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1924
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| in the headlines |
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US President: Calvin Coolidge
US Vice President: none
Petrograd is renamed Leningrad
Stalin heads the USSR
The new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
film corporation is formed by merger
Germany signs a new war reparations pact
Calvin Coolidge is elected President
The first winter Olympics are held in France |
| 1924 Mile Posts |
In The United States
- Passenger-car output dips to 3,185,881 units; trucks rise slightly to 416,659
- For the first time, all cars at the National Automobile show have gasoline engines
- Balloon tires and four-wheel brakes are standard on several makes
- Twin-filament headlight bulbs appear
- Baked-enamel paint is used on various low-priced automobiles
- William S. Knudsen is named Chevrolet's president
- The General Motor Proving Ground is completed at Milford, Michigan
- Ford Motor Co. stock now valued at nearly $1 billion
- New York City taxi rates cut to 10 cents per half-mile
- Reports show California has highest auto fatality rate in US
- Chicago court orders auto speeders to visit home for destitute and crippled children
- Collier's Magazine' reports that Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon wants to move the
Washington Monument to create more parking spaces in downtown
Washington
- Secretary of Commerce Hoover chairs
the first National Conference on Street and Highway Safety, which
calls for uniform traffic laws
- Average speed of Washington downtown
commuters; pedestrians -5.9 kph; drivers-5.7 kph; trolleys riders
-6.5 kph. Only 20% commute by car
- In November, 16,833 cars cross the St.
John's River into Florida; the beginning of winter motor
pilgrimages to Florida
- Los Angeles claims to have the worst traffic jams in the world
- 'Vogue Magazine' cover shows a car customized as a fashion accessory
- Walter P Chrysler produces the first car bearing his name
- Most American cars have four-wheel
hydraulic brakes. Double filament headlights and Duco paints
(controlled by GM) also appear on production cars
- New GM president Alfred Sloan's
reorganization creates divisional autonomy at GM. He also expands
overseas, buying Vauxhall, in Great Britain.
- Ford, the largest corporate employer
of blacks in US, with 5,000 black employees, hires its first black
salaried employee, engineer James C. Price.
- Five workers die in October and 30 are
hospitalized after breathing fumes in a plant making lead gas.
'The Nation' notes: 'They died in straight-jackets. They died
stark mad, grinning and gritting their teeth
- Teapot Dome scandal breaks. Oil
industrialists had bribed the Harding administration to lease oil
reserves set aside for military emergencies
- Novelties. White Tower, the first
hamburger chain opens. A&W root beer chain also constructs
drive-ins, the first to hire 'tray girls' to deliver food to cars.
- Cleveland introduces synchronized
traffic signals
- Pittsburgh hires the first traffic
engineer, Burton Marsh
US Auto Manufacturers
- Model-T production slips to 1.75
million, yet Ford hangs on to half the market
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Ford builds its 10-millionth
automobile, begins production of factory accessories
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Ford prices drop to $265 for the
Runabout; $295 for the Touring. The average employed American
earns $1200 annually
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Dodge ousts Buick from third place in
output; Chevrolet volume drops sharply, but still retains second
spot
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Dodge produces the first all-steel
closed car
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Maxwell-Chalmers Corp. introduces the
Chrysler, with four-wheel hydraulic brakes and a high-compression
(4.7:1) engine
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The initial six-cylinder Chrysler 70
draws admiration at the 1924 show; features include a
replaceable-cartridge oil filter and air cleaner, plus instruments
grouped behind an oval glass panel
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Oakland cars are now sprayed with
quick-drying Duco lacquer
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Packard introduces a 357.8 cid, L-head
straight-eight, the first one to be truly mass-produced, and
adopts four-wheel mechanical brakes
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A straight-eight engine is introduced
by Hupmobile, and also Auburn, Duesenberg, Jordan, Rickenbacker,
and others
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The last four-cylinder Buick are
produced; only sixes will be offered until 1934. Four-wheel
mechanical brakes are introduced
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Chandler adopts a 'traffic
transmission' with constant-mesh gearing, a forerunner of the
forthcoming synchromesh
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The Winton Company drops out of auto
production, concentrates on diesel engines
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Ethyl Corporation is formed by GM and
Standard Oil of New Jersey. Ethyl (leaded) anti-knock' gasoline
goes on sale
And From Around the World
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Alexander Winton is the first American
to participate in foreign auto competition; The Gordon Bennett
Race, in France
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Renault vehicles open Sahara to
automobile traffic
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Car-customizing is the rage among
affluent Parisians
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Morris Minor (England) introduces a
transfer machine to speed up assembly
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Henry Ford fires the manager of
British Ford for allowing their non-unionized workers tea breaks
and smoking rights
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E A Aldridge sets a land speed record
of 232 kph on a French 'Route Nationale', the last time this
record is set on a road
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Berlin adopts American-style traffic
lights
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Soviet motor production begins with
ten trucks
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Italy builds the first high speed toll
road, the Piero Puricelli-de-signed Autostrada, from Milan to Como
Italy. The toll roads have limited access, very few crossroads,
and no median divider
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| new makes: 1924 |
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Balboa (prototype)
Chrysler
Kleiber
Luxor
S&S
Schuler
Traveler |
1924 Production figures
|
- Ford................................................................1,720,795
- Chevrolet............................................................264,868
- Dodge.................................................................193,861
- Willys-Overland.....................................................163,000
- Buick....................................................................60,411
- Hudson/Essex......................................................133,950
- Durant
makes......................................................111,000
- Studebaker.........................................................105,387
Some figures are estimates |
| By the Numbers |
|
US Population.......................................................114,109,000
Average Yearly Income..................................................$1,124
DOW Average..................................................................121
New Births..............................................................2,913,000
New Home (median price)..............................................$7,720
New Car (average cost).................................................$ 398
Gas (gallon)....................................................................21¢
Milk (quart)....................................................................13¢
Bread (loaf).....................................................................9¢
Eggs (dozen)..................................................................43¢
Steak (pound).................................................................41¢
Stamp.............................................................................2¢ |
| New in 1924 |
|

A&W
root beer drive ins
Wheaties cereal
White Tower
Kleenex tissues (Kimberely-Clark)
MGM movie studio was formed
J Edgar Hoover
becomes
director of FBI
Macy's Thanksgiving parade
self-winding wrist watch
Tootsietoys |
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