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Show WHAT CAR DO YOU LIKE? 48 Auto Is Child of Evolution That sleek, snake-hipped automotive automo-tive beauty that you probably are on a waiting list for is a shiny example ex-ample of the "survival of the fittest" fit-test" principle operating in the industrial in-dustrial world. It is the evolutionary descendant of 2,200 different makes of cars which have appeared on the market in this country alone during the 55 years since the first gasoline-powered automobile drilled down the pike. Of those 2,200 different manufacturers manufac-turers who introduced their products prod-ucts into the American scene, only 21 today continue in actual production produc-tion of passenger cars in the U. S. Nevertheless, this year's models owe much to these enterprising manufacturers who failed to sur- vive. Many of them, in the true evolutionary spirit, added something some-thing new that was incorporated into the cars we drive today. High on the list of major engineering engineer-ing contributions by companies no longer in production, according to the Automobile Manufacturers association's asso-ciation's data, is the steering column col-umn control introduced by Pierce in 1904. Brush brought out a car in 1907 with coil springs, and in 1909 Hup-mobile Hup-mobile caught automotive engineers engi-neers by surprise with its single unit power plant engine, clutch and transmission. The center gear shift control by King in 1910 caused a sensation unequalled un-equalled in the motoring public's l IIMIMIMIMIII ill M. m eye until Pierce-Arrow put headlights head-lights In the fenders in 1914. And the Dusenberg's four-wheel hydraulic hydrau-lic brakes of 1920 were little short of revolutionary. When Eddie Rickenbacker brought out the Rickenbacker car in 1922 he added the aircleaner to automotive automo-tive equipment. The Franklin contributed con-tributed the covered running board to the automobilist with the "Pirate Phaeton" in 1933. Although all of these companies have disappeared from the field, the engineering discoveries they sponsored spon-sored live on after them, and some of the refinements offered today are based upon improvements which were displayed in bold type in catalogues cata-logues published around the turn ol the century. |