How a De Dion gave Roald Dahl a bloody nose

Perhaps no light but a little controversy… If the Dahls' De Dion Bouton was bought locally, the “driving instructor” could have been from Messrs. Thomas Aycliffe, 41-47 Frederick Street, Cardiff, who were principal distributors for South Wales and located just over two miles from Dahl’s Llandaff house. However, his description of the car and the out-of-place 6925-DK75 registration makes one wonder if this is a family photo of it or just a “looked-a-bit-like-this” illustration. Was it really new, as he recalled 60-ish years later, or second-hand and/or imported from Paris?

The Dahl’s, to a 9-year-old’s eyes’, “enormous, long” motor-car big enough to squeeze in a family of seven, still sounds much bigger than this one appears, like a 15/43 h.p. all-weather 5/7-seater, which could be bought new in 1923 with “a three-section Auster rear screen, spring gaiters, wire wheels and a luggage rack” for £838 - over £40,000 today. As the car’s rear brakes locked, spinning it, likely a pre-1925 model from when front brakes and much bigger hubcaps were fitted and a single spare wheel usually mounted at the rear.

Dahl’s description of the rear screen having adjustable end sections isn’t quite what this car appears to have and where is its folded-down hood and the bulb-horn he said his sister kept honking? It appears to have coach-lamp side-lights when torpedo style was a 1925 UK fitting; also, the headlights are higher than on advertised UK models. Shadows indicate this car has artillery-style wheels when early 1920s English-advertised cars mostly had wires or discs. Some features you’d think might stick in the memory.

Most De Dions sold in the UK at this time were bodied “H.H.H.” pattern under control of H. W. Hillman at De Dion’s Woodside Works in North Finchley (H.H.H. comprised Messrs. Hillman, H. O. Duncan and H. H. Rodwell). They made a 12/28 h.p. 4/5-seat torpedo in 1925; a poor-quality advert photo shows one fitted with a four-section rear screen. Larger 15-18 h.p.- and 22/65 h.p.-engined chassis were also fitted with the same H.H.H. generic, but bespoke-appointed, bodies. Some complete cars of unknown style and quantity were also imported new from France.

From 1924, all models were described as “embodying four-speed gear-boxes, with a right-hand gearchange… Ease of gear changing marks all these models, and there is no doubt that in this respect the De Dion sets a lead that many other makers would do well to follow.” Dahl’s half-sister made a lie of this sales pitch but he did write that she had to be reminded to use the clutch when trying to engage a gear…

Re Dahl’s severed nose, he wrote that in 1925 “there was no Triplex then”, which is wrong by over a dozen years, unless he really meant “toughened glass”. Discovered and patented in 1909 in France by artistic chemist Eduard Benedictus, safety glass laminated with celluloid/xylonite was already in limited use there by 1912 when Reginald Delpech, reportedly recovering from a shattered plate glass taxi windscreen injury, bought a British manufacturing licence. His new Triplex company’s prospectus described manufacture “as so simple that female labour could largely be employed” and although initially there were not enough shareholders, the company was making laminated Triplex at Hythe Road, Willesden by mid-1913.

With evidentially unjustified foresight, Triplex’s luridly-named chairman, General Sir Bindon Blood, declared at a 1913 introductory luncheon: “No matter how you shatter it […] no pieces like those which cause motor accidents ever fly from the glass, so that you can encounter an accident without fear of having your nose or ears cut away.” Celebrity endorsement soon followed when London-based dancer Madame Pavlova had it fitted to her saloon car. Ironically, according to a court report shortly after the factory began production, a couple of youths were fined ten-shillings apiece by magistrates for throwing stones through its windows – one supposes just testing...

Before WWI, Triplex was recommended for all transport vehicle windows and architectural use, shop display-cases, etc. Weather equipment maker G, Beaton and Sons Ltd. even had an accessory Triplex rear screen on sale in 1914 but then, perforce, non-shattering vehicle, aircraft and ship’s-bridge screens took priority. Auster Ltd. supplied Triplex windscreens for military vehicles during WWI, publishing photos of a shrapnel-starred but still whole Crossley staff-car’s screen to record their benefit.

Wider usage for vehicle windscreens began as soon as post-war car manufacture commenced, encouraged by Delpech’s extensive advertising campaigns – twelve cars had them as standard at the 1919 London Motor Show, where both Auster and Beatonsons displayed Triplex front and extending rear screens. Beatonsons’ rear design was advertised as tough enough to fold down for use as a picnic table. Some De Dion Bouton cars sold in the UK had it by at least 1923; hence, quite remiss of whoever ordered Dahl’s car not to have had Triplex screens fitted – unless they had?

Although Triplex advertised that glass injuries due to ordinary glass were the most dangerous outcome of collisions and insurance with it was lower, fitting laminated glass was not universal until 1929. That was also the year Triplex was first sued for misrepresentation after a beautician lost the end of her nose and soon after another woman suffered severe facial cuts, from “shatterproof” screens. Investigations revealed that some Triplex of the time could, if the sandwiched layer of celluloid had been sun-embrittled, cease to retain shards when broken, even helping sharp edges stick out. Even so, the fitting of safety glass windscreens became compulsory for all British cars in January 1931. (Not relevant, but by then the development of toughened single-sheet granulating safety-glass by Triplex/Pilkington Brothers and others was nearing fruition, allowing it to replace laminated from 1934.)

Ergo, unless the Dahl’s “new” car was really quite old in 1925 it could and should have been fitted with some Triplex laminated glass.