Eight pencil sketches: body silhouettes and linkage mechanisms (1940)

In this document

This folder of eight sheets p. 5-12 consists exclusively of pencil sketches, without any significant textual annotation — only two isolated marks (a cross and a line) appear on one sheet p. 11.

Silhouettes and bodies

Several pages sketch body shapes seen from different angles: an ovoid "teardrop" shape seen from the side, mounted on two bases p. 8; an elongated and curved silhouette, of uncertain identification p. 10; curved lines evoking a body profile, with the outlines of a double ovoid shape in transparency p. 6; as well as a possible plan view of a vehicle, with windshield, two seats, four wheels and a trunk suggested p. 7.

Mechanisms and linkages

Other sheets focus on mechanical systems: a set of rods and connecting rods linking pivot points at the front of a vehicle, around a wheel and a curved fender p. 9; a complex mechanical linkage associating a wheel or a steering wheel, a double-loop spring-like part, and a "V"-shaped lever p. 11; finally, more abstract diagrams combining loops, rotation arrows and stacked elements evoking coils or springs crossed by an axis p. 12.

A page presents a geometric shape that is difficult to identify, made of superimposed hatched areas, perhaps a part seen in cross-section p. 5.

No legend, dimension or date appears on these eight pages.

Context

These sketches come from a folder dated 1940, a period when Paul Magès, an engineer at Citroën, was working on various mechanical studies. The neighboring corpus of this same folder focuses on a "pedal car" project and calculations related to a cable and a propeller — elements external to this document, but which shed light on the likely production context of these sketches.

It is well known that Magès would later become the inventor of the hydropneumatic suspension of Citroën, but nothing in these pages allows the mechanisms sketched here to be directly linked to it.

Archivist's perspective

Without text or legend, these eight sheets remain open to interpretation. The body shapes p. 6-8, 10 and the linkage mechanisms p. 9, 11-12 seem to belong to the same exploratory phase, probably preparatory drafts for a more accomplished project — perhaps in connection with the 1940 folder on the pedal car project found in the same file.

The dimensioned sketches of general vehicle layout could constitute a later and more formalized stage of the same reflection, the dimensions clarifying silhouettes that are still tentative like those seen here p. 6-8, 10.

The dating to 1940 (year level) is neither contradicted nor specified by these pages, which bear no visible date.