Electrical System
When Allesandro Volta invented the storage battery in 1796, he had no idea he
was inventing the modern automotive electrical system. Volta made his discovery
89 years before the first car was offered for public sale. It was another 25
years before the storage battery got even a passing nod from some automakers.
Between 1885 and 1910, most cars having gas engines did not need storage
batteries because they had no devices that required electricity. Ignition was
left to the non-electrical hot tube; later to the magneto, which was a
self-generating mechanism.
Car horn
Until 1908, motorists warned pedestrians to "move it" by shouting or by
pressing a pedal to clang a bell. Neither method was as raucous as the electric
horn, which got its name, the Klaxon, from the Greek word klaxo, meaning "to
shriek."
Between 1908 and 1911, the few autos that had Klaxons used dry cells to operate
them. However, dry cells wore down quickly and had to be replaced, which was
expensive.
By 1911, storage batteries had attained a degree of reliability exceeding that
of dry cells; they lasted at least a month. Then, they could be recharged and
put back into service, unlike dry cells, which were discarded. This degree of
reliability was due in large measure to research and development done by the
electric car industry, which needed good batteries so that its vehicles could
compete with gas- and steam-engine models.
Headlights
The few manufacturers who adapted the storage battery to work the Klaxon then
looked around to see what else they could do with the excess current the storage
battery provided -- and found electric lights.
The first electric lights were introduced on the 1898 Columbia. This was an
electric car with storage batteries. Manufacturers of cars with gas engines had
another way to produce light. This was with the Prest-O-Lite tank, introduced in
1904. It was a steel cylinder containing pressurized acetylene gas that was fed
to headlamps and ignited by flame.
Other manufacturers revived the dynamo, which had been around for some time.
(Today we call the dynamo the generator, but in those days most called magnetos
"generators.") The battery then didn't have to be taken out of the car every
month for recharging.
Starter motor
A problem still presented by those first dynamo-equipped cars was battery
overcharging. However, this trouble was resolved with the development of a
variable speed regulator by DELCO. It was first used in the 1912 Cadillac, which
displayed another feature that set the auto industry on its head: the
self-starter.
Once they adopted the self-starter, (or starter motor) auto manufacturers had to
adopt the battery/generator system to work the starter. However, the system put
out a much more current than the starter motor, lights and horn needed, and
carmakers realized they could harness this current experience. and use it for
igniting the fuel mixture. The magneto then became obsolete.
Starter motor beginnings
The starter motor came about by accident -- literally. In the winter of 1910
on a wooden bridge on Belle Island Mich., a Cadillac driven by a woman stalled.
Not having the strength to hand crank the engine herself, she was forced to wait
on the bridge in the cold until help arrived.
In time another motorist, also driving a Cadillac, happened along. His name was
Byron T. Carter, and he was a close friend of Henry M. Leland, the head of
Cadillac. Carter offered to start the woman's car. As he hand-cranked the
engine, it backfired, and the crank flew off and struck Carter in the face,
breaking his jaw.
Ironically, moments later another car carrying two Cadillac engineers, Ernest
Sweet and William Foltz, came along. They rushed Carter to a physician, but
complications set in and a few weeks later Carter died.
Leland was devastated. He called a special conference of his engineers and told
them that finding a way to get rid of the hand crank was top priority.
"The Cadillac car will kill no more men if we can help it," he announced.
Starter motor for automobile engines had been tried in the past. Some were
mechanical devices, some pneumatic and some electric.
But all attempts at finding an ignition that was reliable, efficient and
relatively small had failed.
When the Cadillac engineers could not come up with a workable system, the
company invited Charles F. Kettering and his boys at DELCO (still independent of
GM) to take a hand. Kettering presented the device in time for its introduction
in the 1912 models.
The Kettering solution
Kettering's unit was a combination starting motor and generator equipped with
an overrunning clutch and reduction gear. Gear teeth engaged the flywheel to
provide a reduction of about 25 to 1 between the starting motor and crankshaft,
allowing sufficient torque to crank the engine successfully. GM brass didn't
trust the new system at first and demanded a backup magneto and hand crank.
As public confidence in the reliable battery/generator/self-starter system
soared, it soon replaced the magneto in all GM cars. GM enjoyed a sales boom,
and the remainder of the auto industry soon adopted the system. Of the 462
models shown at the 1911 New York Auto Show, only 19 had battery/generator
systems, and they all had backup magnetos. Of 119 makes displayed at the 1924
New York Show, 110 had storage battery/generator systems and starter motors.
Other Electric Milestones
Here are some other electrical system "firsts":
In 1915, the Forrest Co. of New York City thought it had found a better way to
keep a storage battery filled with water. Called the 20th Century Automatic
Water Filler, the device consisted of a one-pint aluminium water container
screwed to the firewall. Water flowed from it through rubber tubes to the
battery, which in those days was usually mounted beneath the front seat or
floor. Water entered the battery through hard rubber caps that contained float
valves to halt the flow when the cells were filled.
Sealed-beam headlamps
In 1939, the first sealed-beam headlamps were introduced.
The alternator
During World War II, the military needed an electrical generating unit that
could provide more current than the D.C. generator. They found it with the A.C.
(alternating current) generator, commonly called the alternator.
In 1949, Chrysler Corp. became the first to offer a combination key-operated
ignition and starter switch. Previously, the starter was operated by a separate
button on the dash.
In 1962, the alternator for civilian vehicles arrived none too soon: The number
of electrical devices manufacturers put on cars by then began to strain the
limits of the D.C. generator. The first car manufacturer to make the alternator
available was GM, followed shortly by Chrysler.
Completely sealed storage battery
In 1971, Pontiac introduced a completely sealed storage battery that required no
water during its lifetime. It had side terminals that the company claimed stayed
completely corrosion-free. In time, the battery was to be named the Freedom
Battery.
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