Automotive History
Important Automobirthdays
1903 Debut of the enclosed car and glass windshield.
1904 Steering wheels replaced tillers.
1908 The first rumble seat. It was part of a Packard two-seater called
the "Honeymoon car."
1909 Introduction of the compressed air self-starter. It never worked
well.
1912 The electric self-starter we use today was perfected by Samuel
Kettering.
1914 Henry Ford started paying his employees a daily minimum wage of
five dollars. He thought that his employees should be able to afford the
cars they built.
1916 Something for women; cars would feature vanity cases, clocks, crystal
flower vases, telephones to "instruct" the driver and smelling salts.
1917 Car heaters started to appear on several models.
1920 The pneumatic tire was introduced allowing the new possibility
of flat tires.
1922 The Wills-St. Clair featured a back-up light.
1925 The first rental car: the Hertz "Drivurself."
1926 Shock-proof" glass on Stutz and Rickenbacher models.
1927 The year of the chrome trim.
1930 The first front-wheel drive cars offered to the public were the
Gardner, the Cord and the Auburn.
1931 Sun visors for the interior of the car became available.
1933 The billboards first announcing mileage appeared in displays due
to concern for fuel economy.
1937 Batteries were moved to a new position, under the hood, and the
first automatic transmission (as we know it) appeared on an Oldsmobile.
1938 Buick made turn signals available.
