Originally Posted By: eljefino
The reservoir came out with the chevy vega-- some nerdy guy invented it in his garage and Chevy bought the rights!
You don't give a date for this, but I suppose the Chevy Vega would put it in the 60/70's.
I'd have thought these are very similar to the radiator condensors developed for desert exploration vehicles in the 1920's and 30's.
Ralph Bagnold, FRS (The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes (1941)) who later formed the Long Range Desert Group, is often credited with its development, though it seems it may have been first employed on Model T desert patrol cars during WWI, though I havn't seen that credited to any individual.
Of course it was employed on LRDG (and later SAS) patrol vehicles in the Western Desert campaigns, and now something apparently similar in principle is in most vehicles.