Grieve

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Grieve
GrieveAutomobile1908.png
Overview
Manufacturer Juan Alberto Grieve
Production 1908
Assembly Lima, Peru
Designer Juan Alberto Grieve
Body and chassis
Class Economy Car
Body style 2-door touring
5 seats
Dimensions
Wheelbase 99.0 in (2,515 mm)

The Grieve was a Peruvian automobile that was built in 1908 by Juan Alberto Grieve, a Peruvian engineer with extensive knowledge in combustion engines. The vehicle became the first automobile designed and built in South America. A pioneer in the automobile industry, Grieve decided to build a car that would be powerful enough to overcome the bad roads and difficult terrain of Peru. The car was developed at Grieve's workshop in Lima, and the only imported elements of the vehicle were the tires from Michelin, the Bosch starter and the carburetor. The car had five seats, two in front and three at the back. Those at the back were removable, leaving an area for haulage.

Peru republic in South America

Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the west by the Pacific Ocean. Peru is a megadiverse country with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west to the peaks of the Andes mountains vertically extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon Basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon river.

Internal combustion engine engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber

An internal combustion engine (ICE) is a heat engine where the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high-pressure gases produced by combustion applies direct force to some component of the engine. The force is applied typically to pistons, turbine blades, rotor or a nozzle. This force moves the component over a distance, transforming chemical energy into useful mechanical energy.

Geography of Peru

Peru is a country on the central western coast of South America facing the Pacific Ocean. It lies wholly in the Southern Hemisphere, its northernmost extreme reaching to 1.8 minutes of latitude or about 3.3 kilometres (2.1 mi) south of the equator. Peru shares land borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia and Chile, with its longest land border shared with Brazil.

Contents

The vehicle had four cylinders, and the motor had a power of 20HP with 1800 revolutions per minute. Thanks to the elasticity of the engine, this was able to be reduced to 200 revolutions. The cost of the car was 300 pounds, half of what a European car of equal power cost. The car was called “Grieve” after its owner, and the plans were patented. The idea was to commercialize the enterprise and build a fleet of 20 more cars. Grieve decided to speak with President Augusto B. Leguía to, under the sponsorship of the Government, construct three vehicles for the post office, and three more for the city council. The answer from the president was: “We need the products of advanced countries and not experiments with Peruvian products.“

Pound sterling official currency of the United Kingdom and other territories

The pound sterling, commonly known as the pound and less commonly referred to as sterling, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the British Antarctic Territory, and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence. A number of nations that do not use sterling also have currencies called the pound.

Augusto B. Leguía Peruvian Prime Minister

Augusto Bernardino Leguía y Salcedo was a Peruvian politician who served as the 43rd, the 44th and the first year of the 45th President of Peru.

Background

Lima in the early 1900s was a rapidly developing city that was overcoming the destructions made by Chile during the War of the Pacific and the series of different government and social problems that followed the end of the war. The automobile was making a slow introduction into the lives of the city-dwellers by the beginning of the new century. The first automobiles in Peru came from Europe, mainly France and Italy, but there was also a minor role of cars from the United States. However, only the wealthy were able to buy the cars.

Chile republic in South America

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a South American country occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south. Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island in Oceania. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres (480,000 sq mi) of Antarctica, although all claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty.

War of the Pacific South American war (1879–1884) involving Chile against Peru and Bolivia

The War of the Pacific, also known as the Saltpeter War and by multiple other names was a war between Chile and a Bolivian-Peruvian alliance. It lasted from 1879 to 1884, and was fought over Chilean claims on coastal Bolivian territory in the Atacama Desert. The war ended with victory for Chile, which gained a significant amount of resource-rich territory from Peru and Bolivia. Chile's army took Bolivia's nitrate rich coastal region and Peru was defeated by Chile's navy.

Juan Alberto Grieve

The Grieve family came to Peru through George Grieve, an engineer from Scotland that was hired to help construct the Tacna-Arica Railroad. His son, Crisóstomo Grieve Downing, was also an engineer and was hired to design and build the Ferrocarril Central Andino. This was the family of Juan Alberto Grieve, who also became an engineer following in the footsteps of his ancestors.

George Grieve, (1748-1809), was the persecutor of Madame Du Barry.

Scotland Country in Europe, part of the United Kingdom

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

Ferrocarril Central Andino

Ferrocarril Central Andino (FCCA) is the consortium which operates the Ferrovías Central railway in Peru linking the Pacific port of Callao and the capital Lima with Huancayo and Cerro de Pasco. As one of the Trans-Andean Railways it is the second highest in the world constructed by the Polish engineer Ernest Malinowski in 1871–1876.

Juan Alberto Grieve proved to be a person who focused more on the mechanics and electrical engineering of the early 20th century. In 1905, Grieve was already making history by creating the first internal combustion engine of South America. In 1906, Grieve founded the "Automobile Club" of Lima and began to experiment with automobiles and, in 1907, decided to make a vehicle that would fit perfectly with Peruvian roads throughout the country (not just the capital).

Construction

Grieve focused on making the car have a stronger motor that could produce more power. This led him to plan and construct a highly complex motor. The only imported materials he used were the Michelin tires of France and the Bosch starter of Germany. The rest of the equipment was Peruvian, and once completed the automobile was both efficient and cheaper than the important European and North American cars. The automobile was named after its creator, and soon the Grieve received attention from the media thanks to one of Grieve's friends who was the owner of a magazine publisher company.

The Grieve car was presented as affordable and useful for travel throughout Peru. The vehicle had five seats, two in front and three in the back, for a family. However, the three seats in the back could be removed so as to serve as a means of carrying materials. The automobile was revolutionary not only because it was the first South American automobile, but also because it was affordable for all of Peru's economic classes. Grieve planned on creating more vehicles, but needed more funding.

Leguia's rejection

The only economically feasible funding available at that time was the government,[ citation needed ] and so Grieve decided to directly consult Peru's President Augusto B. Leguia for funding to his vehicles. Grieve even proposed to build Leguia a presidential car and also a couple of extra automobiles for usage of the government. The automobile industry in Peru was apparently going to have a fast bloom.

Yet, as quickly as the hopes started, they were shattered even faster by the simple rejection of President Leguia, who claimed that a Peruvian car was a useless idea in comparison to the automobiles of more developed countries. The automobile industry in Peru never again had a chance at developing.

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