POWER STEERING

For decades, the steering wheel remained nothing more than a wooden circle, mounted inside the car and through which the driver controlled the directional movement of the vehicle. It had and it served no other purpose. As you might imagine, steering with early wheels was not an easy task, as the whole procedure was done mechanically: the driver pulled the steering wheel to the left or right. Of course, the wheels resisted the commands, and the friction with the surface below made steering a difficult task at times, especially when the car was stationary

Several attempts to introduce power steering to the automotive world were made. G.W. Fitts received a patent for a power steering gear all the way back in 1876, while a vacuum-based system was patented in 1904; in 1902, Frederick W. Lanchester patented a hydraulic power system in the UK. Yet, none of them made it into production.

It was in the 1920s when experiments with what was to become the precursor of power steering began. Francis W. Davis, an engineer with the Pierce Arrow Motor Car Company, trying to make steering for truck drivers a little easier, ended up inventing the first power steering system to be fitted into a car.

Coincidentally or not, it was the nautical industry which sparked the advent of power steering in cars, as it had done with the steering wheel itself. Davis based some of his early work on the power steering system used in ships, only that with hydraulics. He slowly worked his way around several problems he encountered and managed to fit his system into a Cadillac.

Between 1931 and 1943, Davis received patents for five different inventions which made up the power steering system. His invention was acknowledged by GM, who made a contract with Davis to fit it into future Cadillac models. The contract was eventually scrapped in 1934 due to the economic crisis.

In 1936 the Bendix Corporation took note of Davis' work and signed a deal with him to build and promote the product. By 1939, ten models using Davis' hydraulic power system had been built and only two sold. Again, coincidentally or not, GM bought two systems to fit them into experimental Buicks. And then the war broke out...

As it did in so many fields of human existence, the war pushed power steering development into high gear. The driving force behind it was the Military one, who wanted, obviously, easy controllable war machines. Bendix-Davis systems saw action for the first time in 1940, after being fitted into Chevrolet armored vehicles built for the British Army. By the end of the war, over 10,000 vehicles equipped with power steering were roaming the battlefields.

After the war, Chrysler began developing its own power steering, based on Davis' expired patents. The system was featured on the Chrysler Imperial and was named Hydraguide. Since competition is the driving force of the industry during peace time, GM made a deal with Davis for the system and by 1953, 1 million vehicles using it were built. The success was immense and instant: by 1956, one in four cars on the roads had power steering. By the next decade, 3.5 million power steering systems were sold.

Since Davis, several types of power steering systems have been developed. Depending on what is used to power the steering wheel, the systems can be hydraulic, as Davis', electro-hydraulic, electric and so on. Some manufacturers, like Citroen and AM General, patented their own technologies (DIRAVI and Servotronic, respectively).

Today, the ratio has turned against non-power-assisted vehicles. Yet, despite a new role for the steering wheel, that of making the driver's task easier, the steering wheel itself remained in design as simple as it got. The only added function was the introduction of the airbag in the 1970s.