Jean Piat
Paris, France.
The Jean Piat automobile is one of the most obscure early French motorcar ventures—so obscure, in fact, that the company appears to have been active for only a single year, around 1900 in Paris. Virtually nothing survives in public archives, and no advertisements, catalogs, or corporate documentation are known.
What does survive, however, is one vehicle, believed to be the only remaining Jean Piat automobile in the world, currently on display at Autoworld in Belgium, making it an extremely rare representative of France’s earliest experimental motoring period.
Technical and Design Characteristics
The surviving Jean Piat vehicle displays several mechanical solutions typical of the transitional era between cyclecars and the first true automobiles, but also some features that were advanced—or at least unusual—for its time:
• Block-type rear wheel brakes
The car is fitted with block brakes directly acting on the rear wheels, operated by a small hand-wheel located on the left side. This braking system predates drum brakes and represents an early attempt at providing a secondary mechanical method of slowing the vehicle.
• Transmission brake
In addition to the wheel block brakes, there is a transmission brake, which served as the primary braking mechanism on many vehicles around 1900.
• Original gear system with a vertical disk and two cogs
One of the rare technical features of the Jean Piat is its unusual gearbox, using a vertical rotating disk paired with two engaging cogs—an early, almost experimental approach to transmission design. Very few manufacturers used anything similar, making it a significant mechanical curiosity.
• Equipped with a steering wheel (very early example)
Although the steering wheel would soon become universal, around 1900 it was still a novelty. Most vehicles of the time were still steered by a tiller. The Jean Piat’s use of a proper steering wheel indicates either forward thinking or an adoption of more modern ideas just before the industry standardized around wheels.
