Dashboard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a control panel placed in the front of the car. For other uses, see Dashboard (disambiguation).
The word originally applied to a barrier of wood or leather fixed at the front of a horse-drawn carriage or sleigh to protect the driver from mud or other debris "dashed" (thrown) up by the wheels and horses' hooves.[1]
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Dashboard items
Items located on the dashboard at first included the steering wheel and the instrument cluster. The instrument cluster pictured to the right contains gauges such as a speedometer, tachometer, odometer and fuel gauge, and indicators such as gearshift position, seat belt warning light, parking-brake-engagement warning light[2] and an engine-malfunction light. There may also be indicators for low fuel, low oil pressure, low tire pressure and faults in the airbag (SRS) system. Heating and ventilation controls and vents, lighting controls, audio equipment and automotive navigation systems are also mounted on the dashboard.The top of a dashboard may contain vents for the heating and air conditioning system and speakers for an audio system. A glove compartment is a part of a dashboard.
end quote from:
wikipedia under the heading "dashboard".
I got to thinking about where the word dashboard came from. I had always thought it came from people being dashed against the dashboard in an accident in early cars in the early 1900s. So, I was surprised to hear that the dashboard predated that and was what kept mud and water and horse poop from being slung up into the driver and passengers faces by horses hoofs and wheels while driving their buckboard or fancier stage coach or anything in between.
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