I’ve already written about the changing size of car windows, which seem to be getting smaller and smaller. But some windows haven’t just become smaller… they’re completely gone.
These are the “Quarter glass” windows, also known (well, once they were known) as “Vent windows” and “Wing windows”. They used to fit in front of the front side windows:
The purpose was to improve ventilation in the car’s interior, in the days before ubiquitous car air conditioning. In fact, by turning the window out more than 90 degrees, it would serve to direct a blast of incoming air at the driver’s sweaty face in hot days – I remember well the relief that this feature would bring.
And to get the air back out, many cars also had rear vents behind the rear windows to extract the stale air:
Both these design features are now history. By the 1980s air conditioners made the first unnecessary, and the air extraction vent is now placed out of sight in the rear of the car.
And nobody even knows they’ve gone missing…