Why do old cars have a hand throttle?

Haven't seen one since I was really a kid, but I remember cars from the 30's and 40's had a hand choke and hand throttle built into the dash. The choke I can understand, but what was the purpose of the hand throttle?

Idle up the engine so the generator was putting out.

Just like cop cars had a hand throttle.

If you were in a cold climate, pulling the hand throttle warmed the engine up while you went back in the house and warmed up.

Isn't that the function of the choke and fast idle?

The old style choke worked differently then the newer ones. All they did was open or close the choke flap.They didn't have a fast idle linkage.

Same reason as airplane have them, hand throttle, to make it easier on the operator

Obviously you have never driven a car with a manual choke and a manual throttle in a cold climate. You choked the car to get it started and then started opening the choke and pulling the throttle to keep the engine rpm up. Trying to keep the engine speed up with only the choke results in overchoking the engine as it warms up.

hand throttle was also beneficial on pickups and larger trucks working the fields, like a slow "cruise control", so the workers could toss stuff in the bed as they walked alongside.
hand throttle was also used in trucks with a PTO to regulate the speed of whatever the PTO was operating.

Guess I didn't grow up on the southern shore of Lake Michigan where the wind whistled down from Canada with nothing to stop it then tended to dump snow right on us. Until it warmed up you pretty much needed full choke to keep it running.



I daily drive a 51 Plymouth. In fact here is a link to it's automatic choke and fast idle setup http://www.yourolddad.com/choke

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Talking about 30s and 40s not 50s.

Well, that's interesting. My high school car was a '50 Chevy with the tried and true 216 and three on the tree, hand choke/hand throttle. And I started that in Wyoming winters EXACTLY as I have said. No automatic choke on that puppy. And if your '51 has an automatic choke, it obviously has no manual choke, so.......