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Tin Lizzie was the
nickname for the Model-T Ford. Lizzie is short for Elizabeth, a common name for
horses at the time. To people who had never seen anything like it, the Model-T
was a "metal horse."
"We are all just stewards of these cars. Somebody owned them before we did,
somebody will own them after we are gone. The money that we pay for them or the
money that we take for them is just a way to determine who will steward what car
and for how long. It is our obligation to steward not only the physical Model T,
but also the knowledge, the folklore, and the spirit of the cars to pass to the
next generation of owners. We need to be telling the stories as well as the
knowledge of how to set the spark and adjust the gas."
Stan Howe
The Model T, according to Henry
Ford, was available "in any color you choose, so long as it's black." This may
be Ford's most famous statement about his most famous car, but it is not the
most telling. The comment that most accurately reflects the nature of Ford's
gift to the world is a little-known remark he made in October 1908, on the
occasion of the birth of the Model T: "I will build a motor car for the great
multitude."
That is exactly what the Model T
was. With that vehicle, Ford revolutionized not only the automobile industry but
American society, and arguably all of Western culture. With the introduction of
the Model T, automobiles became available to everyone, not just the well-to-do.
Although the "Tin Lizzie," with
its four-cylinder motor, magneto ignition, and planetary transmission, was a
technically advanced automobile, it was by no means technically revolutionary.
Rather, it was Ford's manufacturing process that revolutionized the industry. He
was not the first to build a car on an assembly line, but he perfected the
system. After Ford opened his new Model T plant in 1913, he produced one Model T
every 93 minutes, a remarkable reduction from the 728 minutes per car that was
previously required. By the time the last Model T was built in 1927, the company
was producing an automobile every 24
seconds. In part because of this efficiency, the Model T's price
dropped from its original 1908 cost of nearly $1,000 to under $300 in 1927. This
was possible in spite of the fact that, beginning in 1914, Ford paid
assembly-line workers $5.00 per day at a time when prevailing wages averaged
about $2.35 per day.
Ultimately, this combination of
efficiency and high wages led to the fulfillment of Ford's prediction. The Model
T was, indeed, a motor car for the masses. Not only was it cheap, but thanks in
part to Ford's wage scales, ordinary workers for the first time had the
disposable income necessary to purchase one. With the Model T, the automobile,
which had once been an expensive plaything for the wealthy, began its
transformation into an everyday necessity.
A LOOK BACK: Ford's Model T took millions
for their 1st ride
May 27, 2003
BY TONY
SWAN
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER
Like so many epochal
inventions, the Ford Model T seemed far from extraordinary at first
glance.
When
the T debuted in October 1908, Ford Motor Co. was just one of many
aspiring carmakers.
And even though the new
car was modestly innovative, it's fair to say that no one, including
Henry Ford himself, foresaw the impact this machine would have on
society.
Ford aimed at creating a
mass market by putting cars within reach of the average citizen. In the
process, he changed the world.
In 1908, the automobile
was still in its infancy but no longer a novelty. There were almost
150,000 cars registered in the United States, a good many of them Fords.
Ford had been operating
since June 1903, initially in a small converted wagon works on Mack
Avenue, and in 1905 moved to a purpose-built three-story brick factory
on Piquette Avenue.
The plant, incidentally,
is currently undergoing restoration, albeit with no financial assistance
from Ford.
En route to the T, the
company created Models A, B, C, F, K, N, R and S, and the Piquette plant
was busily cranking out the last three models while Ford and his key
collaborators -- Charles Sorenson, C. Harold Wills and Joseph Galamb --
cordoned off an upstairs corner to work on the car.
An evolution of the N, R
and S models, the T embodied some significant departures from its
immediate predecessors. For example, it was the first Ford equipped with
left-hand drive, a change that soon altered our traffic patterns.
The castings for its
176.4-cubic-inch, or 2.9-liter, four-cylinder engine -- rated at 20
horsepower and 65 foot-pounds of torque -- included the case for the
two-speed transmission, and had a removable cylinder head, sophisticated
touches in an inexpensive car.
Its ignition was fired by
a magneto system, far more reliable than contemporary batteries.
Its top speed was about
40 m.p.h. -- more than fast enough, considering the state of U.S. roads
and the car's marginal brakes.
And like the N, R and S
models, it made extensive use of high-strength vanadium steel in the
chassis, helping to make the wood-bodied car both light (about 1,200
pounds) and extraordinarily tough.
After an initial run of a
few hundred cars, the T adopted the famous three-pedal control
arrangement -- clutch, reverse, and brake, each bearing
the appropriate initial -- to simplify operation.
It was deceptive
simplicity, though, particularly the starting process. The T didn't
offer the option of electric starting until 1919, eight years after it
was introduced by Cadillac. Most T owners fired up with a hand crank, a
tricky process that led to hundreds of injuries -- broken wrists, arms
and worse.
Nevertheless, millions of
Americans got their first exposure to motoring in a Model T, and most of
them emerged with warm feelings about the automobile known as Henry's
Tin Lizzie.
Why? Partly because of
its virtues as a transportation appliance? More important, though, was
its increasingly attractive price, a function of the economies of scale
that went with the application of modern manufacturing techniques.
This was the true genius
of the Model T.
While the T was being
born on Piquette Avenue, Ford was already making plans for a vast new
factory in Highland Park.
The new plant began
spitting out Model T's in 1910 -- some 32,000 of them -- but that paled
beside 1913, when Ford instituted the world's first automotive moving
assembly line. Though the process was still undergoing refinements, at
year's end Highland Park had produced 168,220 T's.
Annual production soared
as Ford continued to reduce assembly time, and prices sank
correspondingly. The base price for a Model T roadster in 1908 was $825.
By 1925, the same car cost $260.
For all his vision, Henry
Ford failed to see that there could be too much of a good thing. Despite
running changes over the years, the T became increasingly obsolescent.
In May 1927, the Highland Park assembly lines finally ground to a halt.
The T was history, but
what a history! When production ceased, over 15 million T's had gone
forth, most to people who had never driven a car before. In fact, at one
point half the cars on Earth were Model T's.
Henry Ford had shrewdly
perceived one of humankind's great dreams -- the dream of unlimited
personal mobility -- and then created a means for making that dream a
reality. In the process, he literally put the world on wheels.
Tony
Swan is the executive editor of Car and Driver.
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By
Neil Kaminar
on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - 09:36 am:
3,000 Year Old Model T Ford Found
API, Cactus City, Arizona
Dr. Froggy Digumup announced today that his archeological team unearthed a 3,000
year old automobile, believed to be a Model T Ford from the early 20th century.
The car was produced by the American Civilization during the early Fossil Fuel
Era. Dr. Digumup stated that the car was found in an underground tomb, with the
body of the apparent owner, believed to be a past president of the Model T Club,
a Mr. Drivesit Daily. The car was in remarkable condition, having been preserved
by something called Cosmoline. Dr. Digumup stated that it took several years to
remove the Cosmoline. The car started right up on synfuel after adjusting the
coils, installing a fresh battery, and cleaning out the carburetor. However, the
tires were cracked and had to be replaced. Fortunately, several decades ago, the
original molds for the tires were found in the former country of Vietnam.
Historians are at a loss to explain how or why the molds were in Vietnam.
Historian Dr. Harry Bookworm explained that Model T Fords are rare today because
the original owners refused to quit driving them, even after gasoline was
unavailable and automobiles switched over to electric batteries for power. Dr.
Bookworm goes on to explain that the Model T used a primitive form of power
produced by exploding an air-gasoline mixture. The original owners would
substitute something called “white light’n,” a form of mostly ethyl alcohol. All
the Model T’s in museums disappeared when parts for these cars became scarce.
Dr. Digumup states that the car is extremely fun to drive and he is planning to
use the car on a daily basis. The GAOA (Grumpy Automobile Owners Association)
has launched a protest saying that the car is not safe and would be a hazard on
the highways. Dr. Digumup says that he will only drive the car around town and
on the secondary roads. Dr. Bookworm explains that the Model T Ford will only go
40 miles per hour while today’s speed limit is 1,400 mph.
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