Motor Age Museum

摘要

Heaters are standard equipment on all cars and light trucks today, but at first they were aftermarket options. The first heaters were the same portable gas burners carried over from the horse-and-buggy days, usually supplemented by a heavy lap robe. By 1917, a system of bolt-on exhaust pipes was routed inside the cabin, but this wasrnnot very effective. The 1929 Ford Model A could be fitted with a factory-made heat exchanger that had a sheet metal sleeve surrounding the exhaust manifold. Air flowing in through the open end was heated and ducted into the cabin, but because there was no fan, heat only flowed when the car was moving. A few years later, Ford introduced South Wind gasoline-fired heaters with a fan that blew heated fresh air into the cabin.