Power Window

A power window, or electric window, is an automobile window that a driver or passenger raises and lowers by pressing a button or switch rather than turning a hand crank. A small number of cars in the 1920s, including the 1925 Flint Model E-55, used early spring-loaded mechanical versions, and Packard introduced a true hydraulic power window system, marketed as Hydro-Electric, in the fall of 1940 on its 1941 Packard 180 series; Ford followed in 1941 on the Lincoln Custom limousine and seven-passenger sedan. Buick's chief engineer Charles A. Chayne developed an electrically controlled hydraulic system for convertibles between 1946 and 1947 that also raised the top and adjusted the front seat, and power windows shifted from hydraulic-electric to fully electric operation through the 1950s as they spread to more vehicle classes.