If you live in a country with a well-developed highway system, you would have always driven a vehicle with Cruise Control as a standard feature. You have enjoyed the convenience of this feature, but have you ever been curious about its invention? Do you know that an engineer named Ralph Teetor invented Cruise Control in the 1940s?
If you didn’t, your first reaction would be – that sounds reasonable. You would have expected an engineer to do that. But if I told you that Ralph Teetor was blind, what would your reaction be? Yes, Ralph Teetor was a genius who thought about inventing a speed control device because he was annoyed that his family lawyer wouldn’t maintain a constant speed when driving him. He would slow down when talking and speed up while listening to Ralph, which drove him mad.
You may read this article as a story of the invention of cruise control. For me, this entire writing was a journey of inspiration.
Ralph Teetor was born in August 1890 in Hagerstown, Indiana. When he was only five years old, he accidentally blinded one eye while playing with a knife. Within a year of the incident, his other eye was impacted by a condition known as sympathetic ophthalmia, rendering him completely blind. He never let that become a handicap.
His family was very supportive. They realized his potential for mechanics, so his father and uncles trained him to be a machinist. At just thirteen, he designed and built an automobile that could travel up to 25 mph. After high school, he applied to study engineering. While many schools wouldn’t consider him, his cousin, who studied economics at the University of Pennsylvania, convinced the Dean of Engineering to admit Ralph to the Mechanical Engineering program. He needed little help in graduating after that.
I remember that when I started studying mechanical engineering, Engineering Drawing was one of the most challenging subjects. Professors shared the critical concept that we should be able to visualize a product in our minds. Only then can we represent it on the drawing sheet. Ralph Teetor was the epitome of that concept. Being visually impaired, he was responsible for several inventions. He could only do those because he could visualize how the components fit and worked together.
Though his vision was impaired, he developed a legendary sense of touch that was highly regarded in the industry. His daughter once recalled a story about him feeling some new castings and remarking that they didn’t vary by more than .002 inches. The castings were measured, proving Teetor was correct.
He often said, “You are not handicapped so long as you can think logically,”
In the mid-1930s, he started working on his Speed Control Device. After almost a decade of persistence, he received his first patent on the device. The invention had several names in the early days, but “Speedostat” was finally selected and trademarked. He received a patent for the Speedostat in 1950.
It wasn’t until 1958 that Speedostat was commercially offered in a vehicle. Chrysler was the first company to adopt and offer it as a luxury option, calling it the Auto Pilot. Soon, General Motors started offering it in their luxury division, Cadillac, and called it “Cruise Control.” That name has been used ever since. Cruise Control continued being offered as a luxury feature for over a decade. However, in 1973, when the OPEC countries imposed an oil embargo against the US, Ralph Teetor’s invention became a widely accepted fuel-conserving device. The rest is history. Cruise Control has been a standard feature in passenger vehicles for decades.
While this article is about Cruise Control, I must share that this wasn’t his only invention. The list is very long. Some of the more prominent ones were:
Developing a technique for balancing steam turbine rotors used in Navy torpedo-boat destroyers during World War 1. His legendary sense of touch proved to be very helpful in solving this challenge, which had troubled engineers for a long time. He took this work further with innovations that helped balance rotary components on automotive engines and other industrial applications.
Early in his career, he worked at his family’s company, The Perfect Circle Company, which specialized in manufacturing piston rings. He contributed to developing and refining these piston rings. His work helped improve engine efficiency and performance as Perfect Circle piston rings became widely used in automobiles, trucks, and aircraft.
He designed a fluid-operated mechanism to assist gear shifting. Hydraulic systems like this laid the groundwork for future automatic transmission systems.
While researching this article, I found a fascinating project documenting his life. Blind Logic has made a documentary film called “The Ralph R. Teetor Story.” You can read about it and be up-to-date about its release on their webpage. Also, please visit their page on X, which has many posts about him.
One paragraph on the Wikipedia page dedicated to Ralph Teetor caught my attention. “Teetor managed to live his life almost as if his accident had never happened. He went on to become successful as an engineer, manufacturing executive, and entrepreneur. His other inventions included an early powered lawn mower, lock mechanisms, and holders for fishing rods.”
I will conclude this article with a quote about him, which I read on the Smithsonian. “A Perfect Circle colleague once asked his grandfather how much more might have been accomplished had he been able to see. “I probably couldn’t have done as much,” Teetor reflected. “I can concentrate, and you can’t.” His grandson says, “There was a purity in not being biased by his eyes.”
Ralph Teetor passed away in 1982. In 1988, he was posthumously inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame for his numerous contributions to the industry.
