Who can tell me what this is a schematic for?

Hints:

1. It's pretty old.

2. Never expected to see one in a car...

Who can tell me what this is a schematic for?

Hints:

1. It's pretty old.

2. Never expected to see one in a car...

dash mounted record player... I believe it played 16rpm records.

Yep. I just ran across this. Any idea how often they skipped?

Yep. I just ran across this. Any idea how often they skipped?

They were specifically not meant for use while in motion. The idea was that you only used this device while parked. All the ads I saw for it featured a family having a picnic right next to their convertible... naturally with the record playing.

That makes a bit more sense. The name "Highway Hifi" is a bit misleading then.

Now can anyone name the car it was in?

Now can anyone name the car it was in?

Chrysler.

They were specifically not meant for use while in motion. The idea was that you only used this device while parked.  All the ads I saw for it featured a family having a picnic right next to their convertible... naturally with the record playing.

And you say that, but...

Several days later we went down to the Chrysler garage, where several people joined us. We all piled into one of the executive cars, which had been outfitted with one of my sets. Lynn Townsend, who later became president of the auto company, sat in back with me while the then president of Chrysler drove. The executives gave the tone arm the same test as before-over cobblestones, around curves, over washboard roads, slowing down, speeding up, even emergency stops. The jolts were incredible. But so was the record player. Nothing could stop it from carrying out its appointed mission. I, on the other hand, was getting sick.

With music filling the air, the president wheeled the car into the company garage. Townsend turned to me and said, "I must have it for the Chrysler." Everybody else agreed and chanted, "Yes, we must have it."

Actually I didn't know until later that the timing for my innovation was right. Chrysler was then preparing for its annual face-lifting-a model change-and they wanted to focus their advertising on a new development. Our machine was glamorous, novel, and it wouldn't add great expense to the cost of the car. The Chrysler people named it "Highway Hi-Fi" and designed it to fit under the dashboard with a two-way switch, one for radio and the other for records. We agreed that everything would be ready for the 1956 model. We made plans for a spectacular debut and a press showing.

All went well until two weeks before the press showing. I was summoned to the phone: emergency call from Chrysler. Something about the installation. I immediately flew to Detroit. As soon as I arrived, the engineer put me inside a car and started driving with the record player on. It was incredible. The machine wheezed, fluttered, groaned, jumped grooves, and made noises I had never heard before. It did everything it was designed not to do. What had happened?

And then I glanced at the dashboard and almost jumped out of my skin. The engineers of the Chrysler Corporation had installed my machine in Dodges and Plymouths. The characteristics of those cars are quite different from those of the Chrysler line. They were lighter and harder riding, for one thing, with different kinds of suspension. Obviously a record player installed in these cars needed a different kind of damping.

Full Article @ Imperial Pages (A good read!)