The vehicles were produced in Saint-Quentin, Aisne, France, from 1906 to 1914 and marketed under the name Automobiles Abeille de Mesmay (hence the AM nomenclature).
They were powered by petrol engines of various sizes made by the de Mesmay firm, all marketed under the Abeille ("Bee") trade name.
The de Mesmay company also manufactured light agricultural tractors from 1911 to 1914; they also sold marine and stationary engines in 1-, 2-, and 4-cylinder configurations.
[1] He built a factory in 1898 on the Quai Gayant (a quay on the Canal de Saint-Quentin) to manufacture his 'Abeille' marine engine.
Catalogues dating from c1910-1914 shows that the company made 4-cylinder automotive engines in five different sizes, fitted to 'Abeille' de Mesmay (AM) automobiles (models AM 1–5), vans (AML I-III) and trucks (AMC I-II).
[11] From 1911 the de Mesmay company also used the 'Abeille' engine to power a four-wheel drive light agricultural tractor, the 'Tracteur FT'.
[3] With a plough permanently fitted underneath, between the front and rear wheels and weighing about 1,050 kg, it was sold as the 'Houe-tracteur'.
[14] Mesmay's widow Amélie restarted partial engine production after the war in Mantes-la-Jolie, a western suburb of Paris, and returned to the newly built factories in Saint-Quentin in 1920.
[1] Ateliers Veuve A. de Mesmay continued to make 'Abeille' marine engines into the 1930s[10] and finally closed in 1936.
[16] Airault had previously worked at the firm of Anciennes usines Buchet in Levallois, a north western Paris suburb.