It's almost impossible to think of driving without imagining hands firmly resting on a steering wheel. However, surprisingly, early cars lacked steering wheels. Perhaps you've noticed this in some films?
The world's first automobile, patented by Carl Benz in 1886, used a tiller steering system. Despite being very impractical, it remained the standard equipment for many cars until the early 20th century.
But as early as 1896, the French engineer Alfred Vacheron installed a steering wheel instead of the usual lever on his Panhard & Levassor, which was equipped with a Daimler engine – to better tackle the world's first automobile race, the Paris-Rouen. A few years later, in 1900, Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft also equipped its Phoenix race car with a steering wheel. With an innovation: the inclined steering column, which greatly improved maneuverability.
Once its supremacy was definitively established, various functions began to be added to the steering wheel. From 1920 onwards, the steering wheel also became a communication tool with the introduction of the horn ring, a precursor to today's horn. At first, it was a simple bulb bell (like a bicycle) mounted on the edge of the steering wheel; then it became a button on the steering wheel hub, eventually evolving into the horn on the steering wheel spokes that we all know.
In 1949, turn signals arrived on the steering wheel – in Mercedes cars. In the 1950s, the steering wheel increasingly became a control center, again thanks to Mercedes' significant contribution. In 1951, the gear shift lever on the steering column arrived in the 300 'Adenauer-Mercedes' and the 220, a solution adopted until the 1970s. In 1955, a lever for flashing the headlights was added to the steering wheel, and to overcome the difficulty of maneuvering, power steering was introduced on the 300 sedan in 1958.
Mercedes also launched the combined stalk on the Heckflosse and Ponton models, which combined turn signals and headlight flashing functions. In '63, the function of operating the windshield wipers and washer was added, replacing the dedicated switch on the dashboard.
