The Kill Crank / How One Man Dying Saved Us All

Before 1912, starting a car meant standing in front of it and pulling on a steel handle while the engine decided whether to cooperate. Sometimes it cooperated. Sometimes it broke your wrist, your jaw, or worse. Doctors had a name for the injury. Insurance companies had a category for it. And a whole class of automobile existed for people who wanted no part of the fight.

This is the story of how that ended.

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