From gold at the Lépine competition to bankruptcy: the ancestor of the pressure cooker has gone "pschitt"
August 14, 2025 at 11:11 AM, modified August 14, 2025 at 11:11 AM
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Patented models, more or less well polished, are still sold on second-hand sites or at auction. The auto-thermos, the ancestor of the pressure cooker, was produced for nearly 30 years in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine) by the Ateliers de Boulogne-sur-Seine. Some models on the market are engraved with their place of manufacture. Produced from 1927 at 14, rue Béranger, not far from the Pont de Saint-Cloud, there is no trace of the factory from that time left today.
This "hermetically sealed pressure cooker" was invented by a certain Mr. Chapelat and awarded the gold medal at the Lépine competition in 1926. It also received the Grand Prix at the exhibitions in Paris, Nice, Le Havre, Lyon, Reims, and Nancy. According to a prospectus from the Nancy exhibition, the Ateliers de Boulogne, which had previously specialized in the construction of railway equipment and various engines, acquired the manufacturing license for France for this pressure cooking appliance, produced well before the creation of the pressure cooker in 1953 by the Groupe Seb .
Le Parisien
