Henry Ford (1863-1947) invented neither the automobile nor the assembly line, but recast each to dominate a new era. Indeed, no other individual in this century so completely transformed the nation’s way of life. By improving the assembly line so that the Model T could be produced ever more inexpensively, Ford placed the power of the internal combustion engine within reach of the average citizen. He transformed the automobile itself from a luxury to a necessity. The Model T represented both high ideals and hard practicalities.

 

In 1893, Charles and Frank Duryea, of Springfield, Massachusetts, built the first gas-operated vehicle in the U.S. In 1901, Henry Ford created a pair of big racecars, which he entered, in a ten-mile race against a car built by Alexander Winton, a leading automaker from Ohio. Ford’s car won. This victory led Alexander Malconson, and other wealthy investors founded the Ford Motor Company. in 1903. Capitalized at $100,000, some investors contributed cash, others for example, the Dodge brothers, John and Horace, agreed to supply engines.

 

Ford in 1906 decided to introduce a new, cheaper model with lower profit margin, called the model T. “ I will build a motor car for the great multitude,” Ford proclaimed. For two years he designed and planned the Model T. One of the key successes to the model T was the use of vanadium steel that provided 170,000 pounds of tensile strength. Ford commissioned a steel mill devoted to the production of vanadium steel; thus, the Model T was the only car in the United States that benefited from this higher tensile strength for five years.

 

The Model T changed America forever. For $825, a Model T customer could take home a car that was light, about 1,200 pounds, relatively powerful, twenty horsepower engine, and fairly easy to drive. Simple, sturdy, and versatile, this little car excited the public imagination.

 

The car went to its first customers on October 1, 1906.  In its first year, over 10,000 were sold, a record for an automobile model. Sale of the “Tin Lizzie” was boosted by promotional activities, ranging from a black-tie “Ford Clinic” in New York, to Model T rodeos out West. In 1909, the Model T was the only car to survive a cross-country race from New York to Seattle.

 

In order to maintain the momentum of the Model T, Henry Ford had the leading industrial architect, Albert Kahn, design a sixty-acre factory, called Highland Park. John Rockefeller said the factory represented the “industrial miracle of the age.”

 

“I am going to democratize the automobile,” Henry Ford said in 1909. When it sold for $725 in 1912, the Model T for the first time cost less than the prevailing annual wage in the United States. By 1914, the Model T held 48% of the U.S. market.

 

At Highland Park, Ford began to implement automation in 1910. Experimentation would continue every single day for the next seventeen years, under one of Ford’s maxims. “Everything can always be done better than it is being done.” Ford can he got inspiration for introducing in his factory a moving assembly line from observing a moving assembly line from a Chicago meatpacker. In1914, Ford developed an “endless chain-driven” conveyer to move the chassis from one workstation to another, workers remained stationary. 

In 1914, 13,000 workers at Ford made 260,720 cars. By comparison, in the rest of the industry, it took 66,350 workers to make 286,770 cars. Ford defended the assembly line against critics who complained that he removed the “skill” from labor. “We have put higher skill into planning, management, and tool building, and the results of that skill are enjoyed by the man who is not skilled.” Ford also announced a new minimum wage of five-dollars per eight-hour day, in addition to a profit-sharing plan. Ford was hailed as the friend of the worker.

On July 11,1919, Ford completed the buyout of his disgruntled other shareholders for  $125 million plus $19 million dollar court-ordered dividend. Ford was so happy that he danced a jig.

On June 4, 1924, the ten millionth Model T left the Highland Park factory. However, General Motors under the brilliant leadership of Alfred Sloan began to offer inexpensive Chevrolets, offering amenities that the Model T did not have. When Ford workers surprised Henry Ford with an updated Model T, he responded by kicking in the windshield and stomping on the roof. Edsel Ford, his son, tried unsuccessfully to get his father to adopt changes.

 

On May 25, 1927, Ford abruptly announced the end of production of the model T, and soon after closed the Highland plant for six months to plan a new automobile. By that year, the Big Three automobile manufacturers, has 80% of the market. The other 41 manufacturers had 20% of the market. Approximately 15 million Model T’s were sold.