You know how it is ultra easy to steer your car back and forth today? Well it wasn’t always that easy until the advent of power steering. While power steering is now virtually in ever automobile made its beginnings were a little rough and it was picked up and dropped before it was ever adopted.
The power steering that everyone enjoys today is based off of the patents of a man named Frances W. Davis. While there have been many modifications since the implementation of power steering, for the most part, Davis is the “father” of power steering.
In 1927 GM installed one of Davis’s power steering designs in a truck that was used at a Michigan coal mine. The driver was ecstatic as he could actually turn the steering wheel of his fully loaded truck with only two fingers. Based on that feedback GM began to formulate a plan to incorporate power steering into their fleet.
By 1932 the Cadillac division of GM had a fully operational power steering unit ready to go into some 15,000 units for the upcoming model year. However, when GM calculated and then recalculated the cost of tooling and installation to those 15,000 units they quickly deemed the cost too much for the public to absorb and the program was dropped. Needless to say, this is where GM and Davis parted ways.
For all intensive purposes, that could have been the end of the power steering mechanism that Davis had developed, but Davis was not one to give up so easily. He went to work for Bendix and in 1939 he found himself back at GM only his time working in the steering division of Buick.
Then Pearl Harbor happened and the military began to install Davis’ power steering design in some of the tanks they built to fight in the war. After the war was over Davis returned to Cadillac and tried his luck again, but was once again shot down as the Cadillac people said their cars were in such demand that they simply didn’t need his power steering unit.
Then in 1951 the unthinkable happened. Chrysler introduced the Hydraguide based on some of Davis’ expired patents. This quickly became the talk of the industry and the talk of every American town. But because the design was made with patents that were expired Davis received nothing as a result. It seemed that all his hard work would prove to be for nothing.
But fate has a funny way of playing games sometimes and soon thereafter Davis got a call from the GM big boys giving him full reign over the new power steering division. One year later the 1952 Cadillac came out with power steering based on Davis’ design. Because these patents were not expired Davis got a piece of every power steering pie that GM produced.
While it may have taken a while to catch on, catch on it did. Thanks to the tenacity of one determined man we all get to enjoy a care free easy way to steer our vehicles today.
