Four inventions that changed motoring - and the battles behind some life changing laws
- Some of the most innovative automobile inventions and the history behind them
- From tech patents to divisive safety inventions that have saved countless lives
Few inventions in history have transformed the freedom of human life as much as the automobile; it's connected people, pioneered technology, and sparked cultural, industrial and environmental change.
And as cars have transformed over the years, so too have the automotive innovations and laws we now take for granted.
Here are four automotive innovations that changed driving for the better, and the (sometimes divisive) history behind them.
![The rear view mirror invention has been credited to a few different pioneers, but the first recorded mention of the device was made by 'the fastest girl on earth' Dorothy Levitt in 1909](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/12/21/84773637-13409795-image-a-7_1715547017876.jpg)
The rear view mirror invention has been credited to a few different pioneers, but the first recorded mention of the device was made by 'the fastest girl on earth' Dorothy Levitt in 1909
1. The rear view mirror
At the turn of the 20th century, automobiles had scant if any safety features.
Although Elmer Berger – an electrical engineer from Missouri – is credited with inventing the rear view mirror, he didn't.
In 1921 he patented and manufacturer it, but rear view mirrors had been around in makeshift form for over a decade.
The first recorded rear view mirror use was when racer Ray Harroun won the Indianapolis 500 in 1911.
Instead of having a co-pilot in the passenger seat as a pair of rear-facing eyes, Harroun used a rear view mirror and was much lighter – largely contributing to the win.
![The first recorded rear view mirror use was when racer Ray Harroun won the Indianapolis 500 in 1911](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/12/21/84773635-13409795-image-a-9_1715547113288.jpg)
The first recorded rear view mirror use was when racer Ray Harroun won the Indianapolis 500 in 1911
![Dorothy Levitt was a pioneering female racer and the first British woman racing driver](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/12/21/84773631-13409795-image-a-6_1715547009665.jpg)
Dorothy Levitt was a pioneering female racer and the first British woman racing driver
![A rare first edition of 'The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for all Women Who Motor or Who Want to Motor' by Dorothy Levitt](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/12/21/84773633-13409795-image-a-8_1715547062459.jpg)
A rare first edition of 'The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for all Women Who Motor or Who Want to Motor' by Dorothy Levitt
But, in fact, the first recorded mention of a rear view mirror was made by 'the fastest girl on earth' and the first British woman racing driver Dorothy Levitt in 1909.
Levitt was the holder of the world's first water speed record and women's world land speed record.
In her booklet The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for all Women Who Motor or Who Want to Motor, Dorothy advises women to take a mirror with them: 'The mirror should be fairly large to be really useful, and it is better to have one with a handle.
'Just before starting take the glass out of the little drawer and put it into the little flap pocket of the car.
'You will find it useful to have handy, not only for personal use, but to occasionally hold up to see what is behind you.'
Another of her suggestions - of carrying a revolver alongside the mirror for personal protection - didn't catch on, fortunately.
2. Seat belts
Seat belts have been credited with saving an estimated 2,000 lives a year in Britain since they became a legal requirement in 1983.
But acceptance wasn't always the case, and it took time to introduce mandatory seat belt wearing into law.
![In 1959 Volvo introduced a 3-point belt (the seat belt we know today) in the front of a Amazon and PV 544 models as standard in Sweden and Nordic markets](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/12/22/84773899-13409795-image-a-21_1715547927910.jpg)
In 1959 Volvo introduced a 3-point belt (the seat belt we know today) in the front of a Amazon and PV 544 models as standard in Sweden and Nordic markets
![In 1967 new cars in the UK had to be fitted with three-point front seat belts– and in 1968 all ’65 and onwards cars had to be retrofitted with them. But it wasn't until 1991 that that adults had to wear rear seat belts (children had to from 1989)](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/12/22/84773895-13409795-image-a-22_1715547935436.jpg)
In 1967 new cars in the UK had to be fitted with three-point front seat belts– and in 1968 all '65 and onwards cars had to be retrofitted with them. But it wasn't until 1991 that that adults had to wear rear seat belts (children had to from 1989)
From as early as the 1930s people were using lap belts and then two-point belts to keep themselves safe while driving.
Then in 1959, Volvo introduced a three-point belt (the seat belt we know today) in the front seats of its Amazon and PV 544 models as standard in Sweden.
In 1967, new cars in the UK had to be fitted with three-point front seat belts – and a year later all 1965 and onwards cars had to be retrofitted with them.
This didn't mean that seat belts were popular, though – many people and bodies were in favour of persuasion rather than compulsion.
![Volvo's 3-point seat belt inventor Nils Bohlin](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/13/07/84773897-13409795-Volvo_s_3_point_seat_belt_inventor_Nils_Bohlin-m-1_1715581059690.jpg)
Volvo's 3-point seat belt inventor Nils Bohlin
In 1973, the RAC supported voluntary persuasion rather than enforcement, saying 'the time for consideration of such a drastic measure has not yet been reached' and 'would have undesirable effects on relations between police and public'.
The Ministry of Transport was also deeply concerned with the civil liberty argument surrounding seat belts, instead preferring to rely on Jimmy Savile's 'clunk, click every trip' advert exhortation rather than enforcement.
By 1987, all new cars in the UK had to have rear seat belts fitted – and most mass manufacturers were already fitting them as standard anyway.
The law that required people to wear them came into effect in 1983 (front belts), followed by a 1989 law for children in the back to wear a seat belt, and then a 1991 law update that made it a legal requirement for adults in the back to wear seat belts too.
These days law-abiding citizens wear one without hesitation, and seat belts are credited with reducing the risk of death by 50 per cent.
3. Ban on drink-driving, and breathalyser introduction
UK drink-driving law didn't come into play until 1967, but it was back in Victorian Britain when the first 'drink driving' legislation was introduced.
In 1872, it became an offence to be drunk while in the charge of horses, carriages and steam engines. If caught, you were fined 40 shillings or faced possible imprisonment of a month with hard labour.
Then in 1925 the Criminal Justice Act brought in the first modern drink-driving legislation; being found drunk in charge of any mechanically propelled vehicle on a highway or in a public place earned you a £50 fine and/or a prison sentence of up to four months.
You could also be disqualified from driving for 12 months.
![In 1983 breath testing was put into practice with the implementation of the Lion Intoximeter 3000 (above) which could accurately breathalyse people and ascertain whether they were over the maximum legal blood alcohol limit](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/12/21/84773629-13409795-image-a-13_1715547371483.jpg)
In 1983 breath testing was put into practice with the implementation of the Lion Intoximeter 3000 (above) which could accurately breathalyse people and ascertain whether they were over the maximum legal blood alcohol limit
Then, 1930, 1960 and 1967 saw three Road Traffic Acts come into force.
While the 1930 and 1960 Acts both targeted criminality around being 'unfit to drive through drink or drugs,' a measurable drink-driving limit still didn't exist.
The 1967 Road Traffic Act was the first time a maximum legal blood alcohol limit was set.
The threshold – 80mg of alcohol per 100mg of blood or one and a half pints of beer and one and a half small glasses of wine – has remained the same ever since in England and Wales.
Breathalysers were to be phased in, but this took several years, so court trials still relied on subjective tests and police observations.
Finally in 1983 breath testing was put into practice with the implementation of the Lion Intoximeter 3000 - much more accurate and reliable than the portable hand-held breathalysers police were using roadside up until then.
![The inventor of the humble but transformative windscreen wiper was Mary Anderson from Birmingham, Alabama - a woman who wasn't a driver herself but used her viewpoint as a passenger to transform motoring history](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/12/22/84773869-13409795-image-a-24_1715547959786.jpg)
The inventor of the humble but transformative windscreen wiper was Mary Anderson from Birmingham, Alabama - a woman who wasn't a driver herself but used her viewpoint as a passenger to transform motoring history
4. Windscreen wipers
Keeping Dorothy Levitt in good company is Mary Anderson, the inventor of the windscreen wiper.
In 1902, Mary Anderson was travelling across a snowy New York City (as a visitor), when she observed that her streetcar driver kept having to get out to clear the snow off the windshield.
Enclosed streetcars were popular transportation because they protected riders and drivers from the weather.
But when it snowed or rained, drivers had to stick their heads out of the window to see where they were going, or get out to clear the windscreen.
According to her great-great-niece Sara-Scott Wingo, the delay caused by the windscreen clearing got Anderson wondering if there couldn't be a blade of some sort to wipe the snow away, so the driver didn't have to keep getting out.
![Mary Anderson came up with the idea of windscreen wipers during a snowy streetcar ride across New York City in 1902. She got her sketches and description patented in 1903, but never made any money from it, as she couldn't persuade manufacturers to produce them - despite them being introduced in the 1920s more commonly](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/12/22/84773909-13409795-image-a-26_1715548013673.jpg)
Mary Anderson came up with the idea of windscreen wipers during a snowy streetcar ride across New York City in 1902. She got her sketches and description patented in 1903, but never made any money from it, as she couldn't persuade manufacturers to produce them - despite them being introduced in the 1920s more commonly
Anderson took her notion back to Birmingham, Alabama, and made a sketch of her windscreen wiper blade, controlled by a handle insider the car.
She wrote a description for a easily removable device - 'thus leaving nothing to mar the usual appearance of the car during fair weather' - and applied for a patent.
Anderson was awarded her patent November 1903, just under five months after she filed for it.
She tried, unsuccessfully, to get manufacturers to make it.
In 1922, Cadillac starting making windscreen wipers standard equipment, but Anderson's patent had run out and she never saw any profit from her invention.
Almost a century later in 2011, Anderson was finally inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame for making driving safer and for making the enclosed, climate-controlled cars of today possible.