Important Inventions in the World of Cars

|THE DEN|

Cars are so modern and luxurious nowadays, its almost impossible to remember that cars used to be so barebones merely 15-20 years ago. In this article let’s explore the most important inventions in the world of cars. These inventions have helped shape the world of cars to what it is now and we hope things only get better with time.

Seatbelts

With the invention of the three-point seat belt we are all acquainted with today, the world got significantly safer 60 years ago. More than a million lives are thought to have been saved by this invention, which is still regarded as the greatest significant advancement in traffic safety in history.

To buckle up can mean the difference between life and death. According to reports, buckling up increases a driver's and a passenger's odds of surviving a catastrophic car collision by double. If more people opted to use a seat belt, 7000 lives would be saved annually inside the EU alone.

The contemporary three-point seat belt was created in 1959 by Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin. Despite the fact that the design was protected by a patent, the business decided to keep the patent open, making it freely usable by all automakers. In order to make sure that everyone, regardless of whether they drove a Volvo or not, could be safer in traffic, this very unusual choice was made for the safety of general public.

Back in the day, many cars weren't even equipped with a typical two-point seatbelt, and even if they were, it was obvious that the overall setup, which just crossed the lap, was far from ideal. In some instances, it really resulted in severe internal injuries. Because it did nothing more than keep you where you were.

American vehicles weren't obliged to have seat belts until 1966; prior to that, seat belts were offered by auto manufacturers as optional gear and could even be purchased at neighbourhood gas stations. The majority of first-world nations had seat belt laws in place for their cars by 1975.

For a long, even though your car had to have a seat belt, nobody had to wear it. In 1984, New York became the first state to mandate seat belt use; nonetheless, it wasn't until 1995 that

all states of the US had approved the "Click it or Ticket" regulations.

It's crucial to buckle up when driving! Thanks to this development, the fatality rate from auto accidents has significantly decreased since 1976.

Windshield Wiper

It is true that the first step towards discovery is necessity. The majority of things in the world were either created out of necessity or discovered by chance. The same is true of a windshield wiper, a rather little but crucial part. It is frequently overlooked or forgotten. However, have you ever considered how they were created.

To begin with, Hartford, Connecticut resident George J. Capewell is credited with creating the windshield wiper. Back then, he managed to patent his invention for motorised windscreen wipers, but he never received the recognition he deserved. Instead, the first functional wiper was created in 1903 by a woman by the name of Mary Anderson.

According to the documented accounts, Mary was riding in her carriage during a stormy night. She had to stop the carriage periodically while travelling in order to clean the windscreen.

She then imagined a device that cleans the window from the inside as a result of this. At this point, the idea of a mechanical wiper was raised. In 1903, Mary Anderson is frequently given

credit for creating the first practical window wiper. Later, the cars of that era began to include these antiquated windshield wipers. She also referred to her concept as a "window cleaning

equipment."

More over a century ago, reduced visibility from rain or snow posed serious dangers to the safety of both drivers and passengers. Driving in rainy and foggy weather therefore became simple after the development of windshield wipers.

The technology that makes windshield wipers work has undergone significant changes over time. They were operated using a variety of mechanisms. The wipers being powered was

the original concept. Early powered windshield wiper models relied on vacuum and were driven by the engine's manifold. However, this had certain drawbacks. Engine manifold vacuum changes with speed and throttle input and is barely detectable at full throttle. This caused the wipers to move at various speeds and occasionally stop moving altogether.

Cruise Control

Today, almost all cars are equipped with some form of cruise control. Cruise control, invented in the early 1900s, became popular on luxury vehicles, but has since become an essential

and incredibly useful piece of automotive technology. Let's take a look at where cruise control comes from and how it works to make our daily life easier.

While cruise control was used in automobiles as early as the early 1900s, modern cruise control was invented in 1948 by American engineer Ralph Teetor. The idea came to him when

he was a passenger in a car driven by his lawyer, who kept fluctuating the speed every time he spoke.

Today, almost all cars are equipped with some form of cruise control. Cruise control, invented in the early 1900s, became popular on luxury vehicles, but has since become an essential

and incredibly useful piece of automotive technology. Let's take a look at where cruise control comes from and how it works to make our daily life easier.

As an automatic transmission pioneer, Teetor already had experience with vehicle mechanics, so he decided to design a solution for his lawyer's driving behavior. The result was a system that calculated vehicle speed based on vehicle driveshaft rotations and used a two-way screw electric motor to vary the throttle position as needed. In 1950 Teetor was able to obtain a patent for a "speed control device to resist the actuation of the accelerator", and cruise control as we know it was born.

Modern cruise control systems began to emerge in the 1990s, with manufacturers incorporating the most advanced digital technology into the design. Other systems such as LiDAR, radar, sonar and camera-based solutions were soon added, improving the car's ability to detect oncoming traffic, in turn helping the vehicle determine its speed and avoid potential

collisions.

Now as Tesla brings out cars that are self driven we must not forget how important a feature cruise control is. This little useful technology has been making highway drives easier for

more than 25 years and has given way to many new developments in the Auto Industry.

Airbags

In April 2019, the Indian government made "Airbags" mandatory for all cars sold in the country. This ruling came after safety was considered the top priority when it comes to cars and driving. Indians car before 2019 had the option to not give airbags all together and safety was being taken for granted because we all know how important an airbag for the safety of

passengers during an accident.

It is in India that such strict standards for the safety of passengers in a car have emerged in recent years. In America and European countries, standard airbags began to appear in

almost all new cars in the 1990s. Now this essential equipment may oftentimes go unnoticed but lets figure out how it was invented.

Like seat belts, airbags are a type of automotive safety restraint system designed to reduce injury in the event of an accident. Built into the steering wheel, dashboard, door, roof and/or seat of your car, these gas-filled cushions use an impact sensor to trigger a rapid expansion of nitrogen gas contained within a cushion which springs on impact, to create a protective barrier between passengers. and hard surfaces.

The two main types of airbags are designed for front and side impacts. Advanced front airbag systems automatically determine whether and at what strength the driver's front airbag and the passenger's front airbag are deployed. The correct power level is based on measurements of sensor inputs that can typically detect the size of the occupants, the position of the seats, the use of seat belts by the occupants and the severity of the accident.

In 1964, Japanese automotive engineer Yasuzabrou Kobori developed an airbag "safety net" system that used an explosive to inflate the airbag, for which he received patents in 14

countries. Unfortunately, Kobori died in 1975 before seeing his ideas put into practice or widely adopted.

In 1971, Ford Motor Company built an experimental fleet of airbags. General Motors installed airbags in a fleet of 1973 Chevrolet Impalas - for government use only. The 1973 Oldsmobile Toronado was the first car with a passenger airbag sold to the public. General Motors then offered a driver's airbag option in larger Oldsmobiles and Buicks in 1975 and 1976, respectively. The technology has only improved since then, giving hope that the future of cars will be even safer than they are today.

Automatic Transmission

The introduction of the automatic transmission offered drivers a "no obligation, no hassle" form of shifting. Early automobiles only offered manual transmissions, which were similar in

principle to today's manual transmissions. These cars had two forward gears and one reverse coupled to the engine via a set of pedals. But as cars got bigger and traffic got worse, engineers began looking for a way to "automatically" shift the car from one gear to another.

No more missed change gates. No motor towing or racing. No ripped stockings, high-heeled clutch pedal drama. None of them. Just step on the accelerator and go. So you can understand why the invention of the automatic transmission was so successful, it made driving both easier and more accessible.

The first automatic transmission was invented in 1921 by a Canadian steam engineer, Alfred Horner Munro. Munro designed his device to use compressed air instead of hydraulic fluid, so it lacked power and was never sold commercially. General Motors then developed the first automatic transmission with hydraulic fluid in the 1930s and introduced the "Hydra-Matic" transmission in 1940.

The 1948 Oldsmobile was the first model to use a true automatic transmission. The Hyrda-Matic, developed by GM engineer Earl Thompson, was billed as: "The biggest advancement since automatic launch." The Hydra-Matic was continually improved and refined until 1955, but the basic design and theory used was remarkable throughout its consistent long-lived history.

The most significant changes/improvements in automatic transmission design to date are the number of forward gears transmissions now have and the change from mechanically controlled transmission operations to electronically controlled transmission operations. Mechanically controlled automatic transmissions have reached their limits in terms of future

improvements, while electronically controlled automatic transmissions have only scratched the surface of possibilities.