the Renault Company in the world.
In 1921, Louis successfully transformed the "Société Anonyme des Factories Renault (SAUR)" into an industrial empire and brought a bank into its capital to face the global competition. Renault plant Île Seguin in Boulogne-Billancourt, symbol of workers' social struggles. Louis Renault invests a lot of money and time in the Chausey archipelago. He also enters into unrestrained competition in all industrial and technical fields with his great rival André Citroën at the expense of small manufacturers who are gradually disappearing.
Very well introduced in political circles, he becomes the official supplier of major public transport companies. In 1934, Louis Renault's health brutally degraded from a right kidney calculus. On February 21, 1935, he met Adolf Hitler in Berlin for two hours at the Reich Chancellery to preserve peace in Europe through an economic agreement between the two countries in the framework of a Franco-German agreement.
In May 1940 during Second World War, he flew to the United States to accelerate the production of tanks for the purpose of resisting the German advance. But in March 1942, during allied bombing hit, the plant witnesses 500 dead bodies and around 2,000 wounding in Boulogne-Billancourt which results him to return from the US for rebuilding. After the liberation of Paris, he is accused of collaboration. A warrant is issued against him on 19 September 1944 for "undermining the external security of the State".
On September 23, 1944, his health deteriorated quickly in prison and later he was transferred to Paris clinic where he dies. His last word would have been: "the Factory ..." He is buried in Herqueville in the Eure, a commune of  his farmland of 1,700 hectares in which he owned a castle where  he has been extended in parts.

HIS INVENTIONS

One of the largest French car manufacturers, Louis Renault built his first vehicle in 1898, at the age of 21, the Renault Type A with the exception of the engine (the engine was one of Dion with a power of 1.75 horsepower), included a chassis with tubes and a transmission by shaft and later in 1902, Louis presents his first Renault engine, 24 hp, 4 cylinders. In 1900, he transformed his first car to the sedan.
During the first world war, Louis Renault, himself mobilized as sapper-airship in addition to cars, trucks, tractors, and even builds reconnaissance aircraft (AR aircraft). From the 11 CV roadster type "war" to the 6 cylinders Marshal Joffre.  In 1917, with the support of General Jean Estienne, the industrialist designs and builds the first Renault FT light machine tank FT-17 tank whose remarkable qualities contribute to the final victory of 1918.
He puts his hand on the forges and steelworks of Hagondange (1919) through the UCPMI (Union of Consumers of Mining and Industrial Products), and in the process, he created a hydroelectric plant in Savoie to supply the Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne plant, which supplies special steels (1920).
In 1936, production reached the record level of 61,146 vehicles. This was the reason, Louis Renault was known as the Father of Modern Car.
  
HIS ACHIEVEMENTS
On December 24, 1898, he drove through the streets in his first car and later he grabbed 12 orders after which he filed the patent of the gearbox to "direct catch", which was adopted by all the car manufacturer of that time. The fall of the patent in the public domain in 1914, Renault garners nearly 3.5 million francs, finding enough to finance his business. On February 25, 1899, Renault Frères was established by his brothers and later the brand is established in England, the United States and Germany through subsidiaries. Renault also sells in Belgium, Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, Spain, and Argentina.
Louis Renault's exceptional contribution to the Allied victory during First World War makes him an international hero and increases the image of the Renault Company in the world. In 1918, he was named Officer of the Legion of Honor9. Ludendorff must have grumbled: "The French have had this rare fortune to find a great general ... Louis Renault.
In 1929, Louis Renault acquires the company Caudron aircraft, enters the capital of Air France and participates in the creation of Air Bleu for air mail transport in France. In 1932, he was named Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor9. “To see and to make quickly”, an expression that Louis Renault adored indifferent to the things of the mind, he wanted a concrete and pragmatic spirit: “I obey my actions, my instincts more than my intelligence”. Mechanical engineering, visionary entrepreneur, he was also an authoritarian and tyrannical boss.
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