Today in Technology History

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January 22

Our subject today is a starry-eyed auto designer whose controversial career crumbled in scandal.

Preston Thomas Tucker was born in 1903 on a Michigan peppermint farm. He grew up in a suburb of Detroit, the American car capital, and spent his childhood fascinated with cars. He learned how to drive when he was eleven and quit school two years later to work in the Cadillac company offices. He was then employed by several other car companies -- Ford, Studebaker, Chrysler, and more -- starting as a mechanic and test driver, and eventually becoming a sales manager.

For a while in the 1930s, Tucker built racecars for Henry Ford, but that didn't last long. After World War II, however, he saw a tremendous new business opportunity. American auto manufacturers hadn't produced a single new car model during the war years, and Tucker believed that the country was hungering for a new car -- so he planned to quickly introduce a "car of tomorrow" that would start "a new era in motoring."

In 1946, Tucker started a new company, obtained a huge auto plant, and set about making his "Tucker Torpedo" -- a revolutionary design that generated enormous public excitement. It was a long, low, sleek car with its powerful engine was in the rear. The car had three headlights, and they moved in sync with the front wheels. It also included amenities that were uncommon back then, although they're standard nowadays: a shatterproof windshield, a padded dashboard, and seat belts, as well as other safety features.

Tucker came up with some creative ways to raise funds for his company, and these drew the ire of government regulators. The company was investigated in a series of costly government probes -- possibly secretly instigated by Tucker's competitors in the auto industry -- that culminated in a massive fraud trial.

Exactly 53 years ago today, on January 22, 1950, a jury found Tucker and his associates not guilty of all the fraud charges. But the verdict came too late: his reputation was tarnished irreparably, and his company folded after having built only 51 cars.

Tucker died in 1956.

Related links:

• Click here for the homepage of the Tucker Automobile Club of America.

• About four dozen Tucker cars are extant; they are prized by collectors today. The Smithsonian Institution and the Henry Ford Museum each have one.

 

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