How in‑car heating has evolved the last 100 years – Axon’s Automotive Anorak

Stepping into a warm, cosy car, often with heated seats, mirrors and pre-heaters, is an effective (if not very environmentally efficient) way of defrosting the windows, often helped by front and rear heated screens. Motoring in the cold (or extreme heat) wasn’t always so easy, however…

Margaret A. Wilcox – born in Chicago, USA, in 1838 – can be credited with the invention of an in-car heating system, patenting her idea on 28^th November 1893, around the same time that the initial pioneering automobiles were taking to the rough roads of the United States.

In-car heating remained a scarce luxury feature of motor cars for decades after Ms. Wilcox’s invention, with fully enclosed bodywork and glass windows become more widespread by 1907 to at least escape the open elements, but still with no real form of keeping the car’s occupants toasty. This lack of mechanised heat created a large industry for specialist clothing to help keep intrepid winter motorists warm –think fur jackets, boots, gloves, fur-lined leather helmets and goggles. 

A whole decade after the first enclosed cabins, the aftermarket option of circulating hot exhaust gases, feed into car interiors by metal piping, began appeared in the USA, often resulting in the driver and passengers being overcome by noxious exhaust fumes in enclosed cars – not ideal!

The USA inevitably pioneered heaters as extra-cost options. The Ford Model A of 1929 was the first car in the world to make such a desirable extra available direct from a vehicle manufacturer. By 1933 Ford had revised its heater option to integrate the system more harmoniously into the facia of its Model A, but still at an additional cost.

Ahead of this, General Motors took the coolant from the engine and used this to (optionally) heat the cabins of certain up-market GM marques such as Cadillac, LaSalle and Buick from 1930 onwards.

For the 1937 Model Year, Nash introduced the world’s first heating and ventilation system that enabled the driver to actually regulate a car’s airflow and temperature, with premium rival Packard introducing a pioneering but primitive form of air conditioning in 1939.

Post-war, Chrysler’s luxury Imperial models in the USA introduced a basic automatic climate control (ACC) system in 1953, with Nash improving on this one year later for the 1954 Ambassador model with its revolutionary ‘Weather Eye’ system.

Meanwhile, in the UK and continental Europe, all but the most expensive and prestigious cars made do with no form of in-car heating and ventilation control at all. Crude aftermarket accessory systems by Smiths, Tudor, K-L and Heat-A-Car were all that motorists could hope for throughout the chilly post-war winters of the 1950s and early ‘60s.

By the mid-1960s, however, consumer demand for standard heaters in cars was becoming more commonplace, especially after the ‘Big Freeze’ British winter of 1962-63, one of the coldest winters on record in the UK with 20ft-plus snow drifts. Rivers, lakes and even the sea froze over, thick enough, even, to enable a car to be driven across the frozen River Thames in Oxford on 22^nd January 1963.

At the October 1964 London Motor Show at Earls Court, Ford stunned the mass-market car buyer with its revolutionary new ‘Aeroflow’ flow-through heating and ventilation system for its improved Mark I Cortina models. These were the first ‘regular’ cars to have recirculating air with adjustable air vents at either end of the dash panel, along with air extractor vents incorporated into the rear C-pillars to help remove stale air.

Most other British and European car makers soon followed this system, becoming the norm by the early 1970s, but with air conditioning and climate control still the preserve of ultra-exclusive and expensive cars only. Rolls-Royce introduced the world’s first dual-level climate control system for its costly Pininfarina-designed Camargue coupe in March 1975. Ahead of this, the fine Swedish pioneering marque Saab introduced heated front seats and heated door mirrors to help keep drivers safe, comfortable and alert in 1969.

Even into the 1980s, most ‘mainstream’ cars still had a basic (but logical and effective) slide heating and ventilation systems, using a clearly labelled sliding lever that would move left (or up) into the red zone for more heat and right (down) into a blue area to distribute cooler air. While one- or two-speed booster fan switches were the norm, they were often noisy (think an aircraft taking off) and ineffective, making a misted-up windscreen and steamy side glass still a common driving hazard.

These far simpler heating systems from a now bygone age may have lacked the efficiency, speed and power of today’s built-in AC and ACC devises, but they were arguably much easier and more logical to use, with an intuitive slide to the warmer red marker/blob in the dash for more heat, or the opposite blue marker for cooler air. Directing the ventilation more accurately to where you wanted it also seemed more precise then as well, as any driver of a 1980s Escort, Panda, Golf or Astra will be able to confirm.

Today, jump into an unknown, unfamiliar new car for the first time, and often its driver might feel overawed by the complexity of a modern dual-zone climate control system, with a vast array of buttons, symbols and controls that could confuse and phase an astronaut, never mind the recent recipient of some car rental keys at a sweltering overseas airport that just wants an icy blast of cool air – the last thing the driver in a strange, unfamiliar car wants to do is find and consult the owners’ manual to work out how to control the ventilation system! Worse still, for the sake of safety, the driver shouldn’t have to scroll through a confusing ‘infotainment’ screen just to be able to make minor adjustments the temperature whilst driving, as is increasingly the case in too many current cars, such as the Tesla Model S and latest Volkswagen Touareg, for example. 

So much for progress, hey! Stay warm and safe out on those icy roads.