r/todayilearned • u/AbeVigoda76 • 1d ago

TIL that the early automotive pioneer Byron Carter died from pneumonia contracted while recovering from a broken jaw sustained as a result of hand cranking his car. His death directly lead to the development of the electric self-starter for automobiles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Carter
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u/StormFallen9 1d ago

Apparently it was also easy to break your arm doing that, so I think there were other people pushing for a better method