Emile Lamm (24 November 1834 – 12 July 1873, in New Orleans) was a French-born American inventor and dentist. [1]
Lamm was born in Aÿ, France, but moved to Louisiana in 1848 at the age of 14. He patented various improvements in techniques of gold dental fillings, and developed a number of innovative designs for street railways. [2] [3] [4] These later were inspired by wishes to improve the Streetcars in New Orleans, as there was a desire for faster and more powerful propulsion than horsecars could provide, [5] while steam locomotives created noise, smoke, and soot that was undesirable in city streets. The most successful of Lamm's designs was " Lamm's Fireless Engine", which ran on the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar line in New Orleans in the 1870s and 1880s, and also saw wide use in the street railways of Paris.