CTV Information Note (1997) announcing "Rue Magès" among 8 street names

Internal note from the Vélizy Technical Centre announcing in 1997 the eight street names resulting from a competition, including a "Rue Magès" in tribute to the inventor of Citroën hydraulics.

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Presentation and original captions

During 1997, a competition was organized to name the streets of the Vélizy Technical Centre. Later, a poster informed the centre's staff of the names of the selected inventors. On 31 July 1997, the Vélizy Communication Department informed Paul MAGÈS of the result of the consultation. He accepted, of course, and gave his agreement on the following 12 August. During September, a ceremony was organized on site. Paul MAGÈS unveiled the plaque, and oh surprise, the plaque bore the following name: Rue Paul MAGÈS "inventor of the hydraulic connector" instead of "inventor of Citroën hydraulics". His son Michel, who was next to him, heard him say "I hope this one won't leak". The next day, his son contacted the Communication Department and expressed his father's disappointment, who thought that if he were considered simply the inventor of a connector, the honour bestowed upon him was not deserved. A promise was made to rectify the "error". We will never know if the promise was kept. We have made a photo-montage of the plaque as we had suggested to the Communication Department. To this day, the plaque has disappeared; it has been replaced by a "Totem" simply indicating: Rue Paul MAGÈS. One may wonder if this name means anything to the generations that followed his retirement.

Understanding this document

In this document

This internal note, titled "Projet signalétique" (Signage Project), informs the staff of the Vélizy Technical Centre (CTV) of the results of an internal competition dedicated to choosing the site's street names p. 1.

Selected themes

The document indicates that the themes preferred by the staff who participated in the competition are names of inventors and the names of former production units p. 1.

List of the 8 announced streets

The note lists the eight upcoming street names on the site, each accompanied by a mention of the associated invention:

Street	Invention mentioned
Rue du Théâtre	main axis of the site
Rue Lefebvre	inventor of the traction avant
Rue Magès	inventor of Citroën hydraulics
Rue Bertoni	inventor of the style of the 2 CV and the DS
Rue Beau de Rochas	inventor of the cycle of transformation of thermal energy into mechanical energy
Rue Lemaire	inventor of the floating engine
Rue Michaux	inventor of the 1st French Peugeot engine
Rue Oehmichen	inventor of the helicopter and a Peugeot starter

p. 1

The note finally specifies that the surname, first name, and the invention characterizing each inventor will be mentioned on the street signs p. 1. A discreet, not clearly identifiable handwritten annotation appears at the bottom of the title banner p. 1.

Context

The Vélizy Technical Centre is, in the history of Citroën, the group's main research and development site, where many of the brand's engineers worked. The attribution of Paul Magès's name to a street on this site is part of a corporate memory initiative, alongside other figures associated with Citroën and Peugeot (the two brands then belonging to the PSA group), such as Flaminio Bertoni, stylist of the 2 CV and the DS, or André Lefebvre, designer of the traction avant.

Archivist's perspective

This document, dated 1997, is likely the origin of the process that led, in the same year, to the letter from the CTV communication department informing Paul Magès of this tribute and his response — see the letter of 31 July 1997 and the response from Paul Magès of 12 August 1997.

It constitutes the initial administrative link in this posthumous-living recognition: Magès is designated there simply as "inventor of Citroën hydraulics" p. 1, a formulation that testifies to how his work was perceived and summarized within the company, several decades after his first work on the hydropneumatic suspension.