The fascinating history of American cars . . .one story at a time.
This was the title of a story in the November 23, 1919, issue of the Oakland Tribune in which the writer marveled at the fast rise of motorized stage coaches in the state of California. A total of 650 independent companies were operating approximately 3,000 stages. In 1918, a total of 118,000,000 miles were traveled in stages over the highway of the states by 25,000,000 paid fares, and business was expected to double for 1919. These pictures of some of the stages were included with the article:
Look what I found collecting dust in an antique store the other day: a vintage “Passing Eye” mirror!
The “Passing Eye” mirror was designed to give the driver a view of the oncoming lane of traffic when his vision was obstructed by another vehicle directly ahead of him. The outside mirror catches the picture of the oncoming lane of traffic and reflects the image to the inner mirror, and this enabled the driver to know if it was safe to pass without swerving into the middle of the road. This is what it looks like on the Dodge:
I found lots of newspaper advertisements for the Passing Eye, and they all date to 1949 and 1950 like this one from the May 24, 1949 Decatur Daily Review:
Note that the ad claims 49% of accidents were caused by “pulling out to go around.” That seems like a bit of an exaggeration, but it is still a neat accessory for any classic car!
“Veterans know better than anyone else the price of freedom, for they’ve suffered the scars of war. We can offer them no better tribute than to protect what they have won for us.”
Ronald Reagan
A New York Times article from earlier this year about the unpleasant intensity of LED headlights contained the following hilarious quote:
“Complaints about headlight glare are not new, and date back at least 20 years.”
Um, yes, complaints about headlight glare do date back at least 20 years. Or over 100 years. Whatever.
During the mid-1910s, state legislatures began addressing the problem of headlight glare. In July of 1917, a new California law took effect that required headlight beams to rise no more than 42 inches at a point measured 75 feet or more in front of the car. The following year, the New York legislature passed a law that contained the following specific requirements:
Some motorists were trying things like bending the headlight brackets or painting part of the bulbs to lessen glare, but there were other options. In conjunction with New York’s 1918 law, the New York Secretary of State actually named 45 anti-glare devices that had already been developed and that would put a vehicle in compliance. One of the devices appearing on that list was called the Osgood lens, and I recently found a couple of survivors:
The idea behind this lens was the use of 12 horizontal prisms to direct all of the light outward and downward. The company claimed that the Osgood lens provided 74% more brightness on the road than regular lenses because none of the light was wasted by being thrown into the air.
I am not sure who deserves the credit for these innovative lenses. According to the patent number embossed on one of them, they were invented by a man named Emerson Clark. Newspaper stories and ads at the time variously said the lenses were “perfected by,” “designed by” or “invented by” this handsome man, James R. Cravath:
Cravath was described as “one of America’s foremost authorities on illumination,” and that appears to be an accurate depiction. The Illuminating Engineering Society still lists one of his 1908 papers on its list of 100 Significant Papers. A 1918 issue of Electrical Review described Cravath as a consulting engineer and executive in the electrical industry as well as the editor of publications such as Electrical World.
This story illustrates why I love this era of American history. There was a problem (headlight glare), at least 45 people had already developed devices to solve the problem and those devices were made right here in America. Also, men’s hairstyles were better.
