Guy who invented cruise control

His passion for inventing didn't stop there because in , at the age of 22, he graduated from University of Pennsylvania with a mechanical engineering.

It wasn't long until later after that, In , Ralph Teetor was named president of the Society of Automotive Engineers and hugely influential supporter of automotive education, and was even given an award in However, it wasn't until where he had been given the job of being the president of The Perfect Circle Corporation after he had become its prior lead engineer.

These amazing achievements were all possible because he had a great sense of touch, which even helped solved dynamic balancing of large components and was used in Navy torpedo-boat destroyers when it came to their steam turbine rotors.

Surprisingly, the motoring industry isn't the only thing Ralph contributed to when it came to inventing technology. He also contributed to invent an early powered lawn mower, lock mechanisms, and even holders for fishing rods! Cool, right? In is where he managed to make a patent for his ultimate achievement yet in his career, cruise control.

The main reason he invented it in the first place was because his lawyer kept speeding up and slowing down as he talked, the swaying motions of the car annoying him, and thus was born the idea for a speed controller.

Or otherwise known as Speedostat, Controlmatic, Touchomatic and Pressomatic. Speedostat is the only one that truly stuck, becoming the trademark name for the device that Teetor had created. Despite this, it wasn't until when it was first commercially used by Chevrolet and soon after that, the world. Sadly, it all ended for him when on February 15, he had died at the age of 92 years old.

And it wasn't until in where his name and legacy was inducted into Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan for all his contributions to the motoring world. A tribe where the discussion of cars and everything for petrolheads takes place. Great Read. And quite informative, as a matter of fact. The man who invented cruise control was blind?!

Wow, that man was absolutely astonishing. In a Merc its called Tempomat, and I really like it, it works perfectly, and is very easy to control with a little stalk on the left-hand side of the wheel.

There is a small issue with it being right next to the indicator stalk, but I got used to it quite quickly, hardly ever mistake one for the other. Amazing article, may he rest in peace. Thanks for the read! Tim Rodie. Andria Howard. Stefan Krainer. Navy warships. Because better piston rings meant more efficient and powerful engines, Perfect Circle piston rings soon became standard.

More likely, there were other influences. Speeds had gotten high enough that highway accidents were catastrophic. Safety consciousness played as big a role…as the variability of the drivers that drove for him. Teetor envisioned a speed mechanism controlled by the motorist.

Holding the pedal steady would enable the motorist to maintain dialed-in speed, pressing down would deliver acceleration. As driver-set speed neared, the governor mechanism overcame spring tension to activate a vacuum-driven piston capable of pushing back against the gas pedal. Teetor received a patent for the speed control device on August 22, During early tests, says Meyer, as a driver steered a test vehicle, Teetor sprawled across its floor, hand on the gas pedal.

It definitely takes us several miles farther down the road to automatic pilots for cars. In , Chrysler was first to offer Speedostat as a luxury model option. A year later, its popularity influenced Chrysler to offer Speedostat on all car models. Studies at the time showed that the national speed limit prompted by the oil embargo saved , barrels of oil a day. A Perfect Circle colleague once asked his grandfather how much more might have been accomplished had he been able to see.

David Sears is a New Jersey-based writer and historian. Pacific Air.