Category:Auto Wash

AUTO WASH. The Detroit News has reported that the first automatic car wash in the United States opened in 1946. The painted sign on that building in the motor city read "First Automatic Auto Wash in the World, Established 1946."

Prior to the development of the automatic car wash, two enterprising Detroit businessmen opened a car wash where the car was brought into a line and pushed by hand through a circular type of operation described as a "Merry-Go-Round." This was around 1914, and human power was required in pushing cars around the circle for the various phases of the car wash.

The growth of the industry before WORLD WAR I was slow considering the fact that before the war there were fewer than one million cars in the United States. After World War I, the number of automobiles leaped to five million, and by 1925, there were 20 million cars in the nation.

One of the industry's historians reported that around 1928 the idea of a mechanical, chain-pulled car wash evolved, resulting in the first true "conveyer" car wash. The bombing of Pearl Harbor and the involvement in WORLD WAR II slowed technological development, so the car wash industry proceeded at a slow pace. However, after World War II, the industry grew quickly, and the need for a trade association was obvious.

Companies fitting this description in Dubuque included: ---

Source:

International Car Wash Association: http://www.carwash.org/aboutus/Pages/HistoryoftheInternationalCarwashAssociation.aspx