Useless Facts on Automobile History
The first automobile race ever seen in the United States was held in Chicago in 1895. The track ran from Chicago to Evanston. The winner was J. Frank Duryea, whose average speed was 7 and a half miles per hour.
In 1906 a car known as the Autocar was manufactured in the United States with a new invention—headlights (they burned kerosene). The Autocar, however, lacked another important accessory—the steering wheel. The driver directed the vehicle by means of a stick like shaft situated to the right of the driver's seat.
For every 50 miles driven in an automobile, a person has a one-in-a-million chance of being killed in a motoring accident.
In 1924 a Ford automobile cost $265.
In 1950, the United States had 70 percent of all the automobiles, buses, and trucks in the entire world.
In 1905 the Bosco company of Akron, Ohio, marketed a “collapsible Rubber Automobile Driver.” The figure, deflated and kept under the seat when not in use, was a kind of dummy intended to scare thieves away when the car was parked.
The Buick, the first automobile manufactured by the General Motors Corporation, was actually built by a man named David Buick, a plumber by trade, also invented a process whereby porcelain could be annealed into iron, hence making possible the production of the white porcelain bathtub.
The high roofs of London taxicabs were originally designed to keep gentlemen from knocking off their top hats as they entered and left the vehicles.