4. Hit & Run Discs
This device for cars was actually a bit ingenious and it was designed to help identity the culprits of a hit and run. The idea behind the device was that if a car struck someone it would then shoot out discs from a compartment. These discs would feature all the pertinent information for who had been driving the car, such as their name and license plate number. That way if someone was in a car accident or if they were struck from a vehicle they could just pick up one of the ejected discs and they would have all the information they would need to track down the driver.
This was featured in a 1931 Popular Mechanics magazine as more of an idea rather than an actual feature that would be utilized in cars. The idea of it is a good one because hit and runs as as much of a problem now as it was in the 1930s. The problem is that people would likely be able to easily access and change or remove the discs, so that if they were to get into an accident the discs would be useless. The mechanics of the system would not be that easy either (especially with 1930s technology) to be able to register a hit on any part of the car and then be able to deploy the discs.
Hit and runs were a major problem in the early years of cars. In 1917 in Detroit there were over 7,000 accidents and 168 auto fatalities (with 65,000 cars on the roads) and three-fourths of those victims were pedestrians. Often the person driving the car would just keep going and the victims would have no recourse. So it is not at all surprising that a lawyer in 1930 would suggest a solution such as this one.