[78-L] Seeking Caruso in car photo

[martha]

 Borland made an electric car with front seats that could be turned around, and extra controls at the BACK seat so you could 
drive & have a nice face-to-face conversation at the same time.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Philip Carli" <Philip_Carli at pittsford.monroe.edu>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2011 6:19 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Seeking Caruso in car photo


>I wish this was the photo, but it isn't.  The one I'm looking for is more formally posed, with everyone facing and in plain 
>view of the camera.
>
> Regarding right=hand drive, one other problem with moving to left-hand was the placement of gearshift and brake levers; it 
> seemed logical to mount them outboard on a right-hand drive car (much more manageble for right-handed drivers, making up 
> the majority) than on the left or placing them in the center of the floor. (The hand brake was the main and more powerful 
> brake on pre-WWI cars, acting on the rear wheels, the footbrake generally acting on the transmission for gradual slowing. 
> You needed considerable strength to stop a big tourer effectively with the hand brake, so it made sense for the lever to 
> be with most people's stronger hand.)  "Center control" was a big selling point on American cars starting around 1911-12, 
> when some companies began placing the gear and brake levers there, and this eventually became the norm.  (Remember, the 
> Model T's planetary transmission used pedals to shift gears, and the throttle was on the steering column; it did have a 
> center mount brake
> , though.)  Centrally placed levers were considered very American, and when Rolls-Royce introduced a central 3-speed 
> gearshift in their 1922 Twenty, many British drivers thought it _too_ American and R-R went back to a right-hand 4-speed 
> gate-change type in 1925.