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Automobiles - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com

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Find out more about the history of Automobiles, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

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In 1945, the Ford Motor Company named Henry Ford II, a.k.a. "Hank the Deuce," as its president. His grandfather, the first Henry Ford, had built the iconic brand into a giant, but by the end of World War II the company was in trouble. Financial collapse was a realistic enough possibility that some thought the young heir might cash out while he could. Instead, he took the helm and presided over a tremendous comeback, ultimately giving Ford customers iconic models like the Thunderbird, Falcon and Mustang-as well as duds like the Pinto and Edsel.

Two years into his tenure, he sat down with The Atlantic for a lengthy interview at what we now know was the beginning of Ford Motor Company's second act. Insights into the post-World War II automobile industry abound. The firm employed 130,000 people at the time, and it is perhaps unsurprising that the scion of the company's founder declared his foremost goal was simply "to outsell Chevrolet."

The Need for 4,000 Accountants

"One of the biggest problems was our almost complete lack of emphasis on finance accounting. No one knew how well or how poorly the steel mill or forge shop or any other part of the business was doing. There just weren't adequate figures. All we had was over-all financial statements appearing at not too frequent intervals, primarily for tax purposes... we were not providing anyone, from the job foreman up to this office, with the information needed to do his job effectively and well.

"Perhaps in the old days out here they didn't need all the people and organization we need these days to do our jobs. We now have more than 4000 persons employed in finance and accounting. Today we know whether the steel mill is operating at a profit or a loss and how much that is. we know how much is spent on labor, materials, and overhead."

Why Weighty Cars Won

"As you probably know, we have been doing a substantial amount of research and experimentation, both regarding the kinds of cars people want and regarding possible radical changes in car design. At one time we did a lot of work on a radically different light car using new materials and weighing about a third less than present models. At least for the present, that idea is on the shelf, for the very good reason that our studies indicated that a light car would not give people what they really want-they want a car that will hug the road at high speeds; they want an extra-heavy frame and a car heavy enough to carry a lot of extra equipment. In fact, what they really want is a big car at a low price. At the present stage of development it just isn't in the cards to build these requirements into a light-weight automobile."

Pension or No Pension?

"Over two years ago, we began a careful investigation of all types of old age retirement or pension plans. The plan we finally offered was more favorable than any other I know of in a large industry, providing among other things that an average worker upon retirement would receive company and government payments totaling about 50 per cent of his normal pay-and in some cases 60 to 65 per cent of normal pay. When, in the course of negotiations, some of the union leaders reversed their original petition favoring a retirement plan, we suggested that the workers themselves be allowed to vote for one of two alternatives. The first was a 7 per cent wage increase plus the pension plan, and the other a pattern wage increase equivalent to 15 cents per hour with no pension. The vote was overwhelmingly against the pension plan and in favor of the 15 cents an hour pattern wage increase... The results clearly indicated that most of our employees would rather have high immediate pay than old age security. Maybe the average Ford employee feels that he would prefer to take care of his own old age in his own way, rather than have his security planned for him."

The Importance of Human Relations

"I have a deep-rooted conviction that our staff departments won't carry us too far unless the men in our line organization learn to treat every individual who works with them the way a human being expects and deserves to be treated. Contacts with personnel and other special departments, publications, and speeches are not enough, unless the boss talks and lives what the speechmakers say. The man you work for day after day and year after year, whether he's a foreman or a superintendent or whatever, is the one who represents the company to you. He is the Company to you. And if the man you work for gets pushed around by his boss, gets orders issued to him with "never mind why," there's an awful good chance you are going to get pushed around too. The nub of our problem is building a team of foremen, superintendents, departments and division heads who realize that we can get our job drone best by really getting along with people."

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The Business Philosophy of the Man Who Brought Us the Mustang-and the Edsel

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In 1945, the Ford Motor Company named Henry Ford II, a.k.a. "Hank the Deuce," as its president. His grandfather, the first Henry Ford, had built the iconic brand into a giant, but by the end of World War II the company was in trouble.

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Henry Ford's Nazi connection

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PBS Documentary on the Legacy of Henry Ford

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PBS Documentary on the Legacy of Henry Ford

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Excerpt from a scholarly print source

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How Assembly Line changed modern manufacturing.

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A century ago, on October 7, 1913, engineers built a rudimentary system using a rope and wince to pull a new Ford Model T past 140 workers at a brand new factory dubbed the Crystal Palace.

Henry Ford launched the modern assembly line in a suburb of Detroit a century ago -- and helped spark a radical transformation of both manufacturing and society.

By drastically reducing the cost of production with standardized parts and more efficient assembly, Ford was able to bring the luxury, convenience and freedom of the automobile to the masses.

Other industries soon adopted the innovation and today, everything from cereal to caskets is made on assembly lines.

"It had a huge, huge impact," said Stephen Burnett, a professor with Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Standardization led to lower costs, higher quality and more reliable products.

Most critically, the assembly line cut the amount of time it took to assemble a Model T from 12.5 hours to just 93 minutes.

"Any time you increase the productivity of labor, tremendously valuable things can happen to the economy," Burnett told AFP.

Higher productivity means more profit, some of which is often returned to workers through higher wages. Workers then have more money to buy products, creating what economists call a virtuous cycle of growth.

The assembly line also changed the way people worked and lived, accelerating the shift from rural areas to cities, and increasing the number of people doing repetitive, low-skilled jobs.
From 100 to 1,000 Model Ts a day
While piece work was a time-honored tradition and the moving assembly line had already transformed the meatpacking industry in Chicago and Cincinnati, it was Ford who found a way to make it work for complex manufacturing.

"Henry Ford said if I could save every one of my workers 50 steps a day then I could save miles by the end of the year," said Bob Kreipke, Ford's corporate historian.

Ford had already cut costs by standardizing the vehicle and its parts -- the Model T was famously available in any color the customer wanted, so long as it was black.

But the cost was still too high and the volume too low for the "great multitude" he hoped to reach.

That changed with the assembly line he launched in Highland Park.

Trains filled with parts rolled down the main bay of the Crystal Palace, where cranes slid through the sunlight pouring in from a glass ceiling and lifted the parts up to balconies. Conveyor belts and gravity wells carried parts to workers as cars were pulled from floor to floor.

"It was a beehive of motion when it was in play," Kreipke said as he toured the historic plant Ford now uses for storage.

"When he first started he made about 100 cars a day and it got up to 1,000 -- which is almost the same as a modern factory."

In 1914, Ford's 13,000 workers built around 300,000 cars -- more than his nearly 300 competitors managed to build with 66,350 employees.
Lower prices, empowered workers
The specialization of the assembly line meant that Ford no longer had to use craftsmen and could instead hire low-skill workers and teach them a few simple steps.

But the monotonous work led to high turnover, leading Ford to double his minimum wage in order to keep his line humming.

The five-dollar day was eventually followed by the five-day work week, which meant Ford workers had both the money to buy his cars and the leisure time to use them.

Despite the higher labor costs, Ford's efficiencies allowed him to eventually lower the price of the Model T from its introductory rate of $850 to $260.

Technological innovations like automation and just-in-time delivery have brought further efficiencies.
New technologies, 100 years on
Today, just 500 people work directly on the assembly line at Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant, which now builds 605 Focus and C-Max sedans in each of two 10-hour shifts. Some 48,000 people worked at the Crystal Palace at its peak.

The flexible line builds five different models -- a high performance, a hybrid and a standard Focus plus the hybrid and plug-in hybrid C-Max -- with a range of colors and features, including a hatchback option.

A complex computer system tracks each vehicle as it makes its way down the line, matching engines to bodies and letting workers know when it's time to swap parts or press a different badge onto the frame.

Hydraulics lift the car and the heavier parts so workers don't have to stand in pits or strain themselves, and robots handle the most precise work like welding in the body shop.

"If Henry Ford came right now in a time machine, he would be very proud of the workforce here and be very proud of what we've done with his manufacturing process," said David Torosian, who manages the plant.
AFP/Relaxnews

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Ford's assembly line turns 100: How it changed manufacturing and society

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A century ago, on October 7, 1913, engineers built a rudimentary system using a rope and wince to pull a new Ford Model T past 140 workers at a brand new factory dubbed the Crystal Palace. Henry Ford launched the modern assembly line in a suburb of Detroit a century ago -- and helped spark a radical transformation of both manufacturing and society.

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The evolution of assembly lines: A brief history - Robohub

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The assembly line has long been considered one of the greatest innovations of the 20th century. It has shaped the industrial world so strongly that businesses that did not adopt the practice soon became extinct, and it was one of the key factors that helped integrate the automobile into American soc…

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Contents

1. Henry Ford Invents the Model T Engine

2. Selling the Model T

3. A Publicity Stunt to the Top of a Scottish Mountain

4. Highland Park Assembles Model T's in Under 6 Hours

5. Origins of 'Tin Lizzie'

6. Anti-Semitic Newspaper Sold With Each Model T

7. Model T Ends, Model A Debuts

The Model T, sold by the Ford Motor Company from 1908 to 1927, was the earliest effort to make a car that most people could actually buy. Modern cars were first built in 1885 in Germany by Karl Benz, and the first American cars in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1893 by Charles and Frank Duryea. But just because they were available didn't mean that ordinary people could afford them.

The Model T was actually affordable and it became so popular at one point that a majority of Americans owned one, directly helping rural Americans become more connected with the rest of the country and leading to the numbered highway system. The manufacturing needs of the Model T went hand in hand with Ford's revolutionary modernization of the manufacturing process.

Henry Ford Invents the Model T Engine

By day he was chief engineer at Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit, but at night Henry Ford labored over a gasoline engine. He successfully tested one on Christmas Eve, 1893, with the help of his wife, Clara, taking a break from Christmas cooking. The engine worked for 30 seconds, long enough to confirm for Ford that he was on the right track.

Three years later, Ford developed the Quadcycle, a self-propelled vehicle. After two failed business ventures, the Ford Motor Company was born on June 16, 1903.

The production of the Model T was preceded by eight car models through which Ford developed various aspects that would eventually come together as the Model T.

Official Model T development began in January 1907, when Ford assembled a team comprised of engineer Childe Harold Wills, machinist C.J. Smith and draftsman Joseph Galamb in his small Detroit factory on Piquette Avenue.

Selling the Model T

Released on October 1, 1908, the Ford Model T was a self-starting vehicle with a left-sided steering wheel, featuring an enclosed four-cylinder engine with a detachable cylinder head and a one-piece cylinder block. Fashioned from vanadium alloy steel, it offered superior strength despite its light weight. It also featured a generous ground clearance that could take the worst roads, which made it particularly enticing to rural drivers. The Model T was the first Ford with all its parts built by the company itself.

Selling for $850, it was considered a reasonable value, though still slightly higher than the income of the average American worker. Ford's goal was to continue lowering prices.

After selling 10,607 Model Ts, Ford announced that the company would cease to sell the Model R or Model S cars, famously remarking that "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."

A Publicity Stunt to the Top of a Scottish Mountain

Ford typically engineered publicity stunts to get his cars covered in British newspapers. In 1911, a Scottish car dealer proposed challenging his son Henry Alexander Jr. to drive a Model T to the summit of Ben Nevis in the Scottish Highlands, the highest mountain in the British Isles at 4,411 feet. The bet was that if he failed to reach the summit Alexander would lose his allowance.

Starting at nearby Fort William, the Model T drove over rocks, across bogs and through snow on a five-day journey. The car ascended to the summit using a zig-zag driving pattern.

After his descent, Alexander was greeted by a cheering crowd of hundreds, after which he made brake adjustments and drove the car back to his father's dealership in Edinburgh.

Following the publicity, over 14,000 Model Ts were sold in the UK. It was the last time Ford felt a publicity stunt was necessary to sell his cars there.

Highland Park Assembles Model T's in Under 6 Hours

By 1913, a new 60-acre factory was built in Highland Park to churn out Model Ts. At the time it was considered to be the biggest factory in the world, and the number of Ford employees more than doubled.

For this plant, Ford worked to improve the assembly line of the manufacturing process. On April 1 tests were run, an attempt to assemble a flywheel magneto for the Model T. This was the first moving assembly line ever, utilizing conveyor belts inspired by Chicago meatpacking plants.

Each aspect of assembly was transformed into moving assembly, which improved efficiency and cut manufacturing time. In six months the time to build a Model T was reduced from nine hours and fifty-four minutes for one motor to five hours and fifty-six minutes.

The factory was divided into sections, each assembling a single part of the car in an incremental building process. The Highland Park factory eventually featured 500 of these departments in its assembly line.

Origins of 'Tin Lizzie'

The nickname "Tin Lizzie" is often applied to the Model T, though its origin is unknown.

One tradition claims Lizzie was a generic name given to horses and was passed onto the Model T. Later, a San Antonio car dealer complained to the factory about ill-fitting doors on the car and asked if cars could be shipped without doors but include a tool kit for purchasers to cut their own, reminiscent of a tin can opener.

Another claim says that during a 1922 race at Pikes Peak, Colorado, participant Noel Bullock named his Model T "Old Liz," but its unkempt state made people compare it to a tin can, earning it the "Tin Lizzie" moniker. Unexpectedly, Bullock's car won and the nickname stuck to all Model Ts.

Anti-Semitic Newspaper Sold With Each Model T

Ford began to adopt anti-Semitic views and the Model T was used to spread them.

Ford's anti-Semitism was mainly expressed through the Dearborn Independent, which he purchased in 1919.

Also known as the Ford International Weekly, dealers were required to sell a subscription with each Model T, helping it reach a circulation topped only by the New York Post. Many dealers, unhappy with this arrangement, complained and tried to circumvent the policy.

The final Model T went down the assembly line on May 26, 1927. By December, the Dearborn Independent folded as well.

Model T Ends, Model A Debuts

Competition arose in the mid-1920s giving consumers about 10 times more choices of touring car models than a decade earlier. The Model T tried to compete, but sales dropped and it became considered old fashioned and was the frequent butt of popular jokes.

After much hesitation by Ford, it was announced in 1927 that Model Ts would no longer be manufactured. The new Ford called Model A debuted in December after having to scrap 40 thousand tools that could only be used to build Model Ts.

Sources

My Life and Work by Henry Ford, Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, Page & Co., 1922

I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford, by Richard Snow, Scribner, May 2014

Why a Model T was driven to the top of Ben Nevis, by Steven McKenzie, BBC, May 17, 2018

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Model T: The First Car That Most People Could Afford to Buy

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The Model T, sold by the Ford Motor Company from 1908 to 1927, was the earliest effort to make a car that most people could actually buy. It became so popular at one point that a majority of Americans owned one, directly helping rural Americans become more connected with the rest of the country and leading to the numbered highway system.

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Google Search criteria: Model T

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Ford Model T

Manufacturer
Ford Motor Company

Production

1908-1927

Assembly

United States:[1][2]

Detroit, Michigan

Highland Park, Michigan

Dothan, Alabama

Atlanta, Georgia

Los Angeles, California

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Saint Paul, Minnesota

St. Louis, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Seattle, Washington

Portland, Oregon

Omaha, Nebraska

Buffalo, New York

Long Island City, New York

Cincinnati, Ohio

Houston, Texas

Fort Worth, Texas

Des Moines, Iowa

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Chicago, Illinois

Charlotte, North Carolina

Fargo, North Dakota

Indianapolis, Indiana

Louisville, Kentucky

Memphis, Tennessee

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Kearny, New Jersey

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Alexandria, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Salt Lake City, Utah

Argentina: Buenos Aires

Australia: Geelong, Victoria

Brazil: São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo

Canada:

Chile: Santiago

Denmark: Copenhagen

France: Bordeaux and Asnières-sur-Seine

Germany: Berlin

Ireland: Cork

Japan: Yokohama[12]

Norway: Bergen

Spain: Cádiz and Barcelona

United Kingdom: Manchester

Designer

Childe Harold Wills, main-engineer Joseph A. Galamb and Eugene Farkas

Class
Economy car[13]

Body style

2-door touring (1909-1911)

3-door touring (1912-1925)

4-door touring (1926-27)

no door roadster (1909-1911)

1-door roadster (1912-1925)

2-door roadster (1926-27)

roadster pickup (1925-1927)

2-door coupé (1909-1912, 1917-1927)

2-door Coupelet (1915-1917)

Town car (1909-1918)

C-cab wagon (1912)

2-(center) door sedan (1915-1923)

2-door sedan (1924-1927)

4-door sedan (1923-1927)

Separate chassis were available all years from independent coachbuilders

Layout
FMR layout

Engine

177 C.I.D. (2.9 L) 20 hp I4

Transmission

2-speed planetary gear

Wheelbase

100.0 in (2,540 mm)

Length

134 in (3,404 mm)

Width

1,676 mm (66.0 in) (1912 roadster)[14]

Height

1,860 mm (73.2 in) (1912 roadster)[14]

Curb weight

1,200-1,650 lb (540-750 kg)

Predecessor

Ford Model N (1906-1908)

Successor

Ford Model A (1927-31)

The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by the Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first mass-affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relatively low price was partly the result of Ford's efficient fabrication, including assembly line production instead of individual handcrafting. It was mainly designed by three engineers, Joseph A. Galamb (the main engineer), Eugene Farkas, and Childe Harold Wills. The Model T was colloquially known as the " Tin Lizzie".

The Ford Model T was named the most influential car of the 20th century in the 1999 Car of the Century competition, ahead of the BMC Mini, Citroën DS, and Volkswagen Beetle. Ford's Model T was successful not only because it provided inexpensive transportation on a massive scale, but also because the car signified innovation for the rising middle class and became a powerful symbol of the United States' age of modernization. With over 15 million sold, it was the most sold car in history before being surpassed by the Volkswagen Beetle in 1972.

Although automobiles had been produced from the 1880s, until the Model T was introduced in 1908, they were mostly scarce, expensive, and often unreliable. Positioned as reliable, easily maintained, mass-market transportation, the Model T was a great success. In a matter of days after the release, 15,000 orders had been placed. The first production Model T was built on August 12, 1908, and left the factory on September 27, 1908, at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, Michigan. On May 26, 1927, Henry Ford watched the 15 millionth Model T Ford roll off the assembly line at his factory in Highland Park, Michigan.

Henry Ford conceived a series of cars between the founding of the company in 1903 and the introduction of the Model T. Ford named his first car the Model A and proceeded through the alphabet up through the Model T, twenty models in all. Not all the models went into production. The production model immediately before the Model T was the Model S, an upgraded version of the company's largest success to that point, the Model N. The follow-up to the Model T was another Ford Model A, rather than the "Model U". The company publicity said this was because the new car was such a departure from the old that Ford wanted to start all over again with the letter A.

The Model T was Ford's first automobile mass-produced on moving assembly lines with completely interchangeable parts, marketed to the middle class. Henry Ford said of the vehicle.

I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one - and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces.

Although credit for the development of the assembly line belongs to Ransom E. Olds, with the first mass-produced automobile, the Oldsmobile Curved Dash, having begun in 1901, the tremendous advances in the efficiency of the system over the life of the Model T can be credited almost entirely to Ford and his engineers.

The Model T was designed by Childe Harold Wills, and Hungarian immigrants Joseph A. Galamb (main engineer) and Eugene Farkas. Henry Love, C. J. Smith, Gus Degner and Peter E. Martin were also part of the team, as were Galamb's fellow Hungarian immigrants Gyula Hartenberger and Károly Balogh. Production of the Model T began in the third quarter of 1908. Collectors today sometimes classify Model Ts by build years and refer to these as " model years", thus labeling the first Model Ts as 1909 models. This is a retroactive classification scheme; the concept of model years as understood today did not exist at the time. Even though design revisions occurred during the car's two decades of production, the company gave no particular name to any of the revised designs; all of them were called simply "Model T".

The Model T has a front-mounted 177-cubic-inch (2.9 L) inline four-cylinder engine, producing 20 hp (15 kW), for a top speed of 42 mph (68 km/h). According to Ford Motor Company, the Model T had fuel economy on the order of 13-21 mpg ‑US (16-25 mpg ‑imp; 18-11 L/100 km). The engine was capable of running on gasoline, kerosene, or ethanol, although the decreasing cost of gasoline and the later introduction of Prohibition made ethanol an impractical fuel for most users. The engines of the first 2,447 units were cooled with water pumps; the engines of unit 2,448 and onward, with a few exceptions prior to around unit 2,500, were cooled by thermosiphon action.

The ignition system used in the Model T was an unusual one, with a low-voltage magneto incorporated in the flywheel, supplying alternating current to trembler coils to drive the spark plugs. This was closer to that used for stationary gas engines than the expensive high-voltage ignition magnetos that were used on some other cars. This ignition also made the Model T more flexible as to the quality or type of fuel it used. The system did not need a starting battery, since proper hand-cranking would generate enough current for starting. Electric lighting powered by the magneto was adopted in 1915, replacing acetylene gas flame lamp and oil lamps, but electric starting was not offered until 1919.

View of the driver's controls, 1920 ModelT

The Model T engine was produced for replacement needs as well as stationary and marine applications until 1941, well after production of the Model T had ended.

The Fordson Model F tractor engine, that was designed about a decade later, was very similar to, but larger than, the Model T engine.

The three pedal controls clutch, brake, reverse of the ModelT

The Model T is a rear-wheel drive vehicle. Its transmission is a planetary gear type known (at the time) as "three speed". In today's terms it is considered a two-speed, because one of the three speeds is reverse.

The Model T's transmission is controlled with three floor-mounted pedals, a revolutionary feature for its time, and a lever mounted to the road side of the driver's seat. The throttle is controlled with a lever on the steering wheel. The left-hand pedal is used to engage the transmission. With the floor lever in either the mid position or fully forward and the pedal pressed and held forward, the car enters low gear. When held in an intermediate position, the car is in neutral. If the left pedal is released, the Model T enters high gear, but only when the lever is fully forward - in any other position, the pedal only moves up as far as the central neutral position. This allows the car to be held in neutral while the driver cranks the engine by hand. The car can thus cruise without the driver having to press any of the pedals.

In the first 800 units, reverse is engaged with a lever; all units after that use the central pedal, which is used to engage reverse gear when the car is in neutral. The right-hand pedal operates the transmission brake - there are no brakes on the wheels. The floor lever also controls the parking brake, which is activated by pulling the lever all the way back. This doubles as an emergency brake.

Although it was uncommon, the drive bands could fall out of adjustment, allowing the car to creep, particularly when cold, adding another hazard to attempting to start the car: a person cranking the engine could be forced backward while still holding the crank as the car crept forward, although it was nominally in neutral. As the car utilizes a wet clutch, this condition could also occur in cold weather, when the thickened oil prevents the clutch discs from slipping freely. Power reaches the differential through a single universal joint attached to a torque tube which drives the rear axle; some models (typically trucks, but available for cars, as well) could be equipped with an optional two-speed rear Ruckstell axle, shifted by a floor-mounted lever which provides an underdrive gear for easier hill climbing.

Chassis / frame

This section needs expansion with: discussion of the standard model T frame design, working, and production. You can help by adding to it.

The heavy-duty truck chassis came with a special worm gear rear differential with lower gearing than the normal car and truck, giving more pulling power but a lower top speed (the frame is also stronger; the cab and engine are the same). A Model TT is easily identifiable by the cylindrical housing for the worm-drive over the axle differential. All gears are vanadium steel running in an oil bath.

Transmission bands and linings

Two main types of band lining material were used:

Cotton - Cotton woven linings were the original type fitted and specified by Ford. Generally, the cotton lining is "kinder" to the drum surface, with damage to the drum caused only by the retaining rivets scoring the drum surface. Although this in itself did not pose a problem, a dragging band resulting from improper adjustment caused overheating of the transmission and engine, diminished power, and - in the case of cotton linings - rapid destruction of the band lining.

Wood - Wooden linings were originally offered as a "longer life" accessory part during the life of the Model T. They were a single piece of steam-bent wood and metal wire, fitted to the normal Model T transmission band. These bands give a very different feel to the pedals, with much more of a "bite" feel. The sensation is of a definite "grip" of the drum and seemed to noticeably increase the feel, in particular of the brake drum.

Aftermarket transmissions and drives

During the Model T's production run, particularly after 1916, more than 30 manufacturers offered auxiliary transmissions or drives to substitute for, or enhance, the Model T's drivetrain gears. Some offered overdrive for greater speed and efficiency, while others offered underdrives for more torque (often incorrectly described as "power") to enable hauling or pulling greater loads. Among the most noted were the Ruckstell two-speed rear axle, and transmissions by Muncie, Warford, and Jumbo.

Aftermarket transmissions generally fit one of four categories:

Replacement transmission - usually a sliding gear/selective transmission, intended as a direct replacement for Ford's planetary-gear transmission.

Front-mounted auxiliary transmission - designed to fit between the engine and Ford's transmission, to add additional gear ratios.

Rear-mounted auxiliary transmission - mounted at the rear axle housing, and attached between it and the driveshaft, to add additional gear ratios.

Multi-speed axle - designed to fit inside the differential's housing, to add additional gear ratios.

Murray Fahnestock, a Ford expert in the era of the Model T, particularly advised the use of auxiliary transmissions for the enclosed Model T's, such as the Ford Sedan and Coupelet, for three reasons: their greater weight put more strain on the drivetrain and engine, which auxiliary transmissions could smooth out; their bodies acted as sounding boards, echoing engine noise and vibration at higher engine speeds, which could be lessened with intermediate gears; and owners of the enclosed cars spent more to buy them, and thus likely had more money with which to enhance them.

He also noted that auxiliary transmissions were valuable for Ford Ton-Trucks in commercial use, allowing for driving speeds to vary with their widely variable loads - particularly when returning empty - possibly saving as much as 50% of returning drive time.

Model T suspension employed a transversely mounted semi-elliptical spring for each of the front and rear beam axles, which allowed a great deal of wheel movement to cope with the dirt roads of the time.

The front axle was drop forged as a single piece of vanadium steel. Ford twisted many axles through eight full rotations (2880 degrees) and sent them to dealers to be put on display to demonstrate its superiority.

The Model T did not have a modern service brake. The right foot pedal applied a band around a drum in the transmission, thus stopping the rear wheels from turning. The previously mentioned parking brake lever operated band brakes acting on the inside of the rear brake drums, which were an integral part of the rear wheel hubs. Optional brakes that acted on the outside of the brake drums were available from aftermarket suppliers.

Wheels were wooden artillery wheels, with steel welded-spoke wheels available in 1926 and 1927.

Tires were pneumatic clincher type, 30 in (762 mm) in diameter, 3.5 in (89 mm) wide in the rear, 3 in (76 mm) in the front. Clinchers needed much higher pressure than today's tires, typically 60 psi (410 kPa), to prevent them from leaving the rim at speed. Flat tires were a common problem.

Balloon tires became available in 1925. They were 21 in × 4.5 in (530 mm × 110 mm) all around. Balloon tires were closer in design to today's tires, with steel wires reinforcing the tire bead, making lower pressure possible - typically 35 psi (240 kPa) - giving a softer ride. The steering gear ratio was changed from 4:1 to 5:1 with the introduction of balloon tires. The old nomenclature for tire size changed from measuring the outer diameter to measuring the rim diameter so 21 in (530 mm) (rim diameter) × 4.5 in (110 mm) (tire width) wheels has about the same outer diameter as 30 in (760 mm) clincher tires. All tires in this time period used an inner tube to hold the pressurized air; tubeless tires were not generally in use until much later.

Wheelbase is 100 in (254 cm) and standard track width was 56 in (142 cm) - 60 in (152 cm) track could be obtained on special order, "for Southern roads", identical to the pre-Civil War track gauge for many railroads in the former Confederacy. The standard 56-inch track being very near the 4 ft in (143.5 cm) inch standard railroad track gauge, meant that Model Ts could be and frequently were, fitted with flanged wheels and used as motorized railway vehicles or "speeders". The availability of a 60 in (152 cm) version meant the same could be done on the few remaining Southern 5 ft (152 cm) railways - these being the only nonstandard lines remaining, except for a few narrow-gauge lines of various sizes. Although a Model T could be adapted to run on track as narrow as 2 ft (61 cm) gauge (Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington RR, Maine has one), this was a more complex alteration.

By 1918, half of all the cars in the U.S. were Model Ts. In his autobiography, Ford reported that in 1909 he told his management team, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."

However, in the first years of production from 1908 to 1913, the Model T was not available in black, but rather only in gray, green, blue, and red. Green was available for the touring cars, town cars, coupes, and Landaulets. Gray was available for the town cars only and red only for the touring cars. By 1912, all cars were being painted midnight blue with black fenders. Only in 1914 was the "any color so long as it is black" policy finally implemented.

It is often stated Ford suggested the use of black from 1914 to 1925 due to the low cost, durability, and faster drying time of black paint in that era. There is no evidence that black dried any faster than any other dark varnishes used at the time for painting, but carbon black pigment was indeed one of the cheapest (if not the cheapest) available, and dark color of gilsonite, a form of bitumen making cheap metal paints of the time durable, limited the (final) color options to dark shades of maroon, blue, green or black. At that period Ford used two similar types of the so-called Japan black paint, one as a basic coat applied directly to the metal and another as a final finish.

Paint choices in the American automotive industry, as well as in others (including locomotives, furniture, bicycles, and the rapidly expanding field of electrical appliances), were shaped by the development of the chemical industry. These included the disruption of dye sources during World War I and the advent, by the mid-1920s, of new nitrocellulose lacquers that were faster-drying and more scratch-resistant and obviated the need for multiple coats. Understanding the choice of paints for the Model T era and the years immediately following requires an understanding of the contemporaneous chemical industry.

During the lifetime production of the Model T, over 30 types of black paint were used on various parts of the car. These were formulated to satisfy the different means of applying the paint to the various parts, and had distinct drying times, depending on the part, paint, and method of drying.

Although Ford classified the Model T with a single letter designation throughout its entire life and made no distinction by model years, enough significant changes to the body were made over the production life that the car may be classified into several style generations. The most immediately visible and identifiable changes were in the hood and cowl areas, although many other modifications were made to the vehicle.

1909-1914 - Characterized by a nearly straight, five-sided hood, with a flat top containing a center hinge and two side sloping sections containing the folding hinges. The firewall is flat from the windshield down with no distinct cowl. For these years, acetylene gas flame headlights were used because the flame is resistant to wind and rain. Thick concave mirrors combined with magnifying lenses projected the acetylene flame light. The fuel tank is placed under the front seat.

1915-1916 - The hood design is nearly the same five-sided design with the only obvious change being the addition of louvers to the vertical sides. A significant change to the cowl area occurred with the windshield relocated significantly behind the firewall and joined with a compound-contoured cowl panel. In these years electric headlights replaced carbide headlights.

1917-1923 - The hood design was changed to a tapered design with a curved top. The folding hinges were now located at the joint between the flat sides and the curved top. This is sometimes referred to as the "low hood" to distinguish it from the later hoods. The back edge of the hood now met the front edge of the cowl panel so that no part of the flat firewall was visible outside of the hood. This design was used the longest and during the highest production years, accounting for about half of the total number of Model Ts built.

1923-1925 - This change was made during the 1923 calendar year, so models built earlier in the year have the older design, while later vehicles have the newer design. The taper of the hood was increased and the rear section at the firewall is about an inch taller and several inches wider than the previous design. While this is a relatively minor change, the parts between the third and fourth generations are not interchangeable.

1926-1927 - This design change made the greatest difference in the appearance of the car. The hood was again enlarged, with the cowl panel no longer a compound curve and blended much more with the line of the hood. The distance between the firewall and the windshield was also increased significantly. This style is sometimes referred to as the "high hood".

The styling on the last "generation" was a preview for the following Model A, but the two models are visually quite different, as the body on the A is much wider and has curved doors as opposed to the flat doors on the T.

When the Model T was designed and introduced, the infrastructure of the world was quite different from today's. Pavement was a rarity except for sidewalks and a few big-city streets. (The meaning of the term "pavement" as opposed to "sidewalk" comes from that era, when streets and roads were generally dirt and sidewalks were a paved way to walk along them.) Agriculture was the occupation of many people. Power tools were scarce outside factories, as were power sources for them; electrification, like pavement, was found usually only in larger towns. Rural electrification and motorized mechanization were embryonic in some regions and nonexistent in most. Henry Ford oversaw the requirements and design of the Model T based on contemporary realities. Consequently, the Model T was (intentionally) almost as much a tractor and portable engine as it was an automobile. It has always been well regarded for its all-terrain abilities and ruggedness. It could travel a rocky, muddy farm lane, cross a shallow stream, climb a steep hill, and be parked on the other side to have one of its wheels removed and a pulley fastened to the hub for a flat belt to drive a bucksaw, thresher, silo blower, conveyor for filling corn cribs or haylofts, baler, water pump, electrical generator, and many other applications. One unique application of the Model T was shown in the October 1922 issue of Fordson Farmer magazine. It showed a minister who had transformed his Model T into a mobile church, complete with small organ.

During this era, entire automobiles (including thousands of Model Ts) were hacked apart by their owners and reconfigured into custom machinery permanently dedicated to a purpose, such as homemade tractors and ice saws. Dozens of aftermarket companies sold prefab kits to facilitate the T's conversion from car to tractor. The Model T had been around for a decade before the Fordson tractor became available (1917-18), and many Ts had been converted for field use. (For example, Harry Ferguson, later famous for his hitches and tractors, worked on Eros Model T tractor conversions before he worked with Fordsons and others.) During the next decade, Model T tractor conversion kits were harder to sell, as the Fordson and then the Farmall (1924), as well as other light and affordable tractors, served the farm market. But during the Depression (1930s), Model T tractor conversion kits had a resurgence, because by then used Model Ts and junkyard parts for them were plentiful and cheap.

Like many popular car engines of the era, the Model T engine was also used on home-built aircraft (such as the Pietenpol Sky Scout) and motorboats.

An armored-car variant (called the " FT-B") was developed in Poland in 1920 due to the high demand during the Polish-Soviet war in 1920.

Many Model Ts were converted into vehicles that could travel across heavy snows with kits on the rear wheels (sometimes with an extra pair of rear-mounted wheels and two sets of continuous track to mount on the now-tandemed rear wheels, essentially making it a half-track) and skis replacing the front wheels. They were popular for rural mail delivery for a time. The common name for these conversions of cars and small trucks was "snowflyers". These vehicles were extremely popular in the northern reaches of Canada, where factories were set up to produce them.

A number of companies built Model T-based railcars. In The Great Railway Bazaar, Paul Theroux mentions a rail journey in India on such a railcar. The New Zealand Railways Department's RM class included a few.

The American LaFrance company modified more than 900 Model Ts for use in firefighting, adding tanks, hoses, tools and a bell. Model T fire engines were in service in North America, Europe, and Australia. A 1919 Model T equipped to fight chemical fires has been restored and is on display at the North Charleston Fire Museum in South Carolina.

The knowledge and skills needed by a factory worker were reduced to 84 areas. When introduced, the T used the building methods typical at the time, assembly by hand, and production was small. The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant could not keep up with demand for the Model T, and only 11 cars were built there during the first full month of production. More and more machines were used to reduce the complexity within the 84 defined areas. In 1910, after assembling nearly 12,000 Model Ts, Henry Ford moved the company to the new Highland Park complex. During this time the Model T production system ( including the supply chain) transitioned into an iconic example of assembly-line production. In subsequent decades it would also come to be viewed as the classic example of the rigid, first-generation version of assembly line production, as opposed to flexible mass production of higher quality products.

As a result, Ford's cars came off the line in three-minute intervals, much faster than previous methods, reducing production time from hours before to 93 minutes by 1914, while using less manpower. In 1914, Ford produced more cars than all other automakers combined. The Model T was a great commercial success, and by the time Ford made its 10 millionth car, half of all cars in the world were Fords. It was so successful Ford did not purchase any advertising between 1917 and 1923; instead, the Model T became so famous, people considered it a norm. More than 15 million Model Ts were manufactured in all, reaching a rate of 9,000 to 10,000 cars a day in 1925, or 2 million annually, more than any other model of its day, at a price of just $260 ($4,339 today). Total Model T production was finally surpassed by the Volkswagen Beetle on February 17, 1972, while the Ford F-Series (itself directly descended from the Model T roadster pickup) has surpassed the Model T as Ford's all-time best-selling model.

Henry Ford's ideological approach to Model T design was one of getting it right and then keeping it the same; he believed the Model T was all the car a person would, or could, ever need. As other companies offered comfort and styling advantages, at competitive prices, the Model T lost market share and became barely profitable. Design changes were not as few as the public perceived, but the idea of an unchanging model was kept intact. Eventually, on May 26, 1927, Ford Motor Company ceased US production and began the changeovers required to produce the Model A. Some of the other Model T factories in the world continued for a short while, with the final Model T produced at the Cork, Ireland plant in December 1928.

Model T engines continued to be produced until August 4, 1941. Almost 170,000 were built after car production stopped, as replacement engines were required to service the many existing vehicles. Racers and enthusiasts, forerunners of modern hot rodders, used the Model Ts' blocks to build popular and cheap racing engines, including Cragar, Navarro, and, famously, the Frontenacs ("Fronty Fords") of the Chevrolet brothers, among many others.

The Model T employed some advanced technology, for example, its use of vanadium steel alloy. Its durability was phenomenal, and some Model Ts and their parts are in running order over a century later. Although Henry Ford resisted some kinds of change, he always championed the advancement of materials engineering, and often mechanical engineering and industrial engineering.

In 2002, Ford built a final batch of six Model Ts as part of their 2003 centenary celebrations. These cars were assembled from remaining new components and other parts produced from the original drawings. The last of the six was used for publicity purposes in the UK.[citation needed ]

Although Ford no longer manufactures parts for the Model T, many parts are still manufactured through private companies as replicas to service the thousands of Model Ts still in operation today.

On May 26, 1927, Henry Ford and his son Edsel drove the 15-millionth Model T out of the factory. This marked the famous automobile's official last day of production at the main factory.

1919 Ford ModelT Phoenix Police cruiser

The moving assembly line system, which started on October 7, 1913, allowed Ford to reduce the price of his cars. As he continued to fine-tune the system, Ford was able to keep reducing costs significantly. As volume increased, he was able to also lower the prices due to some of the fixed costs being spread over a larger number of vehicles as large supply chain investments increased assets per vehicle. Other factors reduced the price such as material costs and design changes. As Ford had market dominance in North America during the 1910s, other competitors reduced their prices to stay competitive, while offering features that were not available on the ModelT such as a wide choice of colors, body styles and interior appearance and choices, and competitors also benefited from the reduced costs of raw materials and infrastructure benefits to supply chain and ancillary manufacturing businesses.

In 1909, the cost of the Runabout started at $825 (equivalent to $26,870 in 2022). By 1925 it had been lowered to $260 (equivalent to $4,340 in 2022).

The figures below are US production numbers compiled by R. E. Houston, Ford Production Department, August 3, 1927. The figures between 1909 and 1920 are for Ford's fiscal year. From 1909 to 1913, the fiscal year was from October 1 to September 30 the following calendar year with the year number being the year in which it ended. For the 1914 fiscal year, the year was October 1, 1913, through July 31, 1914. Starting in August 1914, and through the end of the ModelT era, the fiscal year was August 1 through July 31. Beginning with January 1920, the figures are for the calendar year.

The above tally includes a total of 14,689,525 vehicles. Ford said the last ModelT was the 15 millionth vehicle produced.

Henry Ford used wood scraps from the production of Model Ts to make charcoal briquettes. Originally named Ford Charcoal, the name was changed to Kingsford Charcoal after the Iron Mountain Ford Plant closed in 1951 and the Kingsford Chemical Company was formed and continued the wood distillation process. E. G. Kingsford, Ford's cousin by marriage, brokered the selection of the new sawmill and wood distillation plant site. Lumber for production of the Model T came from the same location, built-in 1920 called the Iron Mountain Ford which incorporated a sawmill where lumber from Ford purchased land in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan was cut and dried. Scrap wood was distilled at the Iron Mountain plant for its wood chemicals, including methanol (wood alcohol), with the end by-product being lump charcoal. This lump charcoal was modified and pressed into briquettes and mass-marketed by Ford.

The Ford Model T was the first automobile built by various countries simultaneously, since they were being produced in Walkerville, Canada, and in Trafford Park, Greater Manchester, England, starting in 1911 and were later assembled in Germany, Argentina, France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Brazil, Mexico, Australia and Japan, as well as several locations throughout the US. Ford made use of the knock-down kit concept almost from the beginning of the company as freight and production costs from Detroit had Ford assembling vehicles in major metropolitan centers of the US.

The Aeroford was an English automobile manufactured in Bayswater, London, from 1920 to 1925. It was a Model T with a distinct hood and grille to make it appear to be a totally different design, what later was called badge engineering. The Aeroford sold from £288 in 1920, dropping to £168-214 by 1925. It was available as a two-seater, four-seater, or coupé.[page needed ]

Ford created a massive publicity machine in Detroit to ensure every newspaper carried stories and advertisements about the new product. Ford's network of local dealers made the car ubiquitous in virtually every city in North America. A large part of the success of Ford's Model T stems from the innovative strategy which introduced a large network of sales hubs making it easy to purchase the car. As independent dealers, the franchises grew rich and publicized not just the Ford but the very concept of automobiling; local motor clubs sprang up to help new drivers and to explore the countryside. Ford was always eager to sell to farmers, who looked on the vehicle as a commercial device to help their business. Sales skyrocketed - several years posted around 100 percent gains on the previous year.

Parisian Ford dealer Charles Montier and his brother-in-law Albert Ouriou entered a heavily modified version of the Model T (the "Montier Special") in the first three 24 Hours of Le Mans. They finished 14th in the inaugural 1923 race.

Today, four main clubs exist to support the preservation and restoration of these cars: the Model T Ford Club International, the Model T Ford Club of America and the combined clubs of Australia. With many chapters of clubs around the world, the Model T Ford Club of Victoria has a membership with a considerable number of uniquely Australian cars. (Australia produced its own car bodies, and therefore many differences occurred between the Australian bodied tourers and the US/Canadian cars.) In the UK, the Model T Ford Register of Great Britain celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010. Many steel Model T parts are still manufactured today, and even fiberglass replicas of their distinctive bodies are produced, which are popular for T-bucket style hot rods (as immortalized in the Jan and Dean surf music song "Bucket T", which was later recorded by The Who).[citation needed ] In 1949, more than twenty years after the end of production, 200,000 Model Ts were registered in the United States. In 2008, it was estimated that about 50,000 to 60,000 Ford Model Ts remain roadworthy.

1. ^ Darbee, Jeff (July 2014). "City Quotient: I often smell something like vanilla cookies or cake when walking Downtown. Am I just hungry, or is that for real?". Columbus Monthly. Archived from the original on August 20, 2014.

2. "Ford Model T 1908-1927". Carsized. Switzerland. Archived from the original on August 22, 2019.

3. ^ Gordon, John Steele. "10 Moments That Made American Business". American Heritage. No. February/March 2007. Archived from the original on April 20, 2008.

4. Folkmann, Mads Nygaard (2011). "Encoding Symbolism: Immateriality and Possibility in Design". Design and Culture. 3 (1): 51-74. doi:10.2752/175470810X12863771378752. S2CID 144223359.

5. ^ "History Lesson: Hungary Celebrates the Ford Model T". India: Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations of India. February 27, 2006. Archived from the original on September 5, 2012.

6. ^ English, Andrew (July 25, 2008). "Ford Model T reaches 100". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on May 29, 2012.

7. ^ Aschman, Ted; Houston, Fred; Klehfoth, Jay (March 1991), "I Didn't Know That!: Auxiliary Model T Transmissions" (PDF), Vintage Ford, Model T Ford Club of America

8. ^ Casey, Robert (2008). The Model T: A Centennial History. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 67. ISBN 9780801888502.

9. ^ "Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2011: Old Photo - Model T Rail Car". Model T Ford Club of America. 2011.

10. ^ Abernathy, William J.; Wayne, Kenneth (September 1, 1974). "Limits of the Learning Curve". Harvard Business Review. Ford's objective was to reduce the price of the automobile and thereby increase volume and market share.
"Ford's long devotion to the experience-curve strategy made the transition to another strategy difficult and very costly" (going from reducing Model T cost to increasing Model A price) "From the time it introduced the Model A, Ford was compelled to compete on the basis of product quality and performance - a strategy in which it was not skilled"
The rate of capital investment showed substantial increases after 1913, rising from 11 cents per sales dollar that year to 22 cents by 1921. The new facilities that were built or acquired included blast furnaces, logging operations and saw mills, a railroad, weaving mills, coke ovens, a paper mill, a glass plant, and a cement plant.
In its effort to keep reducing Model T costs while wages were rising, Ford continued to invest heavily in plant, property, and equipment. These facilities even included coal mines, rubber plantations, and forestry operations (to provide wooden car parts). By 1926, nearly 33 cents in such assets backed each dollar of sales, up from 20 cents just four years earlier, thereby increasing fixed costs and raising the break-even point.

11. ^ Wagner, Michael F. (2009). Domesticeringen af Ford i Danmark [The domestication of Ford in Denmark]. Denmark: Aalborg University. p. 14. Model T production in Denmark stopped in August 1927 for factory recondition.

12. ^ "Ford executive chairman Bill Ford returns to family's ancestral home town to mark centenary of Ford in Ireland" (Press release). Ford. April 20, 2017.

13. ^ "Ford's Assembly Line Turns 100: How It Changed Manufacturing and Society". . October 7, 2013. Archived from the original on November 30, 2013.

14. ^ Cherif, Reda; Hasanov, Fuad; Pande, Aditya (May 22, 2017). "Riding the Energy Transition : Oil Beyond 2040". International Monetary Fund. p. 13. Vehicle adoption is strongly associated with the ability to offer an affordable price. The large fall in prices in the early 1900s, thanks to the economies of scale and process innovations made by Ford, is closely matched by a rise in motor vehicle registrations.

15. ^ Forstrom, Guy (Summer 2017). "The Burning History of the Charcoal Briquette". Historical Society of Michigan. 40 (2): 13-15.

16. David Culshaw & Peter Horrobin: ^ The Complete Catalogue of British Cars 1895-1975. Veloce Publishing plc. Dorchester (1999). ISBN 1-874105-93-6

Clymer, Floyd (1955). Henry's wonderful Model T, 1908-1927. New York, NY, U.S.: McGraw-Hill. LCCN 55010405.

Clymer, Floyd (1950). Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877-1925. New York, NY, U.S.: McGraw-Hill. LCCN 50010680.

Dutton, William S. (1942). Du Pont: One Hundred and Forty Years. Charles Scribner's Sons. LCCN 42011897.

Ford, Henry; Crowther, Samuel (1922), My Life and Work, Garden City, New York, USA: Garden City Publishing Company, Inc. Various republications, including ISBN 9781406500189. Original is public domain in U.S. Also available at Google Books.

Georgano, G. N. (1985). Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886-1930. London, UK: Grange-Universal.

Hounshell, David A. (1984), From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States, Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 978-0-8018-2975-8, LCCN 83016269, OCLC 1104810110

Kimes, Beverly Rae; Clark, Henry Austin Jr. (1989). Standard Catalog of America Cars: 1805-1942 (2nd ed.). Krause Publications. ISBN 9780873411110.

Manly, Harold P. (1919). The Ford Motor Car and Truck; Fordson Tractor: Their Construction, Care and Operation. Chicago, IL, US: Frederick J. Drake & Co.

McCalley, Bruce W. (1994). Model T Ford: The Car That Changed the World. Iola, WI, U.S.: Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87341-293-1.

Ross, Irwin (November 1974). "Ford's Fabulous Flivver". Gas Engine Magazine.

Ward, Ian, ed. (1974). The World of Automobiles. Vol. 13. London, UK: Orbis.

Wik, Reynold M. (1972). Henry Ford and grass-roots America. Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-97200-5.

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Ford Model T Manufacturer Ford Motor Company Production 1908-1927 Assembly United States:[1] [2] Detroit, Michigan Highland Park, Michigan Dothan, Alabama Atlanta, Georgia Los Angeles, California Minneapolis, Minnesota Saint Paul, Minnesota St.

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Google Search criteria: Henry Ford

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Life of Henry Ford | American Experience | PBS

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Henry Ford is born on a farm to William and Mary Ford in Springwells Township, Michigan in 1863. Explore a timeline of his life.

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Henry Ford Biography

Google Search Criteria: Henry Ford

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Henry Ford was an industrialist who revolutionized assembly line production for the automobile, making the Model T one of America’s greatest inventions.

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2008 Wall Street Journal article on impact of Model T

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2008 Wall Street Journal article on impact of Model T

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"This Car Changed America"

Google Search criteria: impact of the Model T

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A look at Ford’s influential Model T, which debuted 100 years ago.

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This source contains a tertiary, background synopsis of Henry Ford, but it also contains a couple of primary sources for reference

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An Interview With an Assembly Line Worker

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An Interview With an Assembly Line Worker

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with Tom Jelly, who worked on the Ford assembly line in the 1920's

Google Search criteria: Henry Ford assembly line worker testimonies; primary sources related to Henry Ford and the assembly line

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Interview with Tom Jelley

Q: When did you first come to Ford?

Jelley: In 1923. I was 16. Ford had a lot of East Indians here at that time... and I got aquainted with them because my mother was from India. I met one of the Hindus that was assistant supervisor for Ford steel mills, and he says to me, he says, "Jelley," he says, "why don't you learn a trade instead of trying to learn to be a missionary." And he says, "you can learn to be a missionary afterwards, but learn a trade because Ford has got plants all over the world, you know." So, he says, "I can get you in the Henry Ford Trade School." They had a two-year waiting period, and he got me in there within a week. And so that was in 1925. I was 16 years old. And trade school, you graduate when you are 18.

Q: What do you remember about the trade school?

Jelley: Well, you learned to run all the different machines. And you learned math, trigonometry.... You learned to run the machines that you would be running out in the shop. I was in the trade school for two years and then... in 1925, I went into the shop on an apprentice course for four years. And it was in this building that I served that time.

Q: I understand you met Henry Ford.

Jelley: Henry Ford really inspired me. He was a good man. I had spoiled a job on a milling machine, and the foreman was balling me out. And old Henry Ford was standing about ten feet away. And when he saw him, why, the foreman got louder trying to impress the old man. And when he got through, why Ford come over to me, put his hand on my shoulder, and he said, "Son, you show me a man never made a mistake and I will show you a man never did anything." And that foreman, if there was a hole in the floor, he could have really sunk in it.

But the only trouble [with Ford] was the people that he hired to run his business for him.... Ford made the mistake of hiring a guy by the name of Henry Bennett [who] used to go to the prisons and get these prisoners out, put them under plant protection. And [these prisoners] would break into our toolbox on weekends, and our tools would be gone, and we would have to go up on Michigan Avenue to the pawn shops and buy them back.

[Bennet] had the whole say of running the plant. And his goons -- and that is what they were -- they would go into these toilets there, and you were sitting down there, and they would [tell you to get out] just like that. No dignity at all. So, as far as I am concerned, that is one thing that brought the union in there.

Q: Tell me about the assembly line.

Jelley: They were running, well the length of the building like, you know, and like carrying parts. Say you were carrying it by hands, why the conveyors would carry it on the lines, and it was really marvelous the way things moved. Not one brain was doing that. There was a lot of brains working together. But Ford had such a long vision on it. And I guess we, we forget about what they have to do, and money being involved and all that there. And they try to hire people for as cheap as they can too. But Ford did give the first living wage to his employees when he gave $5 and $6 a day.

Q: Do you remember the $5 day?

Jelley: Yeah. I remember that. They were coming here from all over the world. But I know, from this country, all the different nationalities that were piling in here for the five and six dollars. And [Ford] was the first one that gave them that living wage. But then inflation keeps moving up. And the best part that I remember was when the Depression was here, when Roosevelt was elected President. At that period he had froze everything. And that was good for the country.

Q: Did the men on the line feel the pressure of those outside, waiting for a job?

Jelley: Oh yes. Yes. Sure, they would see it was easier for the company. If you wanted more money, with the people standing outside, they could let you go and hire somebody else. That's why we really had to have unions then.

Q: Was it easy to get fired?

Jelley: Oh yes, just on the spur of the moment. If you didn't do what they told you to do, you were out of a job.

Q: Could the men on the line keep up?

Jelley: They would speed up the lines, yeah. And you know, we are all different. [Some would] have a lot of trouble there. Some of them would even pass out, you know, when you start rushing. Yeah.

Q: Were there accidents?

Jelley: Oh yes. There's all kind of safety hazards in a big place like this, with different chemicals and acids and all that which you are breathing.

Q: Do you remember the Sociological Department?

Jelley: Yes I remember. Ford did stick his nose in your affairs, but I can see why, too, because even today your children, they don't know how to handle money. What they want they go ahead and buy and then they don't have any money. So it was happening in that day, and Ford wanted to see that when he was giving them this living wage, how they were spending it, or if they were saving it, or what.

Q: What did the Sociological Department do?

Jelley: Well, they questioned you [about] how you were spending your money and [they would] look around through your house, you know -- and some people appreciated it and others didn't. You already did your job, and you were paid for it there. What business is it of [their's]?

Q: What was working on the line like? Was it monotonous?

Jelley: When you are doing the same thing over and over, in your mind you could even fall asleep doing the same thing over and over all the time.

Q: What could the line workers do to make it less boring?

Jelley: They didn't have a chance to talk to anyone. You [couldn't] sit down and be social and talk to the next person. No, you didn't have a chance. You were far enough away, and you were just engrossed in your jobs, and you had to do it. Or you wouldn't do it.

Q: Did they talk or joke?

Jelley: No, no, no. You weren't allowed to talk. You didn't have a chance to talk -- or time. You had a job to do because if you were just talking around, you wouldn't be doing your job. You wouldn't be concentrating on what you were doing.

Q: What happened if a man took too long on a break or talked?

Jelley: He was finished. If they had trouble with you... with that, they would fire you. That was it. With the lines outside, they, the companies had their choice of hiring new people all the time.

Q: Did the men resent their working conditions as degrading?

Jelley: Yeah. Some [did]. There [were] degrading jobs.

Q: Why did they put up with it?

Jelley: When you have to make a living, you have to have the money to live on, so that is why you put up with it there. And then things got so bad. That is why we got the unions. Solidarity forever, and that is the best thing that ever happened to us. Well , we weren't the first country to have it, but I think we have had the best unions here.

Q: Do you remember when men began to talk about the union? Did they talk to you openly?

Jelley: No. You can't do things that way .... One instance happened to me, and this was in 1940. I was out in the shop, out in the die rooms. You worked on a job outside of the die rooms where production is, maintaining the dies and the presses. And when the dies break down, why, the [foreman] would at different times tell me to go back in the die room and ... the die leader, he was off that day.

And this one day, he told me, "...you are going to be the leader in the die room there." "Oh no," I said, "I don't want to take [his] job." "Well no," he says, "you will have to," he says, "because it don't do me any good. He is off on a drunk." I said, "Well no, I don't want his job." So they sent me to the manager then.

So I went up to the manager, and I never will forget [this]. His name was Lindstrom. He says to me, "Why don't you do what your foreman tells you to?" And I says," I don't want to take his job. He is not here today, I will do it today," but I says, "I don't want to take his job." So he says, "Go to the employment office." "Well," I says, "[if] the question is going to the employment office or being out of a job," I says, "all right. I will take it." And he says too late. He says, "You should have spoke up before." So I went to the employment office, and never will forget it. Funny, you remember these certain things. [The] man's name at the employment office was Miller. And I said to him, I says," I am being fired...because I belong to the union. He says, "We have no contract with the union." "Well," I says, "I am going to report [this] to the National Labor Relations Board. He says, "We have no contract with the UAW, you know."

So I was out a year. I worked in a job shop then -- made more money than I did at Ford. And as soon as I heard about the strike in '41, as soon as it come over the radio, I took my apron off. The foreman said, where are you going, and I said, I am going over to Ford. So the National Labor Relations Board put me back to work. And of course Ford tried to put me in a different building other than where I was fired from. Where I worked, that was the second largest die room in the plant. So the company tried to put me in some other place that was smaller. And I insisted on going back to where I was fired from. So the National Labor Relations Board helped... put me right back where I was. And I was elected Committeeman then there in 1941.

Q: What kinds of things did you do as Committeeman?

Jelley: There was one incident I had...while I was in the Rouge. One of the trial men that I represented, I was his committeeman. He come to me, he says, "Jelley," he says, "they won't block up the press properly." So I went over and looked at it, and this was a double-action press. They had the block, the safety block under the punch, but then [on] the outer ring there was no block on that, and it had been double safe because when the punch would come down the outer ring would hold.

And I spoke to the production foreman. I says, "Why don't you put a block under the outer ring." And he said, "It's safe." Well I says, "You know the company policy," I says, "that the man must feel safe in order to do a good job." So I says, "Why don't you just go ahead and block it." He says, "It's safe" and they wouldn't block it up.

So they sent the man home. I wrote a grievance on [the foreman]. The afternoon shift come on. Same thing happened. Man refused to go in there without two blocks -- the outer ring and the punch. So they sent him home, so the afternoon committeeman wrote a grievance. And here I am -- there the two shifts now. So the midnight shift come in, and the same thing happened. They sent him home, and the grievance was written for the midnight man.

So the next day we all wound up at the American Road Board headquarters, and our people from the local and solidarity headquarters, they were hammering on the desk and swearing, and I thought, "Well I had better quote some scriptures here to them." And I says, "I don't know why we are out here," I said. "It could have been settled right in the plant." I said, "The Bible says in James IV:17 that 'to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it no, to him it is sin.'" "Now", I says, "it would have been good if they had blocked up the press properly -- the man would have felt safe and done a better job, see." So the company head said that it [was] going to be settled in the plant.

So we went back into the plant -- nothing more was said, they paid off the grievances, and we started the next day like nothing ever happened.

Q: Did you feel well off back then, with a good job and a good wage? Was it still hard?

Jelley: Well it was still hard because you couldn't do exactly what you wanted, you know, but [because] you had credit, that did help. You were going to get assurance that tomorrow you would have a job and get paid. You had that assurance, and that was one reason why we had to have a union because you couldn't have made it otherwise. We never really squandered anything. When we got the unions, we got vacations. And we really looked forward to those vacations. [And our jobs] helped us to enjoy life.

Q: I understand you were thought to be a communist.

Jelley: I was hauled before the [House Un-] Americans Committee in 1951. One bad thing that we did have in our union [were] these factions -- the right and left wing, see. And they called me a left-winger, and before I knew it I was called a communist.

So during this McCarthy regime here, I was called before the Americans Committee and my lawyer had told me, "Mr. Jelley, you had better take the Fifth Amendment, because if you are going to squeal that somebody so and so is a communist and you leave one out, they are going to get you for contempt."

So, I says, I took the Fifth Amendment and told them I didn't want to incriminate myself. So they let me go.... And when I got back to the local, I was removed from office. And then the president told me to go back [because] they had to appoint someone from my district,... and no one would take the job, so I said, "No, no, I can't go back on."

So he [asked] why. "Well," I says, "you made me a foreign agent," I said, "my kids are having trouble now in school." "And no," I says, "I don't know if [the men] even want me now."

So he says, "what do you want?" So I said," I want election." So they had the election, I was re-elected, and I was on for ten years before I had any opposition.

Note: Red text is available in RealAudio.

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People's Century | Freedom Now | Tom Jelley

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Interview with Tom Jelley Q: When did you first come to Ford? Jelley: In 1923. I was 16. Ford had a lot of East Indians here at that time... and I got aquainted with them because my mother was from India.

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"The First Assembly Line," an essay by Henry Ford 1913

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"The First Assembly Line," an essay by Henry Ford 1913

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Google Search criteria: primary sources related to Henry Ford and the assembly line (available on several sites)

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Original photograph of Henry Ford's assembly line.
Google Image search criteria: Henry Ford 1920's assembly line

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An original photograph of Henry Ford's assembly line.
Google Image search criteria: 1920's assembly line