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Left foot accelerator pedal for disabled drivers.
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Previously:
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...794#post156096
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...194#post153849
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...423#post135495
This specific throttle was available as recently(?) as the mid '70s from "JCWhitney" in their print catalog. They still have a web presence but the selection is difficult to wade through. My comment comes about from my father (1906-1988) who dealt with polio. He drove with his hands, no feet used. His nephews told me of driving a "Model T" during the late '20s-early '30s. That would have been a real handful.
The oldest car I recall was a '51 Studebaker (Starlight coupe) around 1953. Earlier cars I was too young too understand what I was seeing. He "could" use a cut off broomstick for the throttle, but his preference was a "PTO cable", like a choke cable with a "T" handle, mounted near the steering wheel. The clutch was a steel bar with a "belly saddle" and the brake was a piece of 3/16 X 3/4 inch steel suspended from a screen door spring to prevent the weight from "riding the brake". When he took a driver's road test in Virginia and was told to do a "fast" stop, he almost put the trooper through the windshield. He got his license. . .
He has driven trucks to my knowledge as large as a 2-1/2 ton U-haul.(Tandem rear) There are tales of such trucks as far back as the 1930s. The only one I saw was in 1966. This was all before "automatic" transmissions were common. I recall being chased around the pastures at the age of 3 or 4 with a war surplus jeep. The "left foot" throttle has always been, to my mind, a relief for a "lazy" person on a long drive.
Bi11 Hudson
Imagine going for the clutch and accelerating into the parked car in front of you.