What Does An Antique Car Radio and a Lear Jet Have In Common?

Most of us grew up with cars that had an "in dash" radio as an option, and if you grew up in the1970's or later a radio was pretty much standard equipment by then. FM radio has also been the standard since the 1970's, and prior to that AM Radio was the standard. We pretty much take the radio option for granted and don't really consider a radio an option anymore. So how did the car radio option get started in the first place?

William Lear

As the story goes... one evening, in 1929, two men, William Lear and Elmer Wavering drove their girlfriends to a lookout point high above the Mississippi River town of Quincy, Illinois, to watch the sunset. It was a romantic night to be sure, but one of the women observed that it would be even nicer if they could listen to music in the car.

Elmer Wavering

Lear and Wavering liked the idea. Both men had tinkered with radios (Lear had served as a radio operator in the U.S. Navy during World War I) and it wasn't long before they were taking apart a home radio and trying to get it to work in a car. Problems arose in spades.

Automobiles have ignition switches, generators, spark plugs, and other electrical equipment all of which generates noisy static interference, which made it nearly impossible to listen to the radio with the engine running.

One by one, Lear and Wavering identified and eliminated each source of electrical interference. When they finally got their car radio to work, they took it to a radio convention in Chicago. There they met Paul Galvin, owner of Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. He made a product called a "battery eliminator" a device that allowed battery-powered radios to run on household AC current. But as more homes were wired for electricity, more radio manufacturers began offering AC-powered radios.

Paul Galvin

Galvin needed a new product to manufacture. When he met Lear and Wavering at the radio convention, it was the perfect match.  Galvin quickly determined that mass-produced, affordable car radios had the potential to become a huge business.

Lear and Wavering set up shop in Galvin's factory, and when they perfected their first radio, they installed it in Galvin's Studebaker. Then Galvin went to a local banker to apply for a loan. Thinking it might sweeten the deal, he had two of his employees install a radio in the banker's Packard. Good idea in theory, but it didn't work. Half an hour after the installation, the banker's Packard caught on fire. No Loan!

Galvin didn't give up. He drove his Studebaker nearly 800 miles to Atlantic City to show off the radio at the 1930 Radio Manufacturers Association convention. Too broke to afford a booth, he parked the car outside the convention hall and cranked up the radio so that passing conventioneers could hear it. That idea worked -- He got enough orders to put the radio into production.

That first production model was called the 5T71. Galvin decided he needed to come up a different name, something a little catchier. In those days many companies in the phonograph and radio businesses used the suffix "ola" for their names - Radiola, Columbiola, and Victrola were three of the biggest. Galvin decided to do the same thing, and since his radio was intended for use in a motor vehicle, he decided to call it the Motorola.

By the way....if you are wondering if this is the same Motorola Company that is in business today making cell phones and the like, you would be correct.

But even with the name change, the automotive radios still had problems: When the Motorola Radio went on sale in 1930, it cost about $110 uninstalled, at a time when you could buy a brand-new car for $650, and the country was sliding into the Great Depression. (By that measure, a radio for a new car would cost about $3,000 today.)

In 1930, it took two men several days to put in a car radio. The dashboard had to be taken apart so that the receiver and a single speaker could be installed, and the ceiling had to be cut open to install the antenna. These early radios ran on their own batteries, not on the car battery, so holes had to be cut into the floorboard to accommodate them. The installation manual had eight complete diagrams and 28 pages of instructions.

Galvin's company experienced poor sales beginning in 1930 and lasting thru the end of 1932, due in part to the depression . Things picked up in 1933 when Ford began offering Motorola's pre-installed at the factory. In 1934 they got another boost when Galvin struck a deal with B.F. Goodrich tire company to sell and install Motorola radios in its chain of tire stores. With the help of the Ford contract, the price of the radio, installation included, had dropped to $55. The Motorola car radio was off and running. Galvin would officially change the name of his company to the "Motorola" Company in 1947.

In the meantime, Galvin continued to develop new uses for car radios.
In 1936, the same year that Motorola introduced push-button tuning, it also introduced the Motorola Police Cruiser, a standard car radio that was factory preset to a single frequency to pick up police broadcasts.

So...what happened to the original two men who installed the first radio in Paul Galvin's car? Elmer Wavering and William Lear, ended up taking very different paths in life.

Wavering stayed with Motorola. In the 1950's he helped change the automobile experience again when he developed the first automotive alternator, replacing inefficient and unreliable generators. The invention lead to such luxuries as power windows, power seats, and, eventually, air-conditioning.

Lear also continued inventing. He held more than 150 patents at his death. Remember eight-track tape players? Lear invented those. But he really became famous for his contributions to the field of aviation. He invented radio direction finders for planes, aided in the invention of the autopilot, designed the first fully automatic aircraft landing system, and in 1963 introduced his most famous invention of all, the Lear Jet, the world's first mass-produced, affordable business jet. Not bad for a guy who dropped out of school after the eighth grade.

From AM to FM

AM radio is very prone to background noise and fading as we all know. One thing we learned as a kid was that the AM signal carries a long  distance at night. You might remember listing to the famous AM radio stations like WLS Chicago, KOA in Denver, and other even though you lived a 800 miles from those stations like I did. You could only get them at night but they were  often crystal clear! On stormy nights they would fade in and out but they were still worth listening to. Oh...and for you tech oriented followers...

The definition of amplitude (as in AM Radio) refers to the length and width of the sound waves as they move or vibrate.
How much a radio wave moves back and forth is an example of its amplitude.

During the 1920s, Edwin Armstrong an electrical engineer, was working on ways to improve radio. FM was the logical choice to Edwin, but FM had been largely dismissed because of another engineer John Carson, whose experiments showed that FM would not be an improvement in quality over AM.

Edwin Armstrong

In 1928, Armstrong discovered a way to improve FM radio despite its detractors, the key was using a wider bandwidth. Armstrong promptly filed for patents in 1933. He then offered RCA the right of first refusal for his new system, but RCA was unimpressed with a system, that was more complex and was not compatible with existing equipment.

Armstrong then went to smaller radio companies like General Electric and Zenith. He also got the FCC to allocate a band for this new kind of radio with 40 channels in the 42 to 50 MHz range. You might notice that this isn’t where the FM band is today. Hang on...I will get to that in a minute.

A significant characteristic of FM as compared with AM is that FM stations using the same frequency do not interfere with each other. Radios simply pick up whichever FM station is the strongest. This means that low-power FM stations can operate in close proximity to each other.

In radio transmission, an advantage of frequency modulation (FM Radio) is that it has a larger signal-to-noise ratio and therefore rejects radio frequency interference better than an equal power amplitude modulation (AM) signal. 

Armstrong was hindered in his further development of FM radio by the location of the newly assigned FM spectrum by the Federal Communications Commission, which he blamed on RCA. RCA considered the new FM signal as a threat to their existing businesses and did everything they could to prevent Armstrong from demonstrating the system to the public. Despite this, Armstrong did get the FCC interested in FM and even built his own FM station W2XMN to help get things moving. In May of 1939 his first broadcast was to only 25 FM receivers... all that existed at the time.

RCA finally decided to get into the FM game, but they didn’t want to pay Armstrong royalties. So in 1940, they offered him a cool million dollars for a non-exclusive but royalty-free license. Armstrong didn’t feel like it was fair to other companies that were paying 2% on their sales. He refused the offer... which would prove to be a fateful and very costly decision

Armstrong expected to receive royalties on every FM radio set sold and, because FM was selected for the audio portion of TV broadcasting, he also expected royalties on every TV set sold. Some television manufacturers paid Armstrong, RCA didn’t. RCA soon developed and patented a FM system slightly different from Armstrong’s that he claimed involved no new principle.

So, in 1948, Armstrong filed legal suit against RCA and NBC, charging them with willfully infringing and inducing others to infringe on his FM patents.
It was to RCA’s advantage to drag the suit out. The company had more money than Armstrong did, and RCA could continue to make more money with their design until the case was settled by selling sets utilizing the technology Armstrong said was his.

To finance his lawsuit and his research facility at Columbia, Armstrong had to sell many of his assets, including stock in Zenith, RCA, and Standard Oil. By 1954, the financial burden imposed on him forced him to try to settle with RCA. RCA’s offer did not even cover Armstrong’s remaining legal fees. Not long after he received this offer he committed suicide.

And... I Know Your Gonna Ask...

Where do radio identification call letters come from? In the United States, the first letter generally is K for stations located west of the Mississippi River and W for stations east of the Mississippi. Historic exceptions in the east include KYW in Philadelphia and KDKA in Pittsburgh, while western exceptions include WHB in Kansas City.

Most all commercial radio stations have call signs made up of 4-characters. This has been the standard for close to sixty years.  Some of the very early radio stations have what are now considered historical 3-character call letters which are still in use today, such as KSL in Salt Lake City, KOA in Denver, WHO in Des Moines, WJW in Cleveland, WBT in Charlotte, WSM in Nashville, and WGN plus WLS-AM 890 and WLS-TV in Chicago. American radio stations are required to announce their call signs at the top of each hour, as well as sign-on and sign-off for stations that do not broadcast 24 hours.

All call signals are registered with the FCC and most are also assigned by the FCC as well.

And there you have it...the simplified version of the history of car radios. There were a few cars built in the early 1920's with radios installed but they were mostly converted dry cell powered home radio models that had been converted to car use. This is not your term paper history... this is just the basics so as you reach over to turn on that ivory colored knob in your dash, you can appreciate how that radio got there.

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Electronic Ignition and your Borg Warner Overdrive

The question often comes up when a customer upgrades the original mechanical points ignition system to a more modern electronic ignition...how to I make my overdrive kick down switch work with my new HEI electronic ignition? Well... there is no simple answer as it turns out. It depends on the kind of electronic ignition you have.

The most common upgrade appears to be a GM style HEI ignition from the aftermarket or from a salvage yard. They are cheap and fairly simple to adapt to most any application. The problem is using it with a Borg Warner overdrive... how do you ground out the ignition of an HEI type electronic ignition using the kick down switch so the overdrive can shift without being under load.

Originally the ground wire of the kick down switch went to the negative side of the ignition coil. Because that side of the coil was not fused and there were no solid states pieces and parts involved, all worked well.

But because and HEI uses a solid state module to provide the spark, that solid state module that is very voltage sensitive. So if you suddenly ground the ignition out on the output side of the ignition module just as you did with the old mechanical point ignition, you will create a huge voltage spike.

Because there is no condenser to absorb the voltage spikes (because solid state electronic ignition systems does not need one) there is nothing to absorb the voltage spike created by grounding out the ignition...except...you guessed it, the solid state ignition module, which quickly zaps your ignition module and your vehicle is dead in the water because you have no ignition spark.

Some HEI ignitions have an inline fuse that will protect the module from excessive voltage but the end result is that you will blow that fuse every time you hit the kick down switch. I know what you are thinking....I will just take out that fuse or put in a bigger one. Then you will for sure burn out the ignition module which is why the fuse was put there in the first place.

Some customers have tried to use the tach drive terminal on the HEI ignitions to run the kick down switch. While that terminal is a ground terminal, that typically does not work either... A tach creates no voltage spike unlike the kick down switch which does. It is that voltage spike thing again.

So basically any electronic ignition that has the coil built into the distributor will likely be damaged when you engage the kick down switch from the overdrive.

One solution might be to setup a way to interrupt the battery current going to the electronic ignition on the incoming (battery) side to the the electronic ignition itself. That is something you will have to engineer based on your application.

The other kind of electronic ignition you see is the Pertronix style that fits into the original distributor and replaces the mechanical points with an electronic ignition module, and the coil is still external just as it always was. Your kick down switch wire is connected to the external coil not to the Pertronix. You are grounding out the ignition at the ignition coil ahead of the Pertronix ignition module, ahead of the distributor. Those seem to work ok with the overdrive kick down switches, because the coil will absorb most of the voltage spike. This setup seems to work well with the Pertonix negative ground applications.

The positive ground Pertronix electronic ignition applications seem to have some issues with the kick down switch in the circuit. The manufacturer is not sure why there is a difference. Most positive ground applications work ok, however... a few do not. Something to be aware of.

I have talked to all of the aftermarket electronic ignition manufacturers and they are all telling me the same thing. We don't recommend grounding out the electronic ignition even for a brief time, because of the possible damage to the ignition modules from voltage spikes.

If it makes you feel any better we are not alone. Some boat transmissions also require a pause in the ignition the same as we do, to allow the boat transmission to shift from forward to reverse and from reverse to a forward gear. The reason was the same as for our overdrive transmission, so the transmission itself did not have to shift under load. Like our antique vehicles...those boats were manufactured when a contact point ignition was the standard.

So if you are thinking of adding of adding electronic ignition to your antique vehicle, you need to be aware of this issue with the Borg Warner overdrive transmissions.

If I figure out a good working solution I will let you know here.

UPDATE - 
It seem the best solution so far is to put a relay into the battery wire that powers the electronic ignition, that way you can safely interrupt the battery power going to the electronic ignition (before it gets there) so the overdrive can shift and you will not damage the module in your electronic ignition. This way should also not generate any voltage within the electronic ignition because everything is happening BEFORE the electronic ignition.

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Our Antique Vehicles In Real Life...

Selective Memories...
Where did all of the antique vehicles go...?  "Why when I was growing up we "musta" had a dozen 1940 Ford Coupes in our neighborhood... " "and there were tons of old cars in my neighborhood back where I grew up...."

We have all had those conversations about all of the cool cars that lived in our neighborhood and how plentiful they were. So it would stand to reason that part of what we collect and drive today is a reminder of our youth and the cars we drove back then... or would have driven if we would have had the money.

The thing we often forget is that the antique vehicles we collect today were simply daily drivers back in the good o'l days. Not many people thought about their car being collectible someday.

When World War II came along many of the early "antique" vehicles from the teens and twenties, were simply worn out and had little or no value at the time, so they were donated to the metal scrap drives for the war effort, along with a few thousand porcelain advertising signs that we car collectors would die for today.

Because there were so many Model T and Model A Ford's built... despite the scrap drives, more than enough survived to be restored a generation later.

Also, many of our "antique vehicles" got destroyed or suffered major damage in wrecks. Just like today... when the damage was severe enough that it would cost more to repair the vehicle than it was worth at the time, it was scrapped. Some of the more rare ones we would no doubt try and save today, but back then, the repair costs exceeded their value.

So to put all of this in perspective, I am starting a page of car wrecks. Part of what makes our antique vehicles valuable is the number of survivors of a certain make and model. If every 1940 Ford Coupe ever built survived in drivable condition what would they be worth? Not much.

It would be the same for Ford vs Packard... for example. There were fewer Packards sold to begin with, as compared to Fords, in part because the Packards cost more... so they were not as affordable to as many buyers as compared to a Ford. That in part is what makes a Packard valuable today, there were fewer made resulting in fewer survivors. A Packard is also more expensive to restore today, as compared to a Ford or Chevrolet of the same era.

But when you are driving on the road with all makes and models, Packards got into wrecks just like the Fords and the Chevrolets, and all of the other brands on the road. Those wrecks took out quite a few cars expensive cars over the years.

And in some cases, there were no car owners involved when their cars got damaged. Being parked at the wrong place at the right time can also get your car destroyed without you even being there. I have a few examples here.

You can look at most of the following pictures and determine what happened to the antique vehicles and in some cases the drivers. We often forget that our collector cars were once daily drivers and were subject to the hazards of the road, which included bad weather, drunk drivers, speeding drivers, and those drivers who simply don't pay attention to the road.

So we should be thankful that we have plenty of antique vehicles available to us to restore, drive and enjoy. They did not all survive...




































































I was a tow truck driver in my former life and accidents like this are the most difficult to recover as there is little or no damage to the vehicle as it came to rest, but there is hardly any way it will not be damaged in the recovery process. Often times the insurance company fails to understand the situation and wants to blame the towing company for the damage to the vehicle after it is recovered.

More to come....

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No Drivers License, No Insurance, No Rules Of The Road... What Could Go Wrong With That Plan...?

The Early Days Of Driving...

Back in the early days of the automobile, there were no driving rules, no stop signs, no traffic lights, no speed limits, no driver training, and you did not need a drivers license or car insurance. That made every day driving a true scuff and bluff event. Here is a little more insight into what it was like in those early days...

Detroit as always been one of the premier automotive cities, even as far back as 1908. So it makes sense that Detroit should end up being of of the first cities to transform from the horse and buggy era, to the new fast-paced age of motor vehicles.  But that would prove to be a lot more difficult than anyone could have imagined.

Early motorized vehicles were noisy, and often scared the horses and the buggy owners causing havoc on city streets. The problem got worse as the number of automobiles increased.  Politicians, police and judges debated how to control the situation. What was the law of the road, and who was guilty or innocent in cases of lawsuit and litigation?

A serious debate also went on in newspaper stories and editorials over whether the automobile was inherently evil. The state of Georgia's Court of Appeals wrote: "Automobiles are to be classed with ferocious animals and … the law relating to the duty of owners of such animals is to be applied ... . However, they are not to be classed with bad dogs, vicious bulls, evil disposed mules, and the like."

In 1917, Detroit and its suburbs had 65,000 cars on the road, resulting in 7,171 accidents and 168 fatalities. Three-fourths of the victims were pedestrians.

Detroit differed from New York City and the east coast, where most automobiles were driven by uniformed chauffeurs hired by the wealthy. In Detroit... everyone from nearly all incomes and ages were driving.

One family was driven around Detroit by their 11-year-old son. It was also common for light truck delivery wagons to be driven by 14-year-old boys who were constantly badgered to get deliveries done by driving faster.

One young woman was detained by a policeman after driving on a Detroit sidewalk and killing several people. It had been her 26th arrest for reckless driving. She said she suffered from blackouts.

Streetcars, which ran up the center of the streets, were becoming the most dangerous place in the city for pedestrians. Disembarking streetcar riders had to sidestep cars, trucks, motorcycles and horse-drawn buggies to cross the street safely. Pedestrians were having trouble estimating how close a fast-approaching car was to them and often scrambled like scared chickens to get out of the way.

The most appalling tragedies were the number of children struck and killed by autos as they played in the street, many times in front of their own homes. In the 1920s, 60 percent of automobile fatalities nationwide were children under age 9. One gruesome Detroit article described an Italian family whose 18-month-old son was hit and wedged in the wheel well of a car. As the hysterical father and police pried out the child's dead body, the mother went into the house and committed suicide.

"Five children, ranging in age from 2 to 9 years, were injured when a red touring car crashed into the group of little folks … while they were playing in the street on Saturday afternoon. … When the driver crashed into the group of children he apparently stalled his machine...so he leaped out, cranked it and sped away.,,"

The main cause of motor vehicle accidents was often excessive speeding. Until 1909 there was no regulation of street traffic in Detroit. The courts and police decided to address the problem with a simple approach: Set the speed limit to match the pace of horse-drawn wagons, such as 5 miles per hour. Make the streets as slow and safe as they were before cars. That plan failed in part because the "normal" speed from the horse age was so slow that automobile owners had difficulty keeping their cars from stalling out.

 The focus then became how to get people across the street without getting hit by automotive traffic.

As automobile traffic continued to increase the police struggled to keep even the major streets safe and slow. The initial police effort was called the Broadway Squad, copying a program started in New York City. Nine older policemen were assigned to help people, typically elderly, cross the now-treacherous downtown intersections.

That plan was soon abolished and replaced with the Traffic Squad, one Sergeant and 12 officers who rotated in four-man shifts, initially at Woodward and State Street. They devised a signaling method to unravel traffic "tangles" and "blockades," both terms from the horse and buggy days.

"The few drivers who happened to notice the signals of the officers did not seem to understand what was wanted and drove by, making it necessary for the traffic officer to run after them and explain the meaning of the signal. The officers had to show considerable patience."

By 1916, one-fourth of the entire Detroit police force — 250 officers — was now used for managing traffic. On May 25, 1920, Detroit was the second city in the United States after New York to start a traffic court. It was announced that same day that the 17th person had been killed in the first 24 days of May. Zeana Coatley, age 4, was struck in front of a post office — the eighth child killed that month.

After World War I, as accidents continued to soar, drivers were being labeled in newspapers as "remorseless murderers," their danger to public safety likened to an epidemic disease. In Detroit and other cities angry mobs were dragging reckless drivers out of cars.

One notable example in Detroit was John Harrigan, a wealthy 26-year-old from Grosse Pointe who, while driving drunk, hit and killed a city street worker. He was convicted of manslaughter and paraded in handcuffs by police in the Safety Parade of 1922.

The Detroit Safety Council in 1919 had bells on fire stations, churches, schools and City Hall ring twice a day in memory of the street auto fatalities. Teachers and sometimes police officers would read to school classes the names of children killed and how they died. Other cities printed "murder maps" showing locations of automobile deaths. Maudlin posters for "No Accident Week" showed young mothers covered in their child's blood and beckoning to heaven.

Safety parades, started in the 1920s, became an emotional relief valve for public loss. The busiest downtown Detroit intersections were labeled with giant "A," "B" or "C" cards to remind people to "Always Be Careful." Thousands watched as hulking wrecks of cars were towed down Woodward with placards that read "He tried to make 90!" or "Follow this one to the cemetery."

Some wrecks featured mannequin drivers dressed as Satan and bloody corpses as passengers. Children crippled from accidents rode in the back of open cars waving to other children watching from sidewalks. Washington, D.C., and New York City held parades including 10,000 children dressed as ghosts, representing each a death that year. They were followed by grieving young mothers who wore white or gold stars to indicate they'd lost a child.

In addition to the dangers drivers, parking and blocked streets were also becoming a problem in Detroit. Multi-storied commercial buildings had no parking spaces for their employees and customers, and there were no laws or rules of etiquette for parking; people simply stopped their cars in front of a building and left them for hours.

In some cities the courts had considered implementing engine-mounted governors to limit a vehicle's speed, a plan not popular with the car manufacturers who insisted the strongest sales appeal of autos was their speed.

And as long as pedestrian deaths were attributed solely to drivers, the automobile industry had a huge public relations problem. In Detroit, one of their own stepped up to find solutions: former Ford Motor Co. executive James Couzens.

Couzens was a short, cigar-chomping Canadian who was considered one of the most pugnacious executives in the auto industry: He quit his job as Ford's vice president of finance after years of friction and a final shouting match with Henry Ford. He resigned in 1913 with stock worth $38 million, and signed on to become Detroit's commissioner of street railways, and later its police commissioner, mayor and, eventually, U.S. senator.

Couzens attacked the problem of poor driving and increasing numbers of vehicles in two ways. First, he insisted that at least adult pedestrians were just as guilty as drivers of causing accidents through careless street crossing and jaywalking. He insisted that pedestrians cross at designated corners. This caused push back from people who hated the cars. City Council Alderman Sherman Littlefield fought Couzens, remarking, "They dog the people enough as it is. I'm not in favor of trying to herd people into certain places to cross streets."

The second approach Couzens and others began to develop was a way to manage the streets without direct police interaction, which had become impossible citywide. They sought out new ideas using new technology for the streets. By the mid-1920s Detroit would be recognized as one of the most innovative cities in the country for traffic management and safety. Couzens' bulldog personality got changes implemented.

Many accidents and pedestrian casualties were caused by "corner cutters" — drivers who did not make a left turn by driving through an intersection and then turning left into the far, perpendicular lane as we do today. Corner cutters made quick left turns the same way we make right turns, hitting unsuspecting pedestrians and other cars. Thus began the early drivers education training classes for future drivers.

Detroit police drew national attention for using tennis court line marking equipment to establish "crossing zones," "safety zones" and "no parking" areas. The first center line on a U.S. highway appeared in Michigan in 1911.

The first traffic lights, at the time called Street Semaphores, were invented and developed in Detroit. At first they had to be manually switched, but by the 1920s the city had converted to electric switching, eliminating the need to have them manually controlled.

Also in 1911, Detroit claimed to be the first city to successfully experiment with one-way streets. It began in Eastern Market to improve traffic flow and deliveries, but it also gained popularity on Belle Isle as people cruised around the island. Less successful was the idea of "channelizing" streets — dedicating certain streets to one type of vehicle, mostly delivery trucks or taxi cabs.

The first U.S. stop sign was installed in Detroit in 1915.  The original design was a green metal circle with green light and a red metal star with red light. A policeman stood on a crow's nest platform above the street and manually changed the signal from red to green. The first was set up at Woodward and Grand Boulevard.

Illegal parking continued to be a persistent problem. As Couzens wrote for a 1917 annual police report: "Educational methods did not bring about the desired results, so it was deemed advisable to institute a system of intensive disciplinary training." In short, he ordered illegally parked cars towed for the first time. Within six months the new Detroit Towing Squad hauled 10,737 cars to a vacant lot.

By the mid-1920s a national, uniform approach to street and highway safety was formed under the direction of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. Automobile manufacturers began to improve reliability and adopt safety features such as turn signals, brake lights, safety glass, and standard head lamps. States required drivers to take tests and to be licensed. In the 1930s driver's education began to be required.

Then Comes Automobile Insurance...

In Connecticut, a driver involved an accident resulting in injury or property damage (greater than $100), was required to demonstrate financial responsibility (at a minimum level of $10,000) according to Connecticut Public Acts, Chapter 183 in 1925.

According to Connecticut law, the driver could comply with the financial responsibility demonstration by:

Purchasing motorist liability insurance in this required amount, providing a bond at this amount when required to do so, depositing bonds, stocks, or other negotiable financial instruments of this amount or greater, or depositing currency in this amount.

If the automobile owner didn’t perform any of these actions to demonstrate financial responsibility, his license was suspended. If an injured person didn’t complain after being involved in an accident, the state simply didn’t know about it!

Although the law stated that motorists weren’t required to demonstrate financial responsibility until after an accident occurred, many people decided that preparing for an accident before it happened was an excellent way to transfer risk. That’s why, at least in the beginning, auto insurance was considered an optional risk management tool. That is also why Connecticut’s lawmakers maintained the optionality of auto insurance as a measure of free will.

Up until 1955, Massachusetts was the only state that required auto insurance by law. New York followed by passing a law in 1956. North Carolina then joined the group in 1957.  (that is hard to imagine today)

Soon afterward, all states (except Wisconsin, Tennessee, and New Hampshire in the year 2000) required auto insurance for all drivers.

By 2010, 49 states and the District of Columbia required compulsory auto insurance. New Hampshire, the Live Free or Die State, still allows drivers the choice to drive uninsured. It remains steadfast in its support of each driver’s financial responsibility to operate and drive an automobile.

Driver's License Requirement

As the number of motor vehicles reached tens of thousands, state and local governments assumed a new power: authorizing vehicles and drivers. In 1901, New York became the first state to register automobiles; by 1918 all states required license plates. States were slower to require a license for drivers.

Only 39 states required a drivers license by 1935 and very few of those states required a test, despite widespread concern about incompetent drivers. Early motorists were taught to drive by automobile salesmen, family and friends, or organizations like the YMCA. By the 1940s, public high schools began offering driver education training.

Automobile Registration and License Plates...

New York was the first state to require automobiles have license plates, beginning in 1901. These early plates were made by the car owner, (usually with the owner's initials) rather than being issued by state agencies as they are today. The early New York plates were typically handcrafted on leather or metal (iron) and were meant to denote ownership via the initials. The State of New York began issuing license plates beginning in 1910.

Meanwhile... in 1903, the first state-issued license plates were distributed by the state of Massachusetts. The very first plate, featuring the number "1," was issued to Frederick Tudor.

The early Massachusetts license plates were made of iron and covered in a porcelain enamel. The background was colored a cobalt blue and the number was in white. Along the top of the plate, also in white, were the words: "MASS. AUTOMOBILE REGISTER." The size of the plate was not constant; it grew wider as the plate number reached into the tens, hundreds, and thousands.

Massachusetts was the first to issue license plates, but other states soon followed. As automobiles began to crowd the roads, it was necessary for all states to find ways to start regulating cars, drivers, and traffic. By 1918, all states in the United States had begun issuing their own vehicle registration plates.

Today, vehicle registration license plates are issued solely by the states' Departments of Motor Vehicles. The only time a federal government agency issues these plates are for their federal vehicle fleet or for cars owned by foreign diplomats. Also some Native American tribes issue their own registrations to members.

Although the first license plates were meant to be semi-permanent, by the 1920s, states had begun mandating renewal for personal vehicle registration. Also the individual states began experimenting with different methods for creating the plates. The front would typically contain registration numbers in large, centered digits while smaller lettering on one side dictated the abbreviated state name and a two- or four-digit year, the registration was valid.

By 1920, vehicle owners were required to obtain new plates from the state each year. Oftentimes these would vary in color year to year to make it easier for police to identify expired registrations. Today most states issue annual renewal stickers to go on vehicle plates and the plates themselves are good for up to five years.

Summary...

This entry is by no means a legal description of the driving laws and registration laws of the United States...I just wanted you to stop and think about what is was like to drive in the era when your antique vehicle was new. The way we drive has definitely changed in the past fifty years, mostly for the better. We are safer driving our antique cars now (most of the time) than when they were new. 

So now you may have a little more appreciation for the cars and trucks that survived in those early days.

And remember if you lived in a rural area in those early days you might have been exempt from the traffic, but there were very few paved roads in the country so you fought mud and the bad weather. You also had very few road signs to guide you on your travels so you had to stop and ask the locals for directions.

We have things pretty good today by comparison.

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