Seems to me that all cars into the early 50's had a hand throttle on the dash, along with a choke. Never understood the reason for a hand throttle. there must be an answer out there.
The hand throttle is a good way to set the idle while letting the car warm up. Also helps while working on the car.
Hello, In sports medicine and other tests run over the years from numerous studies in the field of kinesiology and physiology: Reaction times are always quicker than the foot action. In college classes, we tested reaction time versus exercise and time of day. After each, it was noted that hand coordination was much faster than foot action. (Early morning vs. late afternoon) But, there are plenty of factors for each testing times and people. So, some may be faster in foot action, but overall, the reaction times for the hand is much quicker. Maybe those early designers consulted early doctors and people in some form of medicine for their reactions to the placement of the throttle on cars. It was an eye opener when we concluded those tests in our class. So, pinball machines and other activities that involve using the hands from way back then helped in the studies. Jnaki Nowadays, the video game industry has cornered the market on fast reactions in all of their RPG actions. Those early column throttle levers had a good idea. But, it made you drive with one hand on the wheel, which was not the best way to steer, unless there were a whole bunch of "cruisers" that were part of the test groups in those early studies. HA! If the reaction times were faster in the hand vs. feet tests, it was a good thing that it did not apply to drag racing. There would have been more crashes when the flag dropped or the green light came on, with all of the excitement at the starts.
Can be used for holding / clutching on hills while your feet are on the brake and using the clutch. Raising the idle a tad so the car runs ok until you can readjust the carb setting. Slow crawling on poor roads or up hills. A primitive cruise control of sorts.
When I used to tune multiple carbs on O.T. BMWs, I had a remote throttle adjuster to keep tension on the primary link for throttle, whilst performing final setting on linkage at both carbs. {Essential to get both the same when tension applied via accelerator pedal, lest carbs 'pop back' at partial throttle} I often reverted thoughts to the days when my early Fords had that handy hand throttle on the dash...
On a big truck with low rear end gearing and a compound low crash box a farmer could put the trans in 1st and use the hand throttle to allow him to get out and walk beside the truck while loading in the field. Or at least that is what I was told years ago. Might have been one of those old wife's tales. Who knows. But I do know I had a '40 Ford 1 1/2 ton with a Watson over, direct, and over auxiliary trans in it and in 1st under it barely moved.
I always thought a hand throttle would have been a good idea on ALL my Ford hot rod builds. It would allow you to move you're "gas pedal foot" out from under a leaking cowl vent on rainy days
Mid 70's at Bremerton Raceway, a "garage built" FED showed up with a BBC and Powerglide transmission. It had been someones "real" drag car at one time. The younger guy set to be driving it did't even have a firesuit; leather welding jacket, blue jeans, and a helmet with a face shield. The older guy he was with, was in a wheelchair. Turns out, he owned the car. And, it had a rod from the carburetor, back to the cowling, where it ended with a "ring" to slip a finger in; hand throttle on a dragster? I have a photo of it somewhere, not that I have any way of posting it. I do remember seeing them make at least one pass, but that's really all I remember. No time, no MPH, just a kid in a dragster with a hand throttle (???). There also used to be a guy in a wheelchair, with a very nice 68-69 Barracuda. Car was setup with full hand controls, and his wife did all the prep work, helping him in/out of the car, getting him belted in, backing him up after the cross-line burnout, etc, etc, etc. But, have't seen them for years now (25 at least). Now I've got to go find that dragster photo with the hand throttle. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
My 49 Chevrolet pickup had one. Looked like a choke cable with a T on it. The cable mounted to the carb top screw and the to rod in the cable went thru the throttle arm in the lower carb plate in place of a cotter pin. It had a screw stop below the normal foot feed rod.
The top 5 reasons............. #1 - Setting the idle for different weather conditions #2 - A road-speed holding technique #3 - Commonly used on earthmoving and farm equipment #4 - It held RPM for gear changes And #5, the most popular reason for a hand throttle.......... .......... It's traditional
All of these things sound like finding a use for something that is there, rather than explaining why it is there to begin with. Which raises the question, "Why did it disappear?"
A lot of early carbs didn't have a fast idle cam attached to the choke linkage, so a hand throttle would keep the car running while the engine warmed up. Also in very cold weather the engine could be idled up while running in a parking lot etc. to produce more engine heat and water flow for the cabin heater.
Shoot, as I kid I ran through many a field after my dad set the throttle, he and a buddy would toss and stack hay in the pickups, flatbeds, etc. from 1/2 tons-up. If anyone has driven or tried to drive slowly over rough and bumpy ground, setting the throttle up a bit was better than your foot trying to hold that slow speed. In my dads Semis after a bit of idling, he’d set the throttle to spin the compressor faster and build air to the bottom dumps and his transfer boxes.
Being that most vehicles don’t come with manual transmissions anymore, autos are way more forgiving (IMO) with torque converter slip. I don’t think I ever saw a car with a pull out throttle cable, only trucks. But maybe never looked at enough?
Probably because the lawyers got involved after people used it as a speed control and ended up crashing into something at speed. Or not?
A little off topic, but I installed a Toyota OEM hand throttle cable on my 97 Lexus LX450. Dash had provision for it. Used during winching operations to get alternator to put out more amps.
My 3, 1961 Ford ex-Connecticut State Police cars had hand throttles. You pulled it out, then turned the throttle knob to the right to lock it in place. I think that they were used to keep the battery charged when parked on the side of the road.
Trucks had them for PTO , either driving a hydraulic pump or an auxiliary gear box ...don't remember them on passenger cars...
This is what I have seen. To control the engine speed when using the PTO (Power take off for city folks). A good part of the time you are running what ever you drive the PTO with without the truck moving such as with a pump or wrecker winch. Even a lot of hydraulic truck hoists run off a PTO driven pump. Having driven on some steep grade streets in my life including in Seattle being able to keep the rpm up with a hand throttle while working the brake and clutch with your feet isn't at all far fetched though and there were times I wished I had had something like that.
It was not needed, nor was the manual choke, when carbs with automatic chokes became standard. And automatic transmissions became popular.
I found a couple photos of that dragster with the hand throttle. If anyone has a scanner and would like to try posting them, just PM with a name/address, and I'll send a photo to get it done. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
I'd suggest that the hand throttle was largely a survival from the Edwardian era, when engines were regarded as constant speed devices, and you were expected to change speed more by changing gears than by changing engine speed. You'd set the throttle according to the kind of driving you were expecting to do, and control speed using the clutch. A small number of cars worked according to this philosophy even into the '30s. The change came after c.1910 when people like Laurence Pomeroy developed "high-speed" engines capable of 2500-3000rpm. This made it possible to drive by varying engine speed using a foot throttle, relegating the hand throttle to an auxiliary function. Thereafter the hand throttle was by stages automated away. My 1994 DD has a manual choke, but I am not entirely satisfied with the action of the fast-idle cam. I'd find it extremely useful to be able to change the idle speed on the fly without altering the mixture. Where I live the climate is often such that the engine might be too cold to idle at the set speed while the ambient temperature doesn't warrant an enriched mixture. I'd love a hand throttle on any car. It's also a tools-v.-slaves thing. I want physically to manipulate my car, not to command it. More manual controls are, as a general principle, good.
I've heard that part of the appeal of the model T's was their versitility. Many people used them as tractors. Most tractors have a hand throttle. When you're only going about jogging or walking speed, it's very handy. You have plenty of time to bump it up or down a notch. Growing up, we had a 60 Ford pickup with a granny-low gear for pulling heavy loads. We used to adjust the idle slightly up at the carburator so it would go about walking speed across the field as we threw hay bales on it. Someone would have to jump in it at the end of the field or for minor course corrections. That way, no one's labor was wasted sitting in the truck. Everyone could load hay, which cut the time and effort. I can imagine Henry Ford thinking a hand throttle would be a good selling feature at the time. Sent from my SM-G981U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The Jalopy Journal
