image: CHICAGO AUTO SHOW

Seat belts didn't become nationally mandated until 1968, when the U.S. government introduced the first federal law directing all new cars be equipped with both lap and shoulder belts in the front seat. Before that, though, a few individual car makers offered them, supplied sometimes by companies such as the Rupert Parachute Company Inc. Here in the Illinois company's booth at the 1955 Chicago Auto Show, two attendees strap themselves into a car seat using the confining bands. The company later branched out with seat-belt designs based on the types used in military aircraft.