Émile Delahaye

Émile Delahaye was born in Tours, Indre-et-Loire. He studied engineering at Arts et Métiers Paris Technical trade school in Angers, the same educational institution later attended by Louis Delâge, another French automobile pioneer.

For a time, Delahaye worked in Belgium, at the Crail Engineering works, a company known for making steam locomotives. He returned to Tours following the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, where he went to work for Monsieur Berthon, the proprietor of the Berthon Foundry And Machineworks, as his administrative assistant and senior engineer.

Delahaye married in 1873 but the couple were not young enough to conceive any children. In 1879 Delahaye assumed control of the Brethon Foundry and Machine-works, a business manufacturing brick kilns and related equipment for the ceramics trade. Delahaye experimented with steam and internal combustion engines, eventually converting part of the company's production to manufacturing stationary petrol engines for pumps.

In 1894, he displayed his first automobile at the inaugural Paris Motor Show, held in a large Paris art gallery. Aside from the myriad motorized bicycles and tricycles, Delahaye's was one of only two automobiles entered.