Read About the Early Cars of the 1900s. Our Articles Tell of the Car Culture of the 1920s.
Attached are the results of a nationwide survey from 1954 indicating what the American automobile consumers were shopping for in cars:
• 54% preferred whitewall tires over any other kind
• 68% preferred push-button door handles
• 59% wanted jet-age hood ornaments
• 44% wished that dashboards were loaded with dials and gauges
Shortly before President Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, the nation was treated to articles like the one that is attached herein – articles that detailed all the very many flaws that existed in the American road system:
The most highly motorized nation on earth faced the danger of finding itself all gassed up with no place to go. As the budget-harried [Truman] Administration pressed for a 20% cut in highway aid to states, legislators and private groups warned that U.S. roads were fast crumbling.
The U.S. has 350,000 miles of surfaced primary roads, but about 20,000 miles become unusable or too dangerous every year. One warning sign: U.S. auto deaths, now over 1 million, equals the American dead in all wars since the Revolution.
As of 2013, the United States has the largest and most advanced road network in the world – covering a distance of 6,506,204 km. (China’s road system covers 4,193,000 km).
Five sketches of motor car designs which won cash prizes or honorable mention at the recent [1922] first annual ‘Body Builders’ Show in New York. In this competition were entered many leading custom body builders.
Pictured is the attached advertisement is the Harley-Davidson Two-Speed Twin of 1914, which featured the patented Step-Starter and the expanding rear brake.
A magazine article which examines the automotive upholstery styles of cars that were made for the general public (stock cars) and those other cars that were custom made and likely to be furnished with Dictaphones and vanity cases.
As for materials, it may be said that most of the custom-built cars are upholstered in broadcloth or whipcord, whereas the stock cars show prevailingly velours, mohair velvet and the textile known as automobile cloth.
In our era we think nothing of bookmobiles and bloodmobiles or any number of other converted trucks and vans that are fashioned for various unique uses; this link will enable you to learn about a Catholic chapel-on-wheels (a.k.a. the Jesus-Jalopy, the Nun-Truck, the Pope Pick-Up, the Bishop-Bus) from 1913, that very well might have served as the inspiration for them all.
An informative look at the rising number of cars and the decreasing amount of horses that were put to use in Britain, France and the United States.
In the American confederation it is estimated that there are more than 130,000 automobiles, besides some 35,000 motor trucks, delivery wagons, etc., and 150,000 motor cycles and tricycles. Eight years ago the number of automobiles in the United States did not exceed 6,000.
An article that your gadget-loving, audiophile pals will probably not enjoy from the days before woofers and tweeters. Will wonders never cease? A radio IN THE CAR and an antenna that looks like a luggage rack, for heavens sake…
[The] First models of the Tucker ’48, [the] only really revolutionary postwar car so far, should be ready for public showing in New York, Chicago, and on the West Coast within 60 days…
J.M Studebaker (1833 – 1917) was a pioneer in vehicle building and lived to see the change in locomotion from oxcarts to automobiles. He had been engaged
in the manufacture of vehicles for sixty-five years.
This is a very quick and interesting read, highlighting the key events in the life of this automotive engineer whose name is so readily recognized some eighty-five years after his death.
