Taking us back to the early motoring days, the car wash of the 1920's looked somewhat different to our modern-day devices.
Here’s a photo from 1924 showing a car wash in Chicago.
We know of one other auto wash bowl in Chicago, but the concept actually originated in St. Paul, Minnesota.
It was patented in 1921 by C.P. Bohland, who opened two locations in St. Paul. He created the bowl as a way to easily clean off the mud from the underside of cars. The often unpaved roads of the early motoring days would see mud being caked onto the underside of cars and wheels. The inventive Auto Wash Bowl was designed to take care of that.
The ridged concrete bowl was around 24 meters in width and 40cm at its deepest point in the centre.
It cost a whopping 25 cents, and an attendant would cover the radiator with a protective rubber cover. Customers entered the bowl via a ramp before driving around the edge of the bowl at just under 20kph.
The ridged edges of the bowl would create a vibration, which would cause the water to splash over the car helping wash away the mud from the chassis and wheels.
After about three or four minutes, the car would exit the bowl. If customers wanted a complete car wash, they could then enter a bay where the rest of the car would be cleaned.
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A busy Saturday would see about 75 cars an hour taking a spin in the wash bowl.
After seeing its success in St. Paul, the first Auto Wash Bowl was built in Chicago. Chicagoan named C.G. Burkhartsmeier bought the rights in 1924 and built a bowl and service station, costing $20,000 USD.
But, the Auto Wash Bowl ended up as little more than a novelty. Car-washing technology evolved, and just two years later, the North Side wash bowl was bought by a local realtor and the South Side wash bowl was gone by the 1930s.
