Teletouch

Teletouch was the trade name for the transmission controls found on many Edsel brand automobiles manufactured by the Edsel and Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln (M-E-L) Divisions of the Ford Motor Company. The significance of the Teletouch systems lies in its conception, design and symbolism for American automobiles produced in the 1950s, and the gadgets designed into them.

Conception of the Edsel began in the early 1950s when Ford Motor Company attempted to outflank industry leader General Motors through altering its production, pricing and its make and model ranges. One of the results of this plan was the E-car program that resulted in the ill-fated Edsel.

From the beginning, the Edsel was promised to be something very different from the cars that Detroit was turning out at the time. However development costs required that Edsel share the basics of other established Ford brands on the market. In this climate, the Edsel emerged as a five-model, three-wheelbase automobile line. Senior Edsels would share their chassis with Mercury, junior models would share their chassis with Ford passenger vehicles, and station wagons would share their chassis and body structure with Ford's station range.

The distinction offered by the Edsel, therefore, was in the styling details. While the famed 'horse collar' grille and 'boomerang' tail lights made the Edsel visually unique, the Teletouch transmission and saucer-like spinning speedometer emerged as two of the better-remembered interior details.

The first electrical gear shift mechanism sold on new automobiles was the Vulcan electric gear shift system, a solenoid-driven transmission shift device for a standard sliding gear gearbox introduced in the summer of 1913. Among the automakers to offer the Vulcan system were the Haynes Automobile Company of Kokomo, Indiana the S.G.V. Company of Reading, Pennsylvania and the Norwalk Motor Car Company of Martinsburg, West Virginia. While the Vulcan shifter was often advertised as standard equipment on the Haynes car, a common floor shift was also available for $200 less. Norwalk made the Vulcan system available on their products, such as the Underslung Six, as an option; approximately 25 of those cars were so equipped. A large nickel-plated box was attached to the right side of the steering column which housed the push button mechanism. It utilized six buttons – first through third gear, reverse, neutral and park. There was also a "signal" button which was the horn. A housing containing four large solenoids was mounted at the transmission which acted on the steel transmission shift control rods. The driver was free to select any gear at will, enabling the bypassing of gears, such as jumping from first to third gear without going through second gear. There was a cautionary advisory with the car that one must use care when placing the selector into reverse, only doing so when the car was completely stopped. Pushing a button on the shift control preselected the chosen gear. The electrical circuit was closed only after the driver fully depressed the clutch pedal. This energized the appropriate transmission mounted solenoids necessary for returning the transmission to neutral and then completing engagement of the preselected gear; the driver would then release the clutch pedal to continue onwards. These seemed to have been very advanced automotive systems. The Vulcan Electric Shift Company was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was eventually bought out by Cutler-Hammer. The model year 1914 was the only year that Norwalk used this system. Only one known Norwalk Motor Car survives today, which is owned by the friends of the Norwalk Foundation, Inc. in Martinsburg. Haynes was evidently the only automaker of note to place the push-buttons in the center of the steering wheel. The Vulcan electric gear shift system probably didn't survive past the early 1920s, since nothing regarding it has been found in the automotive engineering literature past 1921, and a 1919 Haynes print ad has been found with no mention of the electric shifting system.

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