PREDICTIONS regarding the cars of the future were treated by some scepticism by our motoring correspondent in July 1936, who took the view that anyone making them needed to be not just a prophet but a scientist and an inventive engineer, too.
Nevertheless, he listed some of the predictions: the oil engine would replace the petrol engine; the narrow engine would be housed in a pointed tail; the car would be perfectly streamlined; all four wheels would be independently sprung; and the car of the future could seat no fewer than seven people.
One novel prophecy caught our man’s eye: cars would be fitted with an ‘ingenious radio control’ to regulate the distance between the units of a traffic stream, thereby avoiding end-on collision.
As it turned out, more prosaic concerns were occupying the average motorist.
As the Bulletin reported on December 12 that year, new road regulations meant that all cars had to be equipped with safety-glass windscreens by January 1, 1937.
“Such is the rush of motorists at the last minute and such the country-wide demand that there is now difficulty in acquiring new supplies of the glass”, the paper added.
The photograph shows workers at the City Glass Company, in Glasgow’s West Graham Street, fitting a new safety-glass windscreen to a customer’s car.
The ambitious prophecies could wait for a few years yet.
Read more: Herald Diary
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