German Patent No. 502623 (1930) — Elastic chassis suspension by Georges Messier

In this document

Patent identification

This is the Patentschrift fascicle No. 502623, issued by the Reichspatentamt (Class 63c, Group 41), published on 16 July 1930 p. 1-2. The holder is Georges Louis René Messier, residing in Montrouge (Seine, France) p. 2. The title of the patent is « Elastische Lagerung für Fahrzeugrahmen » (elastic mounting for vehicle chassis) p. 2.

The German patent is dated 9 November 1927, with priority claimed on a French filing of 9 November 1926 p. 2. The handwritten note "elastic mounting / vehicle chassis" p. 1-2 confirms this French translation of the title.

Technical problem exposed

The printed text describes the operation of classic pneumatic shock absorbers: sliding piston cylinders, fed by an intake valve and an exhaust valve, regulating air pressure p. 2. The memorandum distinguishes three piston stroke zones — intake, neutral zone, exhaust — and highlights the benefit of a large central stroke to save compressed air and improve comfort p. 2.

The identified defect: the right and left pistons of the same axle can move independently under asymmetrical loads, without a sufficient restoring moment to return the body to the horizontal p. 2.

Claimed solution

To remedy this, the invention connects the pressure chambers of two cylinders on the same axle to each other, and adds elastic stabilizing links keeping the chassis parallel to the axles (p. 2-3, claims 1-2). The described device includes a transverse bar G, elastic arms J¹/J², as well as a common valve system M controlled by the movement of the axle's midpoint via levers P and Q p. 3.

Three figures illustrate the assembly: Abb. 1 (top view of the chassis), Abb. 2 (perspective view of a rear axle) and Abb. 3 (cross-section of an axle with common intake/exhaust valves) p. 3-4.

Context

Georges Messier is, in the history of the French automobile, a recognized pioneer of pneumatic and hydraulic suspensions, whose patents notably equipped certain pre-war Citroën models. This 1930 patent is part of this lineage of inventions on air suspensions, which prefigure — by a long way — the subsequent research on self-levelling carried out at Citroën, of which Paul Magès would be the architect with the hydropneumatic suspension of the DS (1955).

The collection from which this piece is extracted gathers five German patents relating to "height correction" p. 1, which suggests a technical monitoring or historical documentation work carried out by Magès or his entourage, seeking to situate his own inventions in the genealogy of suspension systems.

Archivist's perspective

This document does not come from the hand of Paul Magès, but from a patent more than twenty years prior to his own work. Its presence in the Magès archives likely stems from a process of documentary monitoring or the constitution of a file of technical references on the antecedents of height correction, as indicated by the annotation "5 German patents concerning height correction" p. 1.

The numerous handwritten annotations (numbers, circled figures, reference lines) suggest a methodical classification of this patent collection by a researcher or a patent department p. 1-3.

This patent can be compared to other pieces in the same file, notably the Daimler-Benz Swiss patent on automatic height correction and the Hermine Lobinger patent on adjustable hydraulic suspension, which all testify to the same industrial quest: to stabilize a vehicle's body against asymmetrical loads, a problem that Magès's hydropneumatic suspension would solve in a radically different way.