Ah, for the days before road rage, when sticking your tongue out at an offending motorist wasn't guaranteed to get you shot.
Speaking of which, we have the under dash holster!
Great, isn't it? The thing's designed to handily pop the pistol out at a moment's notice. Can't imagine too many law enforcement types would be happy about civilians running around with that little option.Of course, the area of automotive security wouldn't be complete without mention of this little alarm beauty which shocks anyone who touches the car!
Certainly something that was invented before lawsuits became so common. However, it pales with what they have in South Africa: Flamethrowers! There's even video of it roasting a mannequin!
For the busy traveler, we have the rear seat dining table.
Quaint, isn't it? A pair of unbelted lovelies in the back seat, with a nice hard edged table, suspended from the roof of the car. I really don't want to know what the back of a car equipped with that would look like after an accident. Even if that was designed to breakaway in an accident, you've got a large, hard, object, flying about the passenger compartment. Not to mention that this would have been used before plastic dishes and cutlery, so you'd have the potential of glass, ceramic, and metal silverware going everywhere as well.If you're over about the age of 30, you no doubt remember back when cars had hood ornaments. These were emblems which stuck up above the hood of the car and proudly declared the make and/or model of your car. These were holdovers from back when cars had large, low-pressure radiators on the front of the car. They disappeared for two reasons. One was that they screwed up the aerodynamics of the car, the other was that they were easy pickings for thieves. Rolls-Royce for a while had one that would disappear into the car when it was parked to prevent this, but I don't know if they still have it, and I don't think that anyone else offered this feature. I do have to wonder what rap culture would be like if this little beauty of a hood ornament had caught on.
Kind of hard to be a bad ass rapper if you've got the words "Thank You" dangling around your neck.I always thought that car seats were invented in the 1980s. That, however, is not the case, as this one dates from 1935.
Nor was it the only one.
Notice that junior's securely belted in, but there's no seat belts for dad. From the looks of the picture, they weren't even installed on the car when it was built.Every now and then people worry about folks who are colorblind being behind the wheel of a car. After all, color blind folks tend to have problem with red and green, and those are the colors chosen for use on traffic lights. Folks who are colorblind say that it's not really that big of a deal. Still, someone was concerned enough about it in the 1940s to design glasses to enable the colorblind to "see" colors.
Remember the flap about Mitt Romney hauling the family dog in a crate on top of the minivan? I have to wonder out this would have gone over with folks if it were introduced today.
In some ways, it doesn't really seem to be that bad. After all, you don't have to worry about Fido jumping all over the place while you're trying to drive (or jumping out an open window), but in an accident (especially a T-bone, side impact, or rollover), he's toast.Slightly less lethal for Fido, is the canine car seat which clamped to the back of the front seat. Sure, it gives the dog a great view of the outside world, but the moment you slam on the brakes, you're going to get the dog thrown into your neck. This would be pretty bad if it was something like a toy poodle, but can you imagine what would happen if you had something like a great dane up there?
Despite what people might think, airbags were first invented in the late 1960s, as this article on it being an option for Mercedes shows.
Ford considered installing airbags in the Pinto, but dropped the idea before the cars went into production. This is somewhat surreal, if you think about it. The Pinto quickly earned the nickname "death trap" because they could burst into flames in a rear end collision, and I have to wonder what would have happened had the airbags been installed in the cars. Early airbags were way over powered, so there was the potential for serious, even fatal, injuries for the driver from the airbag. Admittedly, however, the design which included the airbag also included self-sealing fuel tanks, so in a rear end collision, there wouldn't have been nearly the risk of explosion as production models had.Most people today aren't familiar with the now extinct Packard Motor Car Company. It was started in 1899 in Warren, OH, by a Dr. Ward Packard. Legend has it that Dr. Packard was dissatisfied with the Oldsmobile he'd recently purchased, and when he went to the dealer to complain he was met with the response, "Well, if you know so much about cars, why don't you start your own car company?" Which he did. Packard was really an American equivalent of Mercedes or Rolls Royce. The cars were extremely luxurious for their time, had a reputation for being fast, and extremely well built. They were also great innovators, and for a time had more automotive patents than any other car company. In 1938, they introduced air conditioning as an option, and they correctly predicted that one day it would become standard equipment.
Packard fell on hard times during the Great Depression, but managed to survive, and during WW II, built aircraft engines under contract to Rolls Royce, as well as marine engines. (I've seen an interview with Rolls-Royce's corporate historian, and it's hysterical to watch how painful it is for him to admit that the Packard engines were very well made.) Packard, sadly, died a rather ignoble death after the war. They merged with Studebaker, got screwed out of important government contracts by the Eisenhower Administration and disappeared in 1959. In the late 1990s, an effort was made to try and revive the brand. However, the company was put up for sale last year, so it looks like they'll never again grace the highways. Somewhere around here I have a pic of an "Anniversary Edition Packard" that was built in the 1980s, which was a horribly mutilated Pontiac Grand Prix. If I can ever find it, I'll mention it in a future post.
