Re: IML: history of power steering

["Bill Watson" <wwatson5@xxxxxxxxx>]

Chrysler was the first car manufacturer to introduce power steering on a
popular vehicle for the 1951 model year.  It was built by Gemmer and based
on patents by a gentleman named Francis W. Davis.

Davis was a truck engineer at Pierce-Arrow from 1911 through 1926, where he
began work on improving steering gear.   Just as Howard W. Simpson patented
every plantetary gearset and transmission development (Torqueflite was based
on Simpson's patents), Davis patented every improvement and version of his
power steering work.  While at Pierce-Arrow he developed a hydraulic power
steering unit for use in Pierce-Arrow trucks and buses.  When he left
Pierce-Arrow in 1926 and moved to Detroit, he showed his invention to the
engineering brass at Cadillac.  That landed him a job working on Cadillac
steering which Davis held until he left GM in 1934.

In 1927 GM installed one of Davis's power steering units in a truck used by
a Saginaw (MI) coal company.  The driver was enthusiastic about the unit as
he could turn the wheel on his fully loaded truck with two fingers.  Another
unit was installed in a Cadillac and used for development purposes.  As auto
manufacturers went to wider, larger low-pressure tires and moved engines
forward onto the front axle, assisted steering became an attractive idea.

By 1932 Cadillac and GM's Saginaw Divison had a production-ready version of
power steering ready to go.  But when GM figured out the cost of tooling and
producing the units at a projected 15,000 units a year, the retail cost was
deemed far above what the public might be willing to pay.   GM cancelled its
agreement with Davis in 1934 at which time he and GM parted company, with
Davis taking his work and patents with him.

Davis worked for Bendix in South Bend, IN, until 1939 when he returned to
GM.  This time he worked at Buick on steering gear, but after Pearl Harbour
worked on trucks.   In 1940 Chevrolet built armoured cars for the British
Army and had them equipped with Davis's power steering units.  After the war
Davis approached Cadillac but again Cadillac turned him down, this time
claiming the demand for their cars was so great they did not need it.

In 1951 Chrysler introduced Hydraguide, based on some expired Davis patents.
Davis, as a result, was not paid a penny for any Hydraguide units built.
When Hydraguide appeared on the market it was the talk of the auto industry
and the car buying public.  A concerned General Motors contacted Davis and
asked, How soon?  How fast?  How many?   Thus the 1952 Cadillac appeared
with power steering based on work done by Davis while at Cadillac, twenty
years before.   And as Davis held the patents for the work done, he was paid
for every power steering unit GM built.  And it only took some thirty years
of work on the part of Davis to reap the rewards.

Bill
Vancouver, BC





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gale jorgensen" <gjorgensen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 5:04 PM
Subject: Re: IML: history of power steering


> when was the advent of power steering?
>
>
>



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