What safety features did an early car have?

Question

What safety features did an early car have?

Answer 1

No joke:  A man, running in front of the car with an oil lantern.

Answer 2

None really.

I got to see the original "999", the Henry Ford and Barny Oldfield racer from the early 1900's.

It had a solid steel frame with no rear suspension (no springs).

It had no seat belts.

It had no windscreen.

The Mechanic, riding on the side, standing  had to reach over it to oil the top of the engine as it was running and also oil the rear gears too!

It had dual tiller steering, sort of like handle bars.

It did 91 Miles per hour on frozen lake St Clair.

It was a feat of bravery, indeed.

Answer 3

I will second the "None" answer.  There was no such safety thinking in the design of early cars.  Safety glass was first adopted by Ford in 1928.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windshield

Today we are blessed with the safest cars ever made that will give you the best chance of surviving a crash.  While one of the posters laments the lost days of cars with bodies that were easy to work on and full box frames, in an accident the body resists crumpling, so the car takes longer to de-accelerate.  Which means YOU take longer to de-accelerate, so you impact into the non collapsing, non padded steering wheel with tremendous force.  Usually you are impaled on the steering wheel.  This is a fact since the romanticized of old were not equipped with a seat belt.  Saab was the first to equip cars with seat belts as standard equipment in 1958.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_u...

Since your passenger was not belted in, they went flying into the non padded dash or into the windshield.  Sure sounds like a romantic way to end an evening.  While I like the style of the old cars, for safety, NOTHING beats today's cars.

PS, In 1972 while on our way to the movies, the car I was riding in (we were traveling at 30 mph) was struck by a VW Beetle on the left from corner of my friend's Ford Maverick.  Car was violently shoved to the right, passenger door opened and deposited me on the ground.  After sliding on the ground for a bit, I stopped and was able to survey the damage.  Road rash on my right hand, arm and right hip.  From that day forward I have always worn a seat belt when I drive.  Always.

Answer 4

In the 1930s, plastic surgeon Claire L. Straith and physician C. J. Strickland advocated the use of seat belts and padded dashboards. Strickland founded the Automobile Safety League of America.

In the 1940s SAAB incorporated aircraft safety thinking into automobiles making the Saab 92 the first production car first with a safety cage.

Answer 5

haha

im also lookin that up

for my science research loool

Answer 6

Windshield wipers, supprisingly didn't come untill quite a few years after the car was invented.  At the time it was considered a fancy safety feature.  People were amazed at being able to see while driving in the rain.

Answer 7

Since cars were first made the features that made them safe for a long time were. (1)  The chassis was made from solid  box or u shaped thick steel. Connected to the front and back were spring steel bumper bars.  The cars didn't crumble like they do today. Most cars today don't even have a chassis, just a pressed thin steel floor.  I was a motor mechanic back in the fifties and you could weld the cars quite easily with gas bottles.  Now they have to use Mig and Tig welders so they don't blow holes through the metal because its so thin.  The seats were big and deep piled an usually made of real leather. The steel in the car body was a lot thicker. Today they make them thin to cut down on costs and also to form better streamline curves to make the car attractive.  I know we didn't have seat belts back then and you could go through the windscreen.   But I would rather do that than be crushed to death in an expensive good looking tin can of what they call a car today.  The other thing that made them safer was....there wasnt mad brained idiots with loads of horse power under the bonnet screaming around the streets, or being chased by the police.   Cars were a lot slower, so tyres didnt need to be so good and so expensive. There were no M.O.T tests and they were easy to repair and look after.  Today you have to take your car to a garage to have it serviced because its too complicated to do yourself.  Then nine times out of ten you get ripped off........So give me back the good old slower car that smelt of leather and engine oil, and give us the roads back that we had then  (no motorways) speed robbing cameras and money grabbing councils.........  And to finalise, I would just like to say,...... .. I am glad I am old and that I spent most of my younger days driving these individual made cars that you could recognise in an instant. If living was still the same as then this country and the world would be a far better place to live.   Good luck to all you modern drivers, and be carefull.

Answer 8

Windscreen.

Indicators.

Seat belts.

Brakes.

Rear lights.

Even earlier, a man walking in front with a red flag.

Answer 9

In the UK, a man with a red flag had to walk in front of the vehicle, to warn other road users - TRUE

Answer 10

Slow mph speed.

Brake.

That's about it.

RAC London to Brighton Veteran Car Rally...

http://www.vccofgb.co.uk/lontobri/genera...

Answer 11

Seatbelt.

Answer 12

Hooter.

Answer 13

brakes, lights (probably oil or candle) someone to walk in front waving a flag.

Answer 14

Some even had windscreens...!

Answer 15

how early?

pre 1900?

what?

Answer 16

Gas lights.