See how the Chrysler Corporation engineered and built automobiles in 1941, courtesy of this in-depth factory film.
From its founding in 1924 and all through its early years, the Chrysler Corporation proudly cultivated its image as an engineering company, and that pride is on display in this 1941 company film titled Years of Progress. Walter P. Chrysler’s crack engineering team of Fred Zeder, Owen Skelton, and Carl Breer, which he called his “three musketeers,” aggressively pursued innovation: the Floating Power engine mount system; the ambitous but ultimately unsuccessful Airflow models; powder metallurgy; Fluid Drive. (For more info, see our features on the Airflow and on Fluid Drive.) In those days, all the Chrysler Corporation brands—Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chysler—were known to the public as engineer’s cars.
Check out all the technology on display in the film: wind tunnels, dynamometers, a spectroscope, a densitometer, an X-ray machine. At the nine-minute mark, there’s an exciting glimpse inside the Chrysler styling studios, where we see a full-size wall rendering and a highly detailed clay model partly hidden by a tarpaulin. This is how the Chrysler Corporation built automobiles in 1941, and there are some good insights here. Video below.
A superb book titled “ The Birth of Chrysler Corporation and Its Engineering Legacy “ was derived from a Carl Breer manuscript that was published in 1995 by the Society of Automotive Engineers. It is available new or used on the web. It tells story of remarkable engineering team of Fred Zender, Own Kelton and Carl Breer. As a team they worked for Studebaker, Wills-Overland, Maxwell-Chalmers, and finally Chrysler.
Yes, it’s a great book with a number of interesting insights on Chrysler and on the early auto industry as well. I’ve read it several times and use it as a reference work. Thanks for your interest in Mac’s Motor City Garage.