science

La Jamais Contente

La Jamais Contente is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand La Jamais Contente rather than just read about it. In short: La Jamais Contente (French pronunciation: [la ʒamɛ kɔ̃tɑ̃t]; English: The Never Contented) was the first road vehicle to go over 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph). It was a Belgian electric vehicle with a light-alloy torpedo-shaped bodywork and batteries.

Key takeaways

La Jamais Contente belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect La Jamais Contente to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of La Jamais Contente from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

La Jamais Contente (French pronunciation: [la ʒamɛ kɔ̃tɑ̃t]; English: The Never Contented) was the first road vehicle to go over 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph). It was a Belgian electric vehicle with a light-alloy torpedo-shaped bodywork and batteries. The high position of the driver and the exposed chassis underneath spoiled much of the aerodynamics. The light alloy, called partinium, is a mixture of aluminium, tungsten and magnesium. The land speed record was established on 29 April or 1 May 1899 at Achères, Yvelines near Paris, France. The vehicle had two Postel-Vinay 25 kW motors, each driving the rear axle via a chain, running at 200 V and drawing 124 A each, for about 68 hp total, and was equipped with Michelin tires. The chassis was number 25. Today, it is on display at the National Car and Tourism Museum in the royal Château de Compiègne in Compiègne.

Driver The vehicle was driven by the Belgian driver Camille Jenatzy. Camille was the son of Constant Jenatzy, a manufacturer of rubber products (rubber was still a novelty at the time). Camille had studied as an engineer, with an interest in electric-traction automobiles. He became known for his record-breaking speed runs and was nicknamed Le Diable Rouge ("The Red Devil") for the colour of his beard. He died in 1913, after being shot in a hunting accident.

Motivation Wishing to carve a place in the then promising Parisian electric carriage market, Jenatzy started a manufacturing plant, which would produce many electric carriages and trucks. He competed fiercely against the carriage-maker Jeantaud in publicity stunts to see which of them made the fastest vehicles. In order to ensure the triumph of his company, Jenatzy built a bullet-shaped prototype, conceived by the carriage-maker Rothschild in partinium (an alloy of laminated aluminum, tungsten and magnesium).

Speed record Jenatzy reached the speed of 105.882 kilometres per hour (65.792 mph), besting the previous record, held by Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat driving a Jeantaud, who had attained 92.78 kilometres per hour (57.65 mph) on 4 March 1899. After this exploit, the gasoline-fuelled combustion engine would increasingly supplant electric technology for the next century. The Jamais Contente is now on display at the automobile museum in Compiègne, France.

See also Land speed record Other land speed record electric automobiles Buckeye Bullet (2004) Keio University Eliica (2004) Venturi Jamais Contente (2010)

References

External links

(in French) National car and tourism museum in Compiègne

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with La Jamais Contente

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what La Jamais Contente claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to La Jamais Contente before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about La Jamais Contente ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of La Jamais Contente

In research: La Jamais Contente appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses La Jamais Contente in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: La Jamais Contente is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Belgian inventions, Cars of Belgium, Electric land speed record cars, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for La Jamais Contente outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study La Jamais Contente in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what La Jamais Contente means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain La Jamais Contente out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is La Jamais Contente in simple terms?

Why does La Jamais Contente matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study La Jamais Contente?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on La Jamais Contente.