If you didn't grow up during the Great Depression, you could be forgiven for assuming that hand-cranked car engines were an invention of silent comedians. What better way to show that someone's ...

I was watching an old episode of "I Love Lucy" in which Fred Mertz is trying to start a car by hand-cranking it. He told Ethel to get behind the wheel and "retard the spark." What does that mean? I've ...