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Imagine a car without electricity. It has no
headlights for driving after dark, and no taillights to warn other drivers when
you hit the brakes. How do you start the engine? With a handle-like “crank” that
plugs into the engine. It took a strong man to turn the crank, which is why
there were few women drivers in the early 1900s. Starting a car also was
dangerous. The crank could kickback and hit you in the face or break your wrist.
People died starting their own car. Starting a car is so simple and safe today
because an Ohioan named Charles F. Kettering invented an electric starter.
Kettering’s inventions, and those of other Ohioans, made driving and other forms
of transportation safer, faster, and more pleasant. Well beyond the popular slogan
of "Where the Rubber Meets the Road," Ohioans have not only eliminated the crank
from the automobile, but created good roads and good tires that meet the roads, devised the ubiquitous traffic light, helped armies win wars with the Jeep,
and produced a number of other firsts in the automotive industry. Ohioans like
the late Charles F. Kettering, who was a member of the Ohio Academy of Science,
have had a lot of practice inventing things. Kettering once said, "An inventor
fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he's in. He treats his failures simply
as practice shots."
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The Jeep
First
Automatic Traffic Signal
First Soap Box
Derby
Nation's First
Gasoline-Powered Automobile
Electrifying
the Automobile
First Fill 'Er
Up
Olds' Oldsmobile
First
Regularly Produced Car and Ad