1908 Glidden Tour, Beloit, Wis

https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A190797

ever seen a parade car with a speedometer made of flowers before? 1910 Chicago floral parade

 https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A177527

someone seems to have a collection of these, and they are getting auctioned off. Damn shame that the collection will likely be scattered - but that's just how collecting goes

https://rmsothebys.com/auctions/hf25/lots/n0027-stewart-model-27-speedometer-with-clock

https://rmsothebys.com/auctions/hf25/lots/n0025-jones-speedometer-with-clock/

https://rmsothebys.com/auctions/hf25/lots/n0026-ever-ready-autocrat-speedometer-with-clock/

https://rmsothebys.com/auctions/hf25/lots/n0028-jones-speedometer-with-clock/

In the '90s Saab introduced a hidden section to the speedometer

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1jldwoe/in_the_90s_saab_introduced_a_hidden_section_to/

I've never seen this instrument cluster before

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10232812690718337&set=pcb.1453239145257003

56 and 57 Studebakers started the nanny speedo

 

antique speedometer repair by the guy that literally wrote the book

http://antiquespeedometer.com/

someone's collection of speedometers and tach from the brass era is getting auctioned at Bonhams

these are only SOME of them... a wide variety for certain

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/28770/two-generations-collection

the shark nose Graham was one of those daring designs back when they didn't know where things might go, and companies too chances (Cord 810, Airstream Chrysler)

great speedometer and tach combo gauge, I don't think I've ever seen it before

such remarkable brake lights, above the quarter panels and at the base of the roof. 

I believe the pennant is to show that the car is a 1939

1959 Case 311 tractor instrument panel on a tractor that is getting fired up after a decade of sitting. Ran when parked, but had an overheating problem

a very remarkable collection of spark plugs and countertop demo sales models of speedometers and other 1920s petroliana is at auction right now

 

did you know the AC spark plug company made speedometers? I didn't!

https://www.proxibid.com/Matthews-Auctions-LLC/Day-2-Bob-Harrington-Display-Auction/event-catalog/238073

Looking at one of the companies from the 1930's -70s that made a wide variety of anything that would sell at Sears, JC Whitney, Popular Mechanics, etc... Fee & Stemwedel aka Airguide

Established inauspiciously at the outset of the Great Depression, the Airguide Instrument Company—originally known as Fee & Stemwedel, Inc.—managed a 60-year run as one of the country’s leading producers of “weather instruments,” i.e. thermometers, barometers, rain gauges, hygrometers and other instruments such as speedometers, tachometers, and the like.  (Didn't Ed Roth's cars have Airguide guages?)

Electrical engineers Albert L. Stemwedel (b. 1904) and Richard L. Fee (b. 1900) were part of the same generation of young entrepreneurs who’d launched radio giants like Zenith, Motorola, and Admiral. 

Fee spent the ‘20s (which were also his 20s) working as an electrician in Waukegan, while Stemwedel—a graduate of the Armour Institute of Technology—was an electrical contractor living in Rogers Park.

they hired Howard Taylor, who’d recently been laid off by Western Electric because of the Wall St crash and great depression, as a service man for them, as he had an inquiring mind and a lot of practical know-how.

At the height of its popularity, the Airguide brand name was associated not only with weather measuring devices like this one, but a slightly broader line of products one might categorize as “scouts equipment.” Advertisements in Boy’s Life and Popular Mechanics during the ‘40s and ‘50s showcased a healthy assortment of Airguide compasses, telescopes, and binoculars

1947 advertising 

1948

Makes a lot of sense to make opera glasses, binocs, and spy glasses at the same time

 

not only did they make a compass for snowmobiles, they made an altimeter. Yes, for snowmobiles

I grew up in snowmobile country, never saw any with an altimeter, and frankly? Have no god damn idea why the hell a snowmobile needs an altimeter. A flare gun? Yes. A winch? Absolutely. Extra gas tank? Are you kidding? Of COURSE they need an extra gas tank. But an altimeter? 

1957

they were so compass crazy, they even put a compass on a hand grip

then used that hand grip for their wind speed indicator

this nice condo building at the intersection of Winnebago and Wabansia in Chicago is their old factory

https://www.madeinchicagomuseum.com/single-post/airguide-instrument-co/

I hope you've enjoyed this look at the variety of things they made, and aren't you glad neither of us are collectors of every neat thing we see?