Technology: Transistorized Ignition

Exterior styles in U.S. autos are as changeable as women's hats. For '63. they are simpler and handsomer than ever (see U.S. BUSINESS). But mechanically, U.S. cars are conservative; under their hoods are familiar items that have changed hardly at all since grandma's virtue was first endangered in a Reo Runabout.

One of these mechanical fossils is the antique ignition system. It has a circuit breaker with rapidly moving contact points that change the battery's direct current into a pulsating flow that the induction coil can raise to high voltage. This charge then goes to a distributor that feeds short...