Fifth wheel (Brooks Walker)

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Brooks Walker was an American inventor. His inventions included Venetian blinds.[ citation needed ] At the time of his death in 1984, he owned over 250 patents.[ citation needed ] Walker owned the Shasta Forest lumber company. [1]

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Early life

He was born in Minneapolis. He earned a mechanical engineering degree from U.C. Berkeley, in 1925.

Fifth wheel

In the 1930s, Walker invented a device which added a fifth wheel to cars to aid parallel parking. The extra wheel was mounted on the rear of the vehicle, at right angles to the rest of the wheels. When in use, the fifth wheel lifted the back of the car off its normal rear wheels, allowing the rear of the car to swing laterally. [2] [3]

Walker was granted a patent for his device, described as a "vehicle lifting and traversing device", in 1935. [4] He demonstrated the device, which was featured in LIFE magazine. [5]

He was unable to sell his invention to the automotive industry. [2] Walker continued to attempt to market his device into the 1970s. [6]

References

  1. ↑ "South Florida Sun Sentinel" . Newspapers.com. 25 Jul 1984. p. 16. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  2. 1 2 Peek, Jeff (2018-09-14). "The ingenious "fifth wheel" parallel parking tool that never hit it big". Hagerty Media. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
  3. ↑ Bogart, Angelo Van (29 November 2012). "Car of the Week: 'Self-Parking' 1953 Packard Cavalier". Old Cars Weekly. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
  4. ↑ US 1990150,Walker, Brooks,"Vehicle lifting and traversing device",published 1935-02-05
  5. ↑ "A fifth wheel makes it easy". LIFE magazine. Time Inc. 17 Nov 1952. p. 113. Retrieved 2024-11-08– via Google Books.
  6. ↑ Dunn, Thom (2021-12-30). "This weird old car had a retractable fifth wheel to help with parallel parking". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
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