High Quality Shock Absorbers for comfortable motoring
Early 1920s cars did not have very sophisticated suspensions leading to bumpy rides and possible accidents. The suspensions were originally based on those used by horse-drawn vehicles that traveled at relatively low speeds. As automobiles gained more powerful motors and their top speed increased, then shortcomings in the suspension became apparent. If bumps were hit at too high a speed the car would bounce all over the road, posing a danger to the occupants and other road users. New shock absorber technology improved the comfort and safety of motorists.
Single action shock absorbers that damped the shock in one direction helped to a certain degree but more was required. Drivers still had to slow down dramatically when traveling over bumpy surfaces in order to maintain control over the vehicle.
Shock absorbers were needed that damped shocks in two directions so it wasn't long before automotive engineers developed the double action shock absorber or preventer as they were sometimes called.
Single action shock absorbers that damped the shock in one direction helped to a certain degree but more was required. Drivers still had to slow down dramatically when traveling over bumpy surfaces in order to maintain control over the vehicle.Shock absorbers were needed that damped shocks in two directions so it wasn't long before automotive engineers developed the double action shock absorber or preventer as they were sometimes called.
Below is an advertisement from an Automotive magazine of 1922 for aftermarket shock absorbers.
BLACKMORE SHOCK ABSORBERS
The world is full of shock absorbers. Yet for ten years automotive engineers have been searching for means of checking the overaction of the springs when the wheel strikes a rise or depression in the road.
The Blackmore shock and roll preventer is that device. When the spring is in its normal position, the Blackmore, unlike spring shock absorbers which merely add to the reaction, or friction devices that stiffen the action of the spring, furnishes no resistance to the softness of good springs.
When the bouncing jolt is encountered, the Blackmore, as the body leaves its normal position, takes a firm grip on the spring, lessening its hasty compression, easing up its hasty reaction, bringing the car body back to its normal position with a cushion-like ease that has surprised the whole automotive world.
The Blackmore gives minimum resistance at normal position, but gives an increasing resistance as the car body leaves its normal position and maintains that resistance in graduated proportion throughout the entire upward and downward motion of the body, entirely automatic and exactly in proportion to the movement of the body. For the Blackmore is adjusted to give those compensated values which have heretofore been the elusive aim of the greatest spring experts, and give that compensated action on both upward and downward movement, both above and below the normal body center.
The most astonishing results have been obtained with the Blackmore Preventer. Fords so equipped may be driven at full speed over washboard roads with no more movement to the body than is normal on the finest roads. Until the advent of the Blackmore such results among spring experts were considered practically impossible. It has long been realized however, that in order to obtain such results a shock absorber must be double acting, both above and below center, and it has in the last few years been more clearly realized that the resistance to spring deflection and reaction must be proportionate to the distance from center. Now for the first time is offered to the light car public a device that after years of careful experiment and hundreds of thousands of miles of driving has proved the final solution to these problems.
Now ready for Fords, Dodge, Chevrolets and other light cars.
Source: MoToR Magazine, Nov. 1922
1920's AUTOMOBILE RESOURCES
Henry Ford Autobiography
MY LIFE AND WORK - by Henry Ford. A fascinating look behind the scenes at the birth of the automobile industry.
Automotive Industry Events of 1922
Press releases detailing management changes and technological advances of 1922.
List of 1922 Automobiles
Full List of Car Makes and Prices in 1922.