Remember Motorwagen? The gasoline engine vehicle developed by Carl Benz and introduced in 1886? It was around this time that the thought of a rear-view mirror was started.
Dorothy Levitt, female driver, has even written a book entitled “The woman and the car”, in which she referred to the use of small mirrors by the maidens to be aware of what was happening in the rear. The male drivers—more confident…—continued to hold a mirror in their hand. A far from ideal solution… anyway, men!
That said, the model Marmon Wasp (in gallery) It will have been the first car in the world to use a rear-view mirror. It was at the wheel of this car that Ray Harroun (on the cover) was crowned the first winner of the Indianapolis 500, in 1911. However, it was only ten years later (1921) that the idea was patented, in the name of Elmer Berger, that the wanted to introduce in mass production cars.
And it was like this: the man dreamed, the work was born.
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Historical facts indicate that Ray Harroun, when younger, would have driven a horse-drawn car with a rear-view mirror installed in 1904. But due to vibration during rolling, the invention was a failure. Today the story is different...
Now, in the middle of the century. XXI, the rearview mirror knows its next stage of evolution. The exterior mirrors are starting to be replaced by cameras, whose captured image can be seen on screens inside the car. A better solution? We will have to experience it for ourselves.