Film Friday: Let’s learn about hydraulic power steering!

Power–assisted steering makes wielding everything from midcentury American land yachts to heavy military vehicles possible -- even downright pleasant, at times. But how does it work? This 1956 technical film reel for the U.S. Army, “Hydraulic Steering -- Principles of Operation,” explains.

The film was created with, we’d imagine, the average soldier or motorpool-tender in mind. Like the rest of these old informational reels, it makes a complex system easy to understand with helpful diagrams and animations -- plus there's footage of real-life steering system components in action.

This particular film addresses cam and lever-style steering systems, but that only really impacts what’s happening in the steering gear box. The hydraulic side of the equation remains the same even if you have the more common recirculating ball-type system in your car. Of course, none of this applies if you've got an electronic-assisted setup -- it's far simpler, but somehow less cool, than the elegant, analog workings of these hydraulic boosters.

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