When things get a little hot under the bonnet, today’s automobile signals the driver with a light on the dash. But it wasn’t always this way - and the hood ornament wasn’t always just an emblem of the manufacturer.
Temperature lights and the now nearly extinct hood ornament evolved from the same place: the radiator.
So, the first hood ornaments were just radiator caps.
But they quickly evolved into statements about the automobile and its manufacturer.
This ornate Ford Model A radiator cap featured a motometer.
According to The Henry Ford museum website, “Moto-Meter Co. Inc. dominated the American market, producing the popular Boyce motometer and others featuring an automotive manufacturer's name or logo.”
The motometer was the early car’s temperature gauge. Mounted on the radiator, it stuck through the bonnet where the driver could see it.
The device had a gauge built in and showed coolant water vapor temperature.
Like today’s dash-mounted temp light, the motometer let drivers know if the automobile was in danger of overheating.
About the time bonnets were redesigned as one-piece hoods that opened from the front instead of each side, the radiator neck no longer protruded through the steel.
The temp gauge moved from the hood to the dashboard.
Yet for decades after, the hood ornament remained fastened on the automobile. It was the front and center symbol and statement of each manufacturer’s unique design.
During the 1970’s and 1980’s, they began to disappear. By the 1990s they had all but vanished.
Should they make a comeback? Any kid with a grudge against their high school principal might say, “Yes!”
Those concerned about safety standards might disagree.
Do motorists miss them? Do manufacturers?
Either way, a handful of today’s luxury cars continue to uphold the tradition.
Like the evolution of the mechanical radiator cap gauge motometer to the dashboard temp light, Rolls Royce added a new era twist to its hood ornament mascot:
She retracts.
