Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Henri Pigozzi, who served as the general commercial representative for the Italian automobile producer Fiat S.p.A. in France, founded the company Société Industrielle de Mécanique et Carrosserie Automobile (Simca)-Fiat at the one-time Donnet manufacturing factory in the French commune of Suresnes (a western suburb of Paris). Pigozzi launched Simca-Fiat as a distributor for Fiat automobiles... Continue Reading →
Carlo Abarth, whose accomplishments spanned various modes of surface transportation, died in Vienna, Austria, just a few weeks before his 71st birthday. He had been born Karl Albert Abarth in 1908 in Vienna, which at that time was the main capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When Abarth later became a naturalized Italian citizen, his first... Continue Reading →
Automotive entrepreneur August Horch was born in the municipality of Winningen in the Kingdom of Prussia (now part of Germany). After graduating from Mittweida Technical College with a degree in engineering, Horch pursued a career in shipbuilding before shifting his focus to another mode of transportation. In 1896, he began working for automobile pioneer Karl... Continue Reading →
Citroën, a major French automobile manufacturer, officially celebrated its 90th anniversary. The company, which was founded by French industrialist André-Gustave Citroën in 1919, has contributed a number of key innovative technologies to the automotive world over the decades. One example was the Traction Avant automobile, which Citroën introduced in 1934. This vehicle was the first... Continue Reading →
Automobile manufacturer Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti died at age of 65 in the French commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine in the Paris region. Bugatti had been born in Milan, Italy, in 1881. At a young age, Bugatti demonstrated a strong aptitude when it came to constructing motor vehicles. He was only 17, for example, when he built... Continue Reading →
Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, who established himself as one of Argentina’s most celebrated racing car drivers, was born in the Buenos Aires suburb of Caballito. In 1934, Gálvez’s interest in automobiles led him to buy a Model T Ford with money that he earned while working in his father’s engineering workshop. Another and arguably even bigger... Continue Reading →
Patent No. 1,000,000 was issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office to Francis H. Holton for the invention of a tubeless vehicle tire. Beyond the celebration of the milestone patent number achieved by Holton, the invention was important for other reasons. It represented the incredible advancement of transportation technology since the first... Continue Reading →
It was a unique case of a student teaching his instructors... In the Croatian city of Zagreb, Ferdinand Budicki took a driving test so that he could become eligible to operate an automobile in his native country. (Croatia, which was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time, eventually ended up under the rule... Continue Reading →
Alberto Ascari, who became one of the world’s leading race car drivers, was born in Milan, Italy. His father Antonio Ascari was also an accomplished racecar driver. He died after his vehicle crashed in the 1925 French Grand Prix, just a little over a week before Alberto’s seventh birthday. Despite the tragic circumstances of his... Continue Reading →
Lawrence Kiyoshi “Larry” Shinoda, who was born in Los Angeles in 1930 to Japanese immigrants, became a highly acclaimed automotive designer. His father died when he was only 12, and not long after that, he and various surviving members of his family were interned with other Japanese-Americans at the relocation camp at Manzanar, California, that... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 