Chevy Auto Suspensions: "Spring Harmony" 1935 Chevrolet Division, General Motors (Patreon)

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'A DRAMATIZATION OF THE BALANCE BETWEEN THE FRONT & THE REAR SPRINGS, INCLUDING AN EXPLANATION OF THE VALUE OF KNEE ACTION.' Produced by Jam Handy.

Originally a public domain film, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_(vehicle)

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Suspension is the system of tires, tire air, springs, shock absorbers and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels and allows relative motion between the two. Suspension systems must support both road holding/handling and ride quality, which are at odds with each other. The tuning of suspensions involves finding the right compromise. It is important for the suspension to keep the road wheel in contact with the road surface as much as possible, because all the road or ground forces acting on the vehicle do so through the contact patches of the tires. The suspension also protects the vehicle itself and any cargo or luggage from damage and wear. The design of front and rear suspension of a car may be different...

Leaf springs have been around since the early Egyptians. Ancient military engineers used leaf springs in the form of bows to power their siege engines, with little success at first. The use of leaf springs in catapults was later refined and made to work years later. Springs were not only made of metal; a sturdy tree branch could be used as a spring, such as with a bow. Horse-drawn carriages and the Ford Model T used this system, and it is still used today in larger vehicles, mainly mounted in the rear suspension.

Leaf springs were the first modern suspension system and, along with advances in the construction of roads, heralded the single greatest improvement in road transport until the advent of the automobile. The British steel springs were not well-suited for use on America's rough roads of the time, so the Abbot-Downing Company of Concord, New Hampshire re-introduced leather strap suspension, which gave a swinging motion instead of the jolting up and down of a spring suspension.

Henri Fournier on his uniquely damped and racewinning 'Mors Machine', photo taken 1902

In 1901 Mors of Paris first fitted an automobile with shock absorbers. With the advantage of a damped suspension system on his 'Mors Machine', Henri Fournier won the prestigious Paris-to-Berlin race on 20 June 1901. Fournier's superior time was 11 hrs 46 min 10 sec, while the best competitor was Léonce Girardot in a Panhard with a time of 12 hrs 15 min 40 sec.

Coil springs first appeared on a production vehicle in 1906 in the Brush Runabout made by the Brush Motor Company. Today, coil springs are used in most cars.

In 1920, Leyland Motors used torsion bars in a suspension system.

In 1922, independent front suspension was pioneered on the Lancia Lambda and became more common in mass market cars from 1932. Today, most cars have independent suspension on all four wheels.

In 2002, a new passive suspension component was invented by Malcolm C. Smith, the inerter. This has the ability to increase the effective inertia of a wheel suspension using a geared flywheel, but without adding significant mass. It was initially employed in Formula One in secrecy but has since spread to other motorsport...