Today in 1863, the birthday of Henry Ford.
The founder of the Ford Motor Company had a huge impact on the auto industry, which has had a huge impact on the world.
But some of the automaker’s ideas didn’t end up working out.
Like the time the company tried to reinvent the (steering) wheel.
In 1965, Ford started testing a system it called “wrist-twist” steering.
Rather than the traditional large round steering wheel, the driver had a sort of t-shaped or y-shaped yoke.
The ends of the yoke had small wheels, which a driver could spin to steer the car in one direction or the other.
Steering was, as they say, all in the wrists; in fact, the testing vehicles had armrests because drivers didn’t have to lift their arms to steer the car.
So why was Ford considering a whole new way of steering?
Safety, for one thing.
In the 1960s, steering wheels didn’t have airbags, so if you got into a crash, the driver was very likely to collide with the wheel, and those collisions were leading to injuries.
Ford also figured that having a much smaller steering apparatus made it easier for drivers to see the road and the dashboard controls.
The company installed wrist-twist steering on several Mercury Park Lane convertibles.
Often times these kinds of stories end with a new idea getting a really negative response from the public.
But the response from test drivers to wrist-twist steering was actually really good.
Some reviewers expected a learning curve but got used to the new system pretty quickly and easily.
Nonetheless, the system never made it any further than testing.
It’s not entirely clear why, but several newspaper articles suggest the issue might have been about cost.
Drivers might have liked wrist-twist steering, but did they like it enough to pay extra to have it?
And would it be worth it to Ford to do all the extra work and shoulder the extra costs to offer that as an option on the assembly lines?
Apparently not, but if you own a car company and you feel like giving this approach another go, I think you’ll probably find a few willing road testers.
Starting tomorrow in Brownstown, Indiana, it’s the Jackson County Watermelon Festival.
One of the signature events is the watermelon steal: participants have to pull a soap-covered melon out of a pile of straw and then run it back over the finish line, all while the fire department sprays them with the big hose!
Or you could try the comparatively calm seed spitting contest.
Mercury “Wrist-Twist” Steering Tried a Tesla Model S–Style Yoke in 1965 (Motor Trend)
Jackson County Watermelon Festival
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