The ones my parents and grandparents had was indeed a swamp cooler. Air came in a large “funnel” in the front, went through a cylindrical excelsier pad, and exited into the passenger compartment through a set of louvers.
The water supply sat in the bottom of the unit. There was a cord you pulled every so often that rotated the cylinder pad through the water. You needed to refill the water every 150 miles or so. You had to pull the cord slow, or you’d sling water out the louvers. I recall getting yelled at for that.
These were aftermarket things. They just clamped into the door frame using the window. You had to remember not to try to roll the window down, or you’d dump the thing on the road and watch the kids…come to think of it, I think dad found the one we had laying on the shoulder. Also you couldn’t really install it on the driver’s side, as it pretty effetivly blocked the view out the side.
Here’s a swamp cooler mounted on a VW. And one of the pictures on this page shows one on a 1950 Plymouth.
Oh, and more on US front-wheel drive V8’s: the 1936 Cord Model 810 had a Lycoming V8 and front-wheel-drive. (The 1929 Cord L-29 had front-wheel-drive, but an inline 8). After the Cords, I don’t think there was anything more till the 1966 Oldsmobiles.
What I find amazing was how long it took to get power steering and brakes into cars. Take power steering-the system was patented in 1927-yet it wasn’t till 1954 (Oldsmobile) that it was available. Power brakes became available in 1948 (Packard). Considering that large luxury cars weighed upwars of 2 tons (by te 1930’s), imagine driving cars like these without power steering or brakes! NOT fun.
It’s not really hard. I have a 1955 DeSoto that weighs a smidge over 2 tons and it has manual steering and manual brakes. The steering has a slower ratio than my newer cars, and the steering wheel is much larger (17"), increasing the driver’s leverage. When the car was new, it would have ridden on narrower tires than I’m using, so theoretically it was even easier to steer way back when.
The brakes require more pedal effort than you’re probably accustomed to, but it’s still reasonable. A bigger concern is that it’s a single-circuit system, and the drum brakes on the big Chrysler products in the mid-50’s were frequently considered undersized even then. Add in drum brake fade and things get interesting going down big hills.
Oh, and on-topic for this thread, my DeSoto has no a/c, but it does have a radio and a 2-speed Powerflite automatic.
When front wheel drive became the norm, power steering became more important. Also, those old power steering systems were really awful. People used to complain that they couldn’t “feel the road” with power steering. The old systems DID feel disconnected.
Similarly, when most cars had drum brakes, power brakes weren’t really necessary. With disc brakes, it was more important.