Category Archives: Automotive History

1958 Self-Driving Car

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James P. Butler was a little bit ahead of his time, as evidenced by this article in the May 1958 issue of Popular Electronics.  We think of the self-driving car as a modern phenomenon, but Butler was developing an early prototype sixty years ago.

Butler’s car allowed the driver to relax at the wheel, while the car itself took care of many of the mundane aspects of driving.  The car stayed on the road by monitoring the crown of the road.  If the vehicle drifted to one side, hydraulic cylinders steered the tie rods back into the lane.  One minor glitch, that Butler was sure he could work out, was RFI from strong transmitters.  If a police car keyed up, this might override the system.  Of course, if a police car was in the vicinity, it was probably best for the driver to put his hands back on the wheel.  Sonar would allow the vehicle to brake automatically if an obstacle was encountered.

Control was effected by means of a TV channel selector.  What could possibly go wrong?



1917 Lighting Gas Bus

1917OctPMA hundred years ago, wartime conditions in England were such that there weren’t sufficient liquid fuels (gasoline or methyl alcohol) to run the buses. Undaunted, they switched to the same gas that was used to run the streetlights, conveniently stored in rooftop bags, as shown on the cover of the October 1917 issue of Popular Mechanics.

Complete information was apparently not available to the editors of the American magazine, since they noted that “the amount of power obtained from the lighting gas depends upon a number of things, and a reliable estimate could not be made without more detailed information thanis at hand.  It is also not altogether clear why unwieldly bags are being used instead of compact steel cylinders which could carry gas under high pressure.”

But since the streets were already wired for gas, adding filling stations along the route was a minor matter.  Indeed, some of the filling stations consisted merely of existing lamp posts situated near the curb.



Elwood Hannsman: Boy Scout, Inventor, Lawyer

WashTimes23Aug1914A hundred years ago today, the Washington Times of August 23, 1914, shows these scouts at Camp Archibald Butt, a camp operated by the Baltimore and Washington councils of the BSA between 1914 and 1916.

The scouts are identified as E.L. Maschmeyer, Mitchell Carroll, King Ridgeway, Paul Grove, George Read, Elwood Hannsman, and Randolph Carroll.

windshieldcleanerThe scout second to the right is presumably the same Elwood Hannsman who went on in 1936 to secure U.S. Patent No. 2031830 for the windshield cleaner shown here. Mr. Hannsman was also issued U.S. Patents 2268072 for a direct reading gauge (1941) and 2100188 (1937) for another windshield cleaner. The assignee of all three patents was the Stewart-Warner Corporation of Chicago, which was presumably Mr. Hannsman’s employer.

And at some point, it would appear that Stewart-Warner sent Mr. Hannsman to law school, since he is listed as one of the attorneys for Stewart-Warner in a number of cases, including
Jiffy Lubricator Co. V. Stewart-Warner Corp., 177 F.2d 360 (4th Cir. 1949).

He was a member of the ABA Section of Patent Trade-Mark and Copyright Law. He was the Chairman of the Patent Sub-Section at the time of his death in 1954.  (ABA Journal, June 1954).


1914 Gas-Electric Hybrid Automobile

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I’m always amused by those who apparently believe that the gasoline-electric hybrid automobile is a revolutionary technology. It is true that vehicles such as the Toyota Prius are well designed efficient vehicles. But there’s nothing inherently revolutionary about a vehicle powered by both a gasoline engine and an electric motor, with the gasoline engine used to charge the battery.

Indeed, the idea has been around for at least a hundred years, as shown by this example in the August 1914 issue of Popular Mechanics. This model appears to have an electric drive. The 10 horsepower gasoline engine powered a 5 kilowatt generator which in turn powered the motor. The battery could power the vehicle for about 20 miles without charging. Overall fuel economy was about 20-30 miles per gallon.