More Power To You: Driving With One Finger (Two If Somebody Cuts You Off)

From 1954 Ford ad for optional power steering (from ad and literature collection of Neil Settle)

I'm going to blog about the evolution of power assists we now take for granted.  These assists can be found today on almost every car in every price class.

Only older folks or old car enthusiasts remember "Armstrong Steering".  Straight-line highway driving wasn't a problem. Low-speed maneuvering was. The larger and heavier the car, the more manual effort it took to maneuver it. Steering wheels big enough to steer a cruise ship were installed to give the driver more leverage.  A popular aftermarket accessory, attached to the steering wheel was a knob (nicknamed a "necker's knob"), also for the purpose of giving the driver leverage.  

As I write this, my memory was jogged.  Years ago, I saw a 1941 Chevrolet with a very unusual-looking steering wheel.  As you can see, it was a circle within a circle.  It was a hand grip, which turned on a ball-bearing race.  Finished in ivory tenite, the grip was mounted within a wheel finished in "a rich dubonnet tenite".  It claimed to allow the driver to easily turn the car with one hand.  As near as I can tell by browsing through the Old Car Brochures.org website, this unique option was only offered in 1940 and 1941.  

Taken from Old Cars Brochure.org website--I have no rights and make no claims to this image.

Ironically, during this time frame, power steering could have been available!  Like a lot of automotive innovations, power steering had a gestation period longer than a herd of elephants.  The Great Depression slowed automotive development.  WWII actually helped it along, even though this wasn't immediately evident after the war.  The seller's market gave car companies little incentive to introduce new innovations.

The engineer responsible for the development of power steering was Franklin W. Davis.  He developed power steering while working as Chief Truck engineer at Pierce-Arrow.  He had his personal Pierce-Arrow fitted with power steering and in 1926, he began visiting different car companies, showing-off his rolling prototype.  G. M. hired him in 1927 and they signed him to a seven-year contract.  He worked with G. M. engineering until 1934.  By that time, a system had been developed that was deemed production-ready.  Tooling costs killed the idea, as it was planned as an option for the senior Cadillac models only, not the bread-and-butter LaSalle.  The cost of the option, divided with the anticipated low production of Cadillac models in Depression-ravaged America, would have resulted in excessive retail cost.  It was determined that even the wealthy few would balk at the price.  Besides, madame liked what manual steering did for James' upper-body muscles.  Davis' contract was up and G. M. let him go.

He came back to G. M. in 1939, knocking on Buick Division's door.  Things looked bright until Pearl Harbor halted automobile development and production.  However, power-steering was fitted to some jeeps and was also fitted to tanks, along with G. M.'s Hydramatic transmission.  Yes, tanks with power steering and automatic transmission!

As I referred to above, the pent-up demand for new cars after 3 years of no production meant the car companies could and did get away with offering 1942 models with a few trim changes.  There was no  incentive to make improvements right away.  Invariably, after a few years, the public's pent-up demand was satiated.  By the late 40's, it was a buyer's market and it was time for Detroit to trot out some innovations that engineers had been working on both during and after the war. First and most famous was the overhead-valve V-8. It was introduced by G. M. in 1949.

Chrysler, in the meantime, was working on an even better V-8, one with hemispherical combustion chambers.  I digress, however.  Davis had some patents on power steering developments he let lapse.  Chrysler developed a power steering system based on those expired patents.  They called it "Hydraguide" and made it standard equipment on all 1951 Chrysler Imperial models and an option on the Saratoga.  Davis wasn't owed a dime!  However, it drew G. M. out and this time they were begging Davis, instead of the other way around.  Thus, in 1952, Cadillac, Olds and Buick were able to offer power-steering as an option.

Complaints about early units were that they gave the driver no "feel of the road".  Nonetheless, power steering became a very popular option by the mid-fifties. "Numb" or not, I love old-school power steering!  You could literally steer the car with one finger!  This wonderfully-overboosted set-up persisted into the 1970s (1990's in the case of certain full sized luxury models).  However, on other cars that sought to emulate the less-boosted feel of European cars, some of the "power" was removed from power steering, giving more "feel of the road" and requiring more effort to turn.   

            

Bibliography:
Old Car Brochures.org

Chrysler and Imperial: The Postwar Years by Richard M. Langworth

Cadillac: Standard of the World, The Complete History.  Maurice D. Hendry With the Editors of Automobile Quarterly

The Memories and recollections of your author and articles he's read over the years