AD&P; > June 2013 > FEATURE > The Building Blocks of Safety > Christopher A. Sawyer
GETTING TO TODAY'S
SAFETY SYSTEMS
TOOK TIME, EFFORT
AND INTEGRATION
Today's safety technologies do not
stand alone, and were not created in
a vacuum. They arose from building
blocks that made them possible. These
are some of the major steps along
the way that made automotive safety
systems what they are today.
OF FORMERLY
DISCRETE SYSTEMS,
BUT IT IS ONLY
THE BEGINNING.
by Christopher A. Sawyer
> Contributing Editor
History does not remember Arthur W.
Savage of San Diego, California, as
the inventor of the radial tire, despite
receiving U.S. patent 1,203,910 on
May 21, 1915. More costly, harder
to construct, and less forgiving than
its bias-ply cousin, the radial tire
nearly disappeared from sight until
Michelin stepped in and developed
and commercialized it. From its
headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand,
France, the tire maker took Savage's
idea—wrapping the cord from sideto-side at 90° to the rim and placing
circumferential belts between the
cords and tread—used steel for the
belts, and called the resulting tire the
"Michelin X." In an instant, tire life
nearly doubled, fuel economy increased,
and vehicle ride and handling (once
suspension systems were modifed
for the radial's unique characteristics)
markedly improved.
The spot-type disc brake is another
American invention. Elmer Ambrose
The modern safety cage/crumple zone vehicle design was introduced by Mercedes-Benz in 1959, and
based on a 1951 patent awarded to company engineer Béla Barényi.
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