The electrical automatic roll-up top from HESS was one of the highlights at the Geneva Motor Show in 1929 and was advertised strongly afterwards, as can be seen in the advertisement from 1930 in the Solothurn “Schreibmappe”.
From 1933, Carrosserie HESS AG started to focus fully on constructing bodywork for buses. Up until then HESS, which was still located at Bielstrasse in Solothurn at the time, also built passenger cars with chassis that were mainly provided by foreign suppliers. The brothers Arnold and Emil Hess were clever inventors and continued to develop their bodywork, with the aim of making it more comfortable for both drivers and passengers. This led to the idea of the electrical automatic roll-up top, which could be closed electronically. The advantage was that the top could be closed within just two minutes compared with half an hour when closing it by hand. This invention was registered with the patent office in Bern under the number 137.075 on 15 December 1929. The Hess brothers also protected their invention in France, Germany, Italy and in the USA.
Source image: Gerhard Brunner / Altes Solothurn