Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
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 →
As a longtime American citizen, Korean-born John M. Chun carved out an enviable niche for himself as an automobile designer. His innovative products ranged from toy cars to actual high-performance automobiles. Chun started out life in present-day North Korea in 1928. He moved to South Korea in 1953 after active fighting in the Korean War... Continue Reading →
Lifelong Indiana resident Mary E. Landon (1876-1971) was one of the first American women – if not the first American woman – to drive a gasoline-powered automobile. In the late 1890s, she and her husband John moved from South Bend to Kokomo to work there for the automobile manufacturer Haynes-Apperson Company in its new factory.... Continue Reading →
The American Red Cross (ARC) Motor Corps was an all-women’s service established during World War I to provide transportation support on the home front for the U.S. military as well as the ARC. The women who served as volunteers for the ARC Motor Corps wore uniforms (initially khaki, then Oxford grey) and were expected to... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 