The History of Oil Shocks
Oil shocks, also knows as hydraulic shock absorbers, use a cylinder or housing to confine a fluid, which is acted upon by either a rotary vane and lever -- the earliest form -- or a tube-confined piston and seals. By slowing the fluid through small-orifice check valves inside the oil-filled chamber, the vehicle vertical suspension travel is damped both in bounce and rebound aspects. This results in a more comfortable and improved ride for all types of vehicles. The history and concept of oil shocks can be traced back to the later part of the last century, and involved a number of inventors and designs.
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The First Oil Shock Concept
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C.L. Horock is credited with the first design of the telescoping shock absorber, in 1901. The shock used a piston inside a cylinder, which had a metal sleeve. A one-way valve fitted into the piston. The piston moved freely in one direction, but resisted movement in the opposite direction, due to the contained oil pressure. There is no evidence that Horock brought the concept to production, but the telescoping tube design caught on later with other manufacturers.
The Earliest Usable Oil Shock
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The Frenchman M. Houdaille is generally recognized as the first inventor of a workable oil shock that went into production, having built a model in 1908. His system used a double-action rotary vane inside a fluid reservoir and small bleed passages. When a lever connected to the suspension was acted upon, it turned the vane, which created pressure inside the reservoir. The oil bled through small passages and a check valve, decreasing the pressure gradually and confining the lever to damped movement in both directions.
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The News Spreads
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It wasn't until 1915 that Houdaille's oil shock design was fitted to a Sunbeam automobile, which won the Isle of Man race that year. Soon after, a Benz racer took first place honors in the Paris-Moscow race, which garnered positive publicity for the new shock dampers. Domestic sales began to take off, and included installation on the Cunningham and Mercer cars. The French army made them available on their ambulances and staff vehicles. Houdaille gained wide market acceptance by the late 1920s. Rolls Royce used the shocks on several export models, and received favorable reports. Henry Ford's Model T was also retrofitted with Houdaille's new hydraulic shocks.
A.B Shultz
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A.B. Shutz, an accomplished automotive engineer during Houdaille's time, purchased the rights to the new shocks and started limited production at his Houde Engineering plant located in Buffalo, New York. This was after Houdaille could not obtain enough alloy steel to maintain production after World War 1. In 1923, Shutz signed a contract to equip Lincoln and Pierce-Arrow cars. The manufacturing auto companies of Jordon and Sterns-Knight also signed contracts to equip their vehicles. During this time, the Gabriel company had their own version of a hydraulic shock, similar to the design of Houdaille's.
The Ford Influence
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Henry Ford quickly adopted the shock design and declared that they would be standard equipment on all his future Model As. An estimated 21.5 million units were sold, with another 2 million Houdaille-designed shock systems sold and used on the front axles of the V-8 Fords and Model Bs. National Spicer and the Houde companies manufactured and supplied most of Ford's orders.
Monroe and the Double-Tube desgin
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The Monroe company introduced their own hydraulic shock in 1926, called the Eliminator. Short after, the Eliminator -- considered to be the first true tube shock -- was given a double-action design. Monroe manufactured large, modified versions of their shocks to work on railroad passenger cars. They perfected their twin-tube telescoping hydraulic shock by 1951, and started to sell it in mass quantities, making it one of the most popular mass-produced shocks in the world. Further Monroe innovations led to their patented rear and front-load leveler shocks, introduced in 1957 and 1962, respectively.
Monroe and Gabriel Head-to-Head
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Monroe and Gabriel became the two largest hydraulic shock manufacturers in the world. Both companies topped each other's designs and styles, beginning in the early 1960s. The double shock design, MacPherson strut suspension, General Motor's independent coil suspension systems and Nissan's electronically controlled shocks patented in 1982, all used the telescoping hydraulic shock design. Nearly every automobile manufacture used the telescoping hydraulic shock for the next 50 years, and they are still in use today.
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References
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