
24 Power-assisted steering
24.1 THE NEED FOR POWER-ASSISTED
STEERING
General background
The reasons for the early development in America of
high-efficiency manual steering gears to reduce driver
effort have previously been explained. It was also in
America that Francis W. Davis, who has sometimes
been called the father of power steering, first demon-
strated in 1926 the benefits of providing power assistance
to reduce the steering effort on a once prestigious make
of car known as the Pierce-Arrow. However, the prob-
lems attending this pioneer effort were considerable,
and it was not until twenty-five years later, at least as
far as passenge