title: Charles Jeantaud
text: # Charles Jeantaud
  
  Charles Jeantaud (1840-1906) was a French engineer who invented the parallelogram steering linkage in 1878.
  
  ## Early life
  
  He was born in Limoges, in what is now the Haute-Vienne department of central France.
  
  ## Career
  
  In 1881 he built his first electric car, with help from Camille Alphonse Faure, who had built the first modern day car battery in 1881. The vehicle had a Gramme-design electric motor with a Fulmen-made battery. From 1893 to 1906 he built vehicles under the trademark Jeantaud in Paris.
  
  ## Personal life
  
  He committed suicide in 1906.
  
  