PAUL GALVIN WAS IN NEW YORK CITY in his by now familiar role of fighting off creditors when he heard about the first automobile radio. An enterprising partnership out on Long Island had started the business. For $240 (at a time when you could buy a Ford for $590) they would install a radio in […]
All posts by hrushetskyy
Significance of Radio Use in Automobiles
ONE OF THE WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINES recently carried a full page advertisement for a Motorola AM/FM Multiplex radio and Stereo Tape Player. There was a picture of an attractive young couple in a car her head on his shoulder smiles on both their faces as they raced down a highway somewhere listening to either the […]
The Hunt for an Improved Version of Batteries
WHAT HAPPENED TO KETTERING afterward doesn’t really have much to do with the battery or the electrical system (from the first self starter on the 1912 Cadillac until the introduction of the alternator to replace the generator in the 1960s automobile ignition and self starting systems were simply improvements of Kettering’s basic idea) but it […]
User Friendly Batteries for Automobiles
THE FIRST FORD assembled in December 1902 had batteries twelve of them two sets of six each. Each battery was a 1.5 volt dry cell battery intended to make doorbells ring. Wired in series they produced 9 volts enough to produce the spark at the spark plug. The second set was carried for use when […]
The Origin of Windshields for Automobiles
THE FIRST AUTO MOBILES didn’t come with windshields because they simply didn’t need them. At their top speed the rush of the wind was a gentle breeze cooling to the face and carrying away with it the sometimes none too pleasant odors coming from the engine. The first use of glass in automobiles was in […]
Tires in Different Shapes
The VAST ARRAY OF TIRES available is really fantastic. They range from the tiny doughnuts for lawn mowers to tires for heavy equipment standing twice as tall as a man and costing what the average man earns in three years. And for those few people who have been able to resist the blandishments of Detroit […]
Firestone Company in Tire Business
HARVEY S. FIRESTONE meanwhile had had some second thoughts about Will O Neil. In August 1915 he sent word that he would appreciate meeting with his former dealer. When O Neil went to see him Firestone told him he was establishing Firestone of Canada. To run it he wanted a first class salesman with ambition. […]
Efforts to Make Improvements in Tire Industry
DESPITE THE BEST EFFORTS of everybody in the tire business automotive tires in the first decade of the century left very much to be desired. A satisfactory replacement for solid truck tires had not been found. Pneumatic tires on passenger cars were unreliable. A short ride in the country without the necessity of having to […]
The Next Generation of Rubber Buggy Tires
RUBBER BUGGY TIRES were still thought of as a luxury rather than a necessity and Firestone almost immediately started out to change this image. It wasn’t that he objected to the luxury notion (he devoted in fact his earliest promotion efforts for the Firestone Perfect Side Wire Tire to the medical profession; then as now […]
Challenges in Manufacturing Rubber Tires
THE RUBBER TIRE was obviously what the automobile was going to require and just about as soon as men began to believe the automobile was the coming thing men began to manufacture tires for it. For some people Dunlop for example who was already making bicycle tire sit looked to be a new if small […]