Why Starting a Car Used to Break Wrists

...It was impossible to put small, powerful electric motor as a starter so Kettering did just that...

This is the type of things I like to see, who knew.

That is where the term "Cranky" came from. On cold days it was harder to start manually at times setting off tempers.

The whole reason for this was Cadillac lost someone because the car killed when starting it up. Or so the story goes

Many WW2 planes were started by hand cranking a flywheel and then engaging it to the crankshaft with a clutch system. The whole assembly was known as an inertial starter and it was sure that you wouldn't break any fingers or arms in the process...

There was another issue, when turning the crank, you can run yourself over, people tried to secure the tires with bricks and stuff but it still wasn’t a guarantee that the car won’t start rolling.

This is the type of shit i pay my internet for

Chauffeur fracture..😂 I'm orthopedic surgeon..and in... Cairo...we still use the term (chauffeur Fracture/ driver fracture) to describe the fracture of radial styloid ... From Cairo with love ❤❤

Automaker Byron Carter stopped to hand-crank a stranded woman’s Cadillac, but the engine backfired and whipped the iron crank into his jaw, leading to fatal complications. Grieving the loss of his close friend to one of his own cars, Cadillac founder Henry Leland hired Charles Kettering to build the electric self-starter for the 1912 Cadillac, eliminating hand cranks forever.

Salute to Charles Kettering Great Man

Engineering and engineers never fail to amaze me

Many people learned to start by pulling up on the crank instead of pushing down. That way, if the engine backfires, your arm is up, out of the way.

It happened so often on cars like the Bentley Blower that the injury was called a Chauffeurs Fracture

We had to start our tractor like this when I was a kid.

I learned this while researching motors for improving joint strength in androids. Incredible how far we've come in just over a century.

The correct way to crank start a car was only on the upstroke of the crank. You pulled upward. If the engine kicked, it just yanked the crank away from your hand.

Flywheel starters were also an option. You crank and run a flywheel, and then engage it to the crank. Worked really well, can use it to start tanks

There is a step that was taken before the electrical starter but after the crank start it's a spring starter it uses the crank method to wined up the spring to then use to start the vehicle

I wish cars still had a backup manual starter. If the motor fails, I still want to be able to try to start my car by hand instead of necessitating a tow truck.

I remember asking my grandfather about the crank on an old movie or 3 stooges episode. He said the same as this video. He would be 103 now and he remember his Mom driving a crank vehicle as a young child.