The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20080312014538/http://local.aaca.org:80/bntc/mileposts/1924.htm

BRASS-NICKEL
TOURING REGION

underwood

1924

In the Headlines

  • 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

[UP]

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
  • Ford builds its 10-millionth automobile, begins production of factory accessories
  • Ford prices drop to $265 for the Runabout; $295 for the Touring. The average employed American earns $1293 annually
  • Dodge ousts Buick from third place in output; Chevrolet volume drops sharply, but still retains second spot
  • Dodge produces the first all-steel closed car
  • Maxwell-Chalmers Corp. introduces the Chrysler, with four-wheel hydraulic brakes and a high-compression (4.7:1) engine
  • 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
  • Oakland cars are now sprayed with quick-drying Duco lacquer
  • Packard introduces a 357.8 cid, L-head straight-eight, the first one to be truly mass-produced, and adopts four-wheel mechanical brakes
  • A straight-eight engine is introduced by Hupmobile, and also Auburn, Duesenberg, Jordan, Rickenbacker, and others
  • The last four-cylinder Buick are produced; only sixes will be offered until 1934. Four-wheel mechanical brakes are introduced
  • Chandler adopts a 'traffic transmission' with constant-mesh gearing, a forerunner of the forthcoming synchromesh
  • The Winton Company drops out of auto production, concentrates on diesel engines
  • 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

  • Alexander Winton is the first American to participate in foreign auto competition; The Gordon Bennett Race, in France
  • Renault vehicles open Sahara to automobile traffic
  • Car-customizing is the rage among affluent Parisians
  • Morris Minor (England) introduces a transfer machine to speed up� assembly
  • Henry Ford fires the manager of British Ford for allowing their non-unionized workers tea breaks and smoking rights
  • 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
  • Berlin adopts American-style traffic lights
  • Soviet motor production begins with ten trucks
  • 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
') var contentobj=document.getElementById? document.getElementById("content") : document.all.content var contentheight=contentobj.offsetHeight if (document.getElementById&&!document.all){ step=5 } } else if(ns4){ var contentobj=document.nscontainer.document.nscontent var contentheight=contentobj.clip.height } function scrolldown() { if(window.scrolltimerup){ clearTimeout(scrolltimerup) } if(iens6&&parseInt(contentobj.style.top)>=(contentheight*(-1)+100)){ contentobj.style.top=parseInt(contentobj.style.top)-step }else if(ns4&&contentobj.top>=(contentheight*(-1)+100)){ contentobj.top-=step } scrolltimerdown = setTimeout("scrolldown()",scrollspeed) } function scrollup() { if(window.scrolltimerdown){ clearTimeout(scrolltimerdown) } if(iens6&&parseInt(contentobj.style.top) function stopall() { if(window.scrolltimerup){ clearTimeout(scrolltimerup) } if(window.scrolltimerdown){ clearTimeout(scrolltimerdown) } } function shifttotop(){ stopall() if (iens6) { contentobj.style.top=0 }else{ contentobj.top=0 } } function getcontent_height(){ if (iens6) contentheight=contentobj.offsetHeight }

[UP]

New Makes: 1924

Balboa (prototype), Chrysler, Kleiber, Luxor, S&S, Schuler, and Traveler�

[UP]

1924 Production figures

1. Ford................................................1,720,795

2. Chevrolet............................................264,868

3. Dodge................................................193,861

4. Willys-Overland....................................163,000

5. Buick...................................................60,411

6. Hudson/Essex......................................133,950

7. Durant makes......................................111,000

8. Studebaker.........................................105,387

Some figures are estimates

[UP]

By the Numbers


US Population..................................114,109,000
Avg. Income..................................$1,1244/year
DOW Avg...................................................121
New Births.........................................2,913,000
New Home Median Price)...........................$7,720
New Car (Avg. Cost)..................................$ 398
Gas.....................................................21�/gal.
Milk (Qt).....................................................13�
Bread (Loaf).................................................9�
Eggs...................................................43�/doz.
Steak (lb)...................................................41�
Stamp.........................................................2�

[UP]

New in 1924

  • 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
  • A&W root beer drive ins
  • Feb 8 -1st prisoner ever was executed in Nevada's gas chamber
  • Tootsietoys

[UP]