05/05/2024 – 5:09
On May 5, 1922, for the first time a car – a Ford Model T – was equipped with a radio. What at first seemed eccentric, in five years became mass production. Two important inventions of the modern world happened almost simultaneously. The automobile had existed for a few decades, and Henry Ford had begun mass production at the beginning of the century.
The technique of radio, however, was still being developed when, in 1922, George Frost sat comfortably in his Model T, started it, and turned it on. A gesture that went down in history.
Today one can barely imagine a car without a radio. The young 18-year-old student and president of a radio club may, however, not have been the first to come up with the invention, as a Ford spokesperson in Cologne says: “As at that time there were several people who fitted a receiver into their car, it is difficult say who was the first, but officially Frost is considered its inventor.”
From gigantic to removable
In its early days, radios in vehicles took up so much space that, if the car had two seats, the back seat would be taken up by the device and its antenna.
Today, models are increasingly compact and versatile. In addition to music and information, the most advanced ones now offer navigation, telephone and internet systems – advances that make the car radio an increasingly coveted object for thieves.
But this problem, in part, was solved by the industry, with increasingly smaller radio equipment and removable panels. A comfort, as long as it is not forgotten at home.
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