Editing Odometer (section)

=== Subsequent developments ===
[[File:Carriage with odometer, Colorni, Euthimetria.png|right|thumb|Colorni's [[carriage]] with odometer, from ''Euthimetria'', [[Herzog August Library ]]<ref name="Toaff-2010" />]]
[[File:Hubodometer on a wheel of a semitrailer.jpg|thumb|A [[Hubodometer]] on a wheel of a semitrailer]]
[[File:Smiths speedo.jpg|thumb|right|A Smiths speedometer from the 1920s showing odometer and trip meter]]
Odometers were first developed in the 1600s for wagons and other horse-drawn vehicles in order to measure distances traveled.

[[Abramo Colorni]] (d. 1599) illustrated a [[carriage]] with odometer in his ''Euthimetria'', a treatise on engineering.<ref name="Toaff-2010">{{Cite book |last=Toaff |first=Ariel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=96DaqsWAhW0C&dq=%22Nova+Chiro+Fisionomia%22&pg=PT61 |title=Il prestigiatore di Dio: avventure e miracoli di un alchimista ebreo nelle corti del Rinascimento |date=2010 |publisher=Rizzoli |isbn=978-88-17-03996-3 |language=it}}</ref>

[[Levinus Hulsius]] published the odometer in 1604 in his work ''Gründtliche Beschreibung deß Diensthafften und Nutzbahrn Instruments Viatorii oder Wegzählers, So zu Fuß, zu Pferdt unnd zu Fußen gebraucht werden kann, damit mit geringer mühe zu wissen, wie weit man gegangen, geritten, oder gefahren sey: als auch zu erfahren, ohne messen oder zehlen, wie weit von einem Orth zum andern. Daneben wird auch der grosse verborgene Wegweiser angezeiget und vermeldet''.{{sfn | Kern | 2010 | p=470}}

In 1645, the French mathematician [[Blaise Pascal]] invented the ''[[pascaline]]''. Though not an odometer, the ''pascaline'' utilized gears to compute measurements. Each gear contained 10 teeth. The first gear advanced the next gear one position when moved one complete revolution, the same principle employed on modern mechanical odometers.

Odometers were developed for ships in 1698 with the odometer invented by the Englishman [[Thomas Savery]]. [[Benjamin Franklin]], U.S. statesman and the first [[United States Postmaster General|Postmaster General]], built a prototype odometer in 1775 that he attached to his carriage to help measure the [[Distance|mileage]] of postal routes.<ref>{{cite web | access-date=2019-10-10 | archive-date=2015-08-29 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150829041636/http://learn.fi.edu/franklin/inventor/inventor.html | url=http://learn.fi.edu/franklin/inventor/inventor.html | title=Benjamin Franklin and His Inventions | url-status=dead | website=learn.fi.edu}}</ref> In 1847, [[William Clayton (Mormon)|William Clayton]] and [[Orson Pratt]], pioneers of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]], first implemented the ''Roadometer'' they had invented earlier (a version of the modern odometer), which they attached to a wagon used by American settlers heading west.<ref>{{cite web | access-date=2019-10-10 | url=https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-odometers-4074178 | title=The History of the Odometer | date=2019-04-06 | last=Bellis | first=Mary | language=en | website=ThoughtCo | archive-date=2019-10-10 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191010085313/https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-odometers-4074178 | url-status=live }}</ref> It recorded the distance traveled each day by the [[wagon trains]]. The ''Roadometer'' used two gears and was an early example of an odometer with pascaline-style gears in actual use.<ref>{{cite web | access-date=2021-04-06 | url=https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/museum/museum-treasures-odometer?lang=eng | title=One Tool That Built the West: Orson Pratt's Odometer | date=2018-09-01 | language=en | website=ChurchOfJesusChrist | archive-date=2021-04-21 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421115832/https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/museum/museum-treasures-odometer?lang=eng | url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1895, Curtis Hussey Veeder invented the ''Cyclometer''.<ref>{{cite journal | hdl=2027/njp.32101048981896 | url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101048981896?urlappend=%3Bseq=210 | title=Personal Notes of the Automobile Trade | date=1917-05-17 | journal=The Horseless Age | volume=40 | issue=4 | page=58 | access-date=2019-10-10 | archive-date=2022-05-08 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220508232546/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/imgsrv/html?id=njp.32101048981896;seq=209 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ctheritage.org/encyclopedia/topicalsurveys/inventors.htm | title=Connecticut Inventors | publisher=Connecticut Humanities Council | access-date=2011-03-01 | author=Robert Asher | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110518133818/http://www.ctheritage.org/encyclopedia/topicalsurveys/inventors.htm | archive-date=2011-05-18 | url-status=dead | year=2003}}</ref> The ''Cyclometer'' was a mechanical device that counted the number of rotations of a bicycle wheel.<ref>{{cite web | access-date=2019-10-10 | url=https://www.veeder.com/us/company-overview | title=Company Overview | website=Veeder-Root | archive-date=2019-07-11 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190711235300/https://www.veeder.com/us/company-overview | url-status=live }}</ref> A flexible cable transmitted the number of rotations of the wheel to an analog odometer visible to the rider, which converted the wheel rotations into the number of miles traveled according to a predetermined formula.

In 1903 [[Arthur Pratt Warner|Arthur P.]] and Charles H. Warner, two brothers from Beloit, Wisconsin, introduced their patented ''Auto-meter''. The ''Auto-Meter'' used a magnet attached to a rotating shaft to induce a magnetic pull upon a thin metal disk. Measuring this pull provided accurate measurements of both distance and speed information to automobile drivers in a single instrument. The Warners sold their company in 1912 to the Stewart & Clark Company of Chicago. The new firm was renamed the Stewart-Warner Corporation. By 1925, Stewart-Warner odometers and trip meters were standard equipment on the vast majority of automobiles and motorcycles manufactured in the United States.

By the early 2000s, mechanical odometers would be phased out on cars from major manufacturers. The [[Pontiac Grand Prix#Seventh generation (1997–2003)|Pontiac Grand Prix]] was the last GM car sold in the US to offer a mechanical odometer in 2003; the Canadian-built [[Ford Crown Victoria#Second generation (EN114; 1998–2012)|Ford Crown Victoria]] and [[Mercury Grand Marquis#Fourth generation (2003–2011)|Mercury Grand Marquis]] were the last Fords sold with one in 2005. {{citation needed|date=October 2016}}