Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.
CitroĂ«n graduated from the Ăcole Polytechnique in 1898 and thereafter worked as an engineer and an industrial designer. In 1908 he helped the Mors automobile firm increase its production from 125 cars to 1,200 cars per year. At the outbreak of World War I CitroĂ«n persuaded the French army of the need to mass-produce munitions. In 1915 he built a munitions plant whose production of shells reached 55,000 per day. Upon this success he was given the responsibility of organizing the supplying of all French munitions plants with certain vital raw materials. After the war CitroĂ«n converted his original arms factory into a plant to mass-produce a small, inexpensive automobile; the first CitroĂ«n car came off the assembly line in 1919. New CitroĂ«n factories were constructed, and his firm became one of the largest auto-manufacturing companies in France. Refusing to retrench during the Great Depression, CitroĂ«n introduced the only popular front-wheel-drive car of its time, the CitroĂ«n Seven (1934), but he lost control of his company after it went bankrupt in 1934 and was reorganized in 1935.
CitroĂ«n financed various scientific expeditions, including one that traveled 8,000 miles (13,000 km) by car from Beirut to Peking (1931â32). The lighting of the Arc de Triomphe and of the Place de la Concorde were gifts from CitroĂ«n to the city of Paris.
