The car is one of the most recognizable inventions of the modern era. Without cars, there would be no suburbs, car trips, endless drop-offs and pick-ups most parents are all too familiar with.
Here are some fun facts about cars and their colorful past:
- The first cars did not have steering wheels. Drivers steered with a lever.
- The New York City Police Department used bicycles to pursue speeding motorists in 1898.
- In 1916, 55 percent of the cars in the world were Model T Fords, a record that has never been beaten.
- The first gas gauge appeared in cars in 1922.
- In 1923, 173 new inventions by women for cars had been reported. Among these inventions were a carburetor and an electric engine starter.
- The first car radio was invented in 1929.
- Buick introduced the first electric turn signals in 1938.
- The Peanuts characters were first animated in 1957 for a Ford Fairlane automobile commercial.
- Most American car horns beep in the key of F.
- The automobile is the most recycled consumer product in the world today.