Editing Wheel clamp (section)

==History==
[[File:1920 Hudson Speedster Touring at 2015 Rockville Show 8of8.jpg|thumb|right|An early wheel clamp device offering a $100 reward for arrest of tamperers, mounted on a 1920 [[Hudson Motor Car Company|Hudson]]]]

As the automobile was introduced and became popular, cars also became a target for thieves and for a new concept that became known as [[Joyride (crime)|joyriding]]. A variety of after-market security devices were introduced. An early invention were locking wheel clamps or [[wheel chock|chocks]] that owners could shackle onto one of the car's road wheels as a hobble, making it impossible to roll the vehicle unless the entire wheel was removed. Between 1914 and 1925 there were at least 25 patents related to wheel locks that attached on the tire and spoke wheel.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=F8EBAwAAQBAJ&q=Miller-Chapman+Wheel+chock&pg=PA13 |page=9 |title=Stealing Cars: Technology and Society from the Model T to the Gran Torino |first1=John A. |last1=Heitmann |first2=Rebecca H. |last2=Morale |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2014 |isbn=9781421412979 |access-date=25 November 2015}}</ref> These devices were available in many sizes from a number of manufacturers (including several patented by Miller-Chapman), and became popular during the early 1920s.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/80257/82091.html?1256577439 |title=Miller-Chapman wheel locks |year=2009 |work=Model T Ford Forum |access-date=25 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://automobileandamericanlife.blogspot.com/2014_02_01_archive.html |title=Automobile Anti-Theft Deterrents, Criminal Countermeasures, and Technological Change, 1900-1970 at the Society of Automotive Historians biennial conference |date=April 2014 |work=Automobile and American Life |access-date=25 November 2015}}</ref>

A version of the modern wheel clamp, originally known as the auto immobiliser, was invented in 1944 and patented in 1958 by Frank Marugg.<ref>{{cite web|last=Marugg |first=F.P. |date=29 July 1958 |title=Wheel Clamp US patent number 2,844,954 |url=http://www.freepatentsonline.com/2844954.pdf |access-date=1 February 2011}}</ref> Marugg was a pattern maker, a violinist with the [[Denver Symphony Orchestra]], and a friend of many Denver politicians and police department officials. The police department needed a solution to a growing parking enforcement problem. The city towed ticketed cars to the [[Vehicle impoundment|pound]], where they were often vandalised. Those whose cars were damaged sued the city for losses and the police had to itemize everything in the cars. Dan Stills, head of the city's traffic division, thought an immobilizer would avoid the expensive towing problem and approached Marugg with an idea to improve on the device to keep the cars where they were parked.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pohlen |first=Jerome |title=Oddball Colorado: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places |date=2002 |publisher=Chicago Review Press |isbn=9781556524608 |page=[https://archive.org/details/oddballcoloradog0000pohl/page/10 10] |url=https://archive.org/details/oddballcoloradog0000pohl |url-access=registration |quote=Dan Stills immobilizer. |access-date=1 October 2019}}</ref>

The Denver police first used the wheel boot on 5 January 1955 and collected over US$18,000 (US${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|18000|1955|r=-4}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}} dollars{{inflation-fn|US}}) in its first month of use. Although the wheel boot was first cast in steel, Marugg soon switched to a lighter aluminum-based alloy. Marugg later sold the device to parking lot owners, hotels and ski resorts, as well as a Jumbo version for farm equipment and larger vehicles. The [[Smithsonian Institution]] now has a copy of Marugg's boot on display in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.expo1000.com/parking/interviews/denverboot.htm |title=Denver Boot Interview |publisher=Expo1000.com |access-date=13 August 2010}}</ref><ref name="Murdock 40–47">{{cite journal|title=The Man Who Invented the Denver Boot, Frank P. Marugg and His Infamous Auto Immobilizer |first=Linda |last=Murdock |journal=Colorado Heritage |date=Autumn 2005 |pages=40–47 |quote=article includes bibliography}}</ref> By 1970 Marugg had sold 2,000 boots. Although the patent ran out in 1976 and modern car and truck wheels necessitated a redesign, Marugg's daughter kept up the business until 1986. Clancy Systems International later bought the rights to the boot. The boot allowed Denver to maintain one of the largest collection rates for parking fines of any city in the US through its first fifty years.<ref name="Murdock 40–47"/> The Denver Sheriff ran the "Boot Trucks" for many years until the detail was transferred to Denver Parking Management. 

The best known wheel clamp in the UK is the 'London Wheel Clamp'. The designer, Trevor Whitehouse filed the patent in 1991.<ref>{{cite web |title=UK Patent Application GB2251416 (A) |url=http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?CC=GB&NR=2251416A&KC=A&FT=D&date=19920708&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_gb |publisher=Espacenet |access-date=1 October 2019}}</ref> He originally called the device the 'Preston', after his home town in Lancashire. Primarily used on private land, its notoriety grew once it was introduced to public roads under the Road Traffic Regulations Act of 1991 (commonly known as the de-criminalising of the yellow lines act). The first areas in the country to be decriminalised were the 33 London Boroughs during 1993/94, hence the name change.