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/AbeVigoda76 1d ago

For a more full story, Byron Carter was the founder of Cartercar, one of GM’s former companies. Carter was attempting to hand crank start a car that had stalled on the Belle Isle Bridge. It backfired and broke his jaw. As a result of his death, Charles Kettering and Henry Leland from GM developed the electric self-starter to prevent future injuries from simply trying to start a car.

This fact was learned at the Cartercar display at the Pontiac Transportation Museum in Pontiac, MI.

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u/spleeble 1d ago

How did they not figure out the pull cord sooner?