Gustave Pierre Trouvé was born on January 2, 1839, and died on July 27, 1902. He was a French electrical engineer and inventor who lived during the 19th century. He was known for his ability to create very small devices and was recognized as an expert in many areas of science and technology.

Early life and education

Gustave Trouvé was born on January 2, 1839, in La Haye-Descartes (Indre-et-Loire, France) from a humble family. His father, Jacques Trouvé, worked as a cattle dealer. In 1850, he began training to become a locksmith at Chinon College. From 1854 to 1855, he studied at the École des Arts et Métiers in Angers. His education was interrupted because he was not feeling well, and he moved to Paris, where he worked for a clockmaker.

Paris

From 1865, Trouvé opened a workshop in central Paris where he created and got patents for many different uses of electricity. His work was often written about in science magazines like La Nature. He invented a small carbon-zinc battery to power his tiny electric machines, which quickly became popular. A similar battery was later made and sold widely by Georges Leclanché.

The 1870s

Trouvé helped improve communication systems with several important inventions. In 1870, he created a device to find metal objects like bullets inside human patients. It used electricity, but unlike a similar device made by Professor Favre in 1862, Trouvé’s invention made different sounds for lead and iron. In 1872, he developed a portable military telegraph. Its cables allowed quick communication up to one kilometer, helping send orders and reports quickly from the Front. In 1878, he improved the loudness of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone by adding a double membrane. That same year, he also invented a very sensitive portable microphone. Trouvé became well-known for his skill in making things very small. Using a battery created by Gaston Planté and a small airtight light bulb, he made a "polyscope," which was the first version of the modern endoscope.

The 1880s

In 1880, Trouvé improved the efficiency of a small electric motor created by Siemens. He used a newly developed rechargeable battery and attached it to an English James Starley tricycle, creating the world's first electric vehicle. This invention was successfully tested on April 19, 1881, along the Rue Valois in Paris. However, Trouvé could not patent it. He quickly adapted his battery-powered motor for use in marine propulsion. To make it easier to transport his marine device between his workshop and the nearby River Seine, Trouvé designed it to be portable and removable from the boat, inventing the outboard engine. On May 26, 1881, Trouvé’s 5-meter prototype, named Le Téléphone, reached a speed of 1 meter per second (3.6 km/h) while moving upstream and 2.5 meters per second (9 km/h) downstream.

Trouvé displayed his boat (but not his tricycle) and his electro-medical instruments at the International Electrical Exhibition in Paris. Soon after, he was awarded the Légion d'Honneur. He also made his electric motor smaller to power a model airship, a dental drill, a sewing machine, and a razor.

Trouvé next invented a "Photophore," or battery-powered frontal headlamp, for a client named Dr. Paul Hélot, an ear, nose, and throat specialist in Rouen. This wearable lighting system used a direct shaft and could be directed by head movements, allowing the user to keep their hands free. A set of letters between Trouvé and Dr. Hélot shows that this invention was developed in 1883. Trouvé later modified the headlamp for use by miners, rescue workers, and speleologists in dark environments. He also changed the light’s color for use as theater jewelry by artists in Paris and Europe. These items became known as "luminous electric jewels" and were an early form of today’s wearable technology.

In 1884, Trouvé added both an electric horn and a bow-mounted frontal headlamp to an electric boat. This was the first time such electrical accessories were used on any type of transportation. He also created a portable electric safety lamp. In 1887, Trouvé, whose brand name was Eureka (Greek: εὕρηκα, meaning "I have found," translated into French as "J’ai trouvé"), developed the auxanoscope, an electric slide projector used by traveling teachers.

Around the same time, Trouvé, who was unmarried and not interested in commercial success, focused on inventions related to flight. Believing that heavier-than-air machines would be the future, he flew a tethered model electric helicopter, which was an early version of the Sikorsky Firefly. He later built an ornithopter, a flying machine with wings that flapped using a series of gun cartridges. This device made a noisy but groundbreaking flight of 80 meters.

In 1889, Trouvé attached a frontal light to the battery-electric rifle he had created in 1866, allowing for nighttime hunting. He also developed a battery-electric alarm system for nighttime fishing.

The 1890s

In 1891, Trouvé created electric fountains that showed many colors for use at home and outside. He noticed that electrical power had limits without a strong electrical system, so in 1895, he used acetylene light, a recent discovery, to make lighting for homes. Among his 75 inventions, he also made an electric massaging machine, an electric keyboard instrument inspired by Savart's wheel, a battery-powered lifejacket that could be worn, a boat powered by water jets, a bicycle with a smooth shape, and several toys for children.

In 1902, Trouvé was working on a new invention, a small device that used ultraviolet light to treat skin diseases, which was the first version of PUVA therapy. He accidentally cut his thumb and index finger. He ignored the wound, and infection spread. After having his fingers amputated at Saint-Louis Hospital in Paris, the 63-year-old inventor died on July 27, 1902.

Disappearance and rehabilitation

When the special permission for Gustave Trouvé's tomb in the cemetery of his hometown, Descartes, was not renewed, his remains were moved to a common grave. His personal papers and records were destroyed in February 1980 during a fire at the Town Hall.

In 2012, after a biography about Trouvé written by Kevin Desmond, an English transport historian, a commemorative plaque was placed at his birthplace in France. Four years later, on October 15, 2016, a second plaque was unveiled at the site of his former workshop, 14 rue Vivienne, by Desmond and Jacques Boutault, the Mayor of Paris 2nd District. Efforts to find surviving examples of Trouvé’s inventions have grown worldwide. On September 24, a gold automaton shaped like a skull and stick pin, made by Trouvé and Cadet-Picard, was sold at an auction in London for $8,000. In May 2019, an exhibition titled "Gustave Trouvé, the da Vinci of the 19th Century" celebrated his 180th birthday at his birthplace in Descartes. Sixteen of his original inventions were displayed, and modern electric cars, boats, drones, and bicycles were shown in his honor.

In 2020, a Canadian website, Plugboats.com, started an online competition to choose the best electric boats of the year, naming it the Gustave Trouvé Award. Medals featuring Trouvé’s image were called "Gussies" (short for Gustave). Over 4,000 people voted between May and July 2020. In April 2021, Christian Richards, a British bicycle engineer, built a replica of Trouvé’s tricycle and tested it on rue Valois in Paris, 140 years after Trouvé’s original tests. British media reported that Trouvé was the inventor of the first electric vehicle.

In October 2022, more than 15,000 people voted for a competition featuring over 100 "Gussie" boats from 21 countries, except Antarctica. That same month, Richards delivered a second replica tricycle to Descartes for a second exhibition about Trouvé, which attracted over 400 visitors and 110 students from local schools. In November, a museum dedicated to Trouvé was approved unanimously by the Town Council and entered a Touraine regional contest with 157 projects, including 10 in the Indre-et-Loire district. By midnight on November 30, the Trouvé museum received 366 votes, 73 more than the second-place project. The museum opened on May 15, 2024. Among its recent additions is a working replica based on Trouvé’s 1894 patent for an electric piano. The search for other examples of his inventions continues.

Inventions and innovations in chronological order

• 1864 Electric spherical Geissler tube motor
• 1865 Sealed battery called the Lilliputian
• 1865 Electric medical device
• 1865 Electric jewelry that moves
• 1865 Electric gyroscope
• 1866 Electric rifle
• 1867 Electric medical kit
• 1869 Liquid-fueled pantoscope
• 1870 Device that mimics bird flight
• 1870 Tool to explore bullets
• 1872 Portable military telegraph
• 1873 Electric reclining chair by Trouvé-Paquelin
• 1873 Improved dichromate battery
• 1875 Electric calendar or almanac
• 1875 Portable electric generator
• 1875 Oxygen suit for balloonists
• 1877 Model showing muscle movement
• 1877 Electric paperweight
• 1878 Tools to examine body cavities
• 1878 Improvements to telephones and microphones
• 1880 Air-powered postal elevator by Trouvé-Cros
• 1880 Better Siemens motor
• 1881 Manufacturing of magnets
• 1881 Glowing electric jewelry
• 1881 Electric boat
• 1881 Small dental drill
• 1881 Boat motor for the sea
• 1881 Electric tricycle
• 1883 Underwater lighting
• 1883 Front headlamp by Trouvé-Hélot
• 1883 Electric vehicle headlamp
• 1884 Electric safety lamp
• 1885 Tools for lighting labs
• 1885 Underwater lights used in the Suez Canal
• 1886 New way to build propellers
• 1886 Electric siren for alarms
• 1887 Model electric helicopter (attached to a string)
• 1887 Electric image projector
• 1889 Electric counter
• 1889 Electric generator demonstrator
• 1889 Better electric rifle
• 1889 System to move glass sheets
• 1890 Universal measuring tool
• 1890 Electric lights for carriages
• 1890 Tool to examine geological layers
• 1890 Mobile electric-air powered streetlamp lighter
• 1891 Second mechanical bird
• 1891 Better glowing electric fountains
• 1892 Electric trigger for time-lapse photography
• 1892 Handheld medical measuring tool
• 1892 Battery-powered massage tool for hernia
• 1893 Electric air system for factories
• 1894 Automatic fishing system for night use