I have a car maintenance manual from very early in the 20th century (1910 or something) and the maintenance schedule it describes would be ludicrous nowadays. It talks about changing the oil and greasing all of the joints every couple hundred miles, for example. At the same time, there are some components that are essentially the same now. Based on the diagrams, it looks like the wheel hubs and bearings would be compatible with the ones on my modern boat trailer.
My Dad, born in the early 1930s, said that on any lengthy drive (I'm guessing > 100km), you just assumed that you would have at least one puncture or other minor breakdown.
He and his cousin were given a car with a wooden body; once the engine overheated and it burned to the ground.
Punctures... there is a good point! I haven't had one in years (let's not jinx this...), but in the past, up to the late 80's I would have them with some regularity. I suspect that the improved quality of the roads is also a factor in this.
The bearing might be compatible, but new ones are so much better. The slop (if that’s the right word) in bearings manufactured 50 years ago was more than you get now.
I'm not a serious mechanic, but I suspect one of the reasons the bearings and shaft on the hub are tapered is so you can tighten it down and accommodate for minor variations in the tolerances. That would have been more important before it was all being done with CNC. The material for the bearings was probably not super either.
Things that have changed in bearings: better materials science led to more understanding of how you can harden surfaces and this in turn led to better 'races' in bearings as well as balls and rollers that are harder leaving bearings that last longer in principle. But all that wouldn't matter one bit if the bearings weren't sealed properly and that's the second improvement that led to longer bearing life. Finally, the third factor, improved lubricants, better able to deal with thermal cycling and high heat.
