Editing Bumper cars (section)

==History==

In the early 1920s, a patent was granted to Max Stoehrer and his son Harold for an "Amusement Apparatus" which became the basis for their Dodgem cars. They deliberately equipped their device with "novel instrumentalities to render their manipulation and control difficult and uncertain by the occupant-operator." They asserted that "in the hands of an unskilled operator," a "plurality of independently manipulated [...] cars" would "follow a promiscuous, irregular, and undefined path over the floor or other area, to not only produce various sensations during the travel of the vehicle but to collide with other cars as well as with portions of the platform provided for that purpose."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pursell |first1=Carroll |title=From Playgrounds to PlayStation: The Interaction of Technology and Play |date=2015 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=9781421416502 |pages=65–66 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DeokBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA66 |access-date=24 September 2023}}</ref>

During their heyday, from the late 1920s to 1950s, two major US bumper cars brands were Dodgem by Stoehrer and the Auto-Skooter by Lusse Brothers, owned by Joseph and Robert "Ray" Lusse.<ref name=LAShist>{{cite web|last1=(Multiple authors)|title=Legend/History|url=http://www.lusseautoscooters.com/html/legend_history.html|website=Lusse Auto Scooter Bumper Car Web Site|publisher=Lusse Auto Scooters, LLC|access-date=6 September 2014}} Includes many details about ''Dodgem'' as well.</ref><ref name=JStanton97>{{cite web|last1=Stanton|first1=Jeffrey|title=Coney Island: Independent Rides|url=http://www.westland.net/coneyisland/articles/independentrides.htm|website=Coney Island History Site|publisher=Westland|access-date=6 September 2014|year=1997}}</ref> Lusse Brothers built the first fiberglass body in 1959, in part due to the survival of Chevrolet Corvette bodies over the previous six years. After getting permission from Chevrolet, then subsequently buying the actual Corvette chevrons from local Philadelphia dealers, those were attached to the nose of their product for 1959. In the mid-1960s, [[Disneyland]] introduced [[hovercraft]]-based bumper cars called [[Flying Saucers (attraction)|Flying Saucers]], which worked on the same principle as an [[air hockey]] game; however, the ride was a mechanical failure and closed after a few years.