[Pictured here is Kettering with his starter invention]
Before starter motors, engines were hand-cranked. Then, in 1911 a friend of Henry Leland (who was the founder of the Cadillac) was trying to start a car for a lady and was killed from injuries caused by the starter crank flying off hitting him in the head.
Leland saw the need for a starting system that didn’t risk personal injuries, especially since so many people suffered from broken wrists and forearms when the engine timing wasn’t retarded properly and the crank handle kicked back. Leland commissioned Charles Kettering (who was head of Dayton Electric Company—which later became Delco) to invent a safer and better method of starting an engine. Within a year all Cadillac’s came standard with electric starter motors.
But you still had to stomp on a mechanical switch on the floorboard which would both engage the starter motor gear as well as provide an electrical switch to power it up. Vincent Bendix designed the starter “Bendix” and was granted a patent 1910. This is essentially the same starter design that’s used today.
Today, with the invention of super-magnets, a starter motor for a 4-cylinder engine produces 1,200 watts of power, which is equivalent to approximately 1.6 horsepower.
