Behind Ford's homespun ways lay mechanical gifts of a rare order. He grew up on a farm in Dearborn, Michigan, and worked the land himself for a number of years before moving to Detroit, where he was employed as a machinist and then as chief engineer of an electric light company. All the while he tinkered with cars, displaying such obvious talents that he readily found backers when he formed the Ford Motor Company in 1903 at the age of 40. Behind Ford's homespun ways lay mechanical gifts of a rare order. He grew up on a farm in Dearborn, Michigan, and worked the land himself for a number of years before moving to Detroit, where he was employed as a machinist and then as chief engineer of an electric light company. All the while he tinkered with cars, displaying such obvious talents that he readily found backers when he formed the Ford Motor Company in 1903 at the age of 40. The business prospered from the start, and after the introduction of the Model T in 1908, it left all rivals in the dust. The Tin Lizzie, as the Model T was affectionately called, reflected Ford's rural roots. Standing seven feet high, with a four-cylinder, 20-horsepower engine that produced a top speed of 45 miles per hour, it was unpretentious, reliable, and remarkably sturdy. Most important from a marketing point of view, it was cheap—an affordable $850 that first year—and became astonishingly cheaper as the years passed, eventually dropping to the almost irresistible level of $290. "Every time I lower the price a dollar, we gain a thousand new buyers," boasted Ford. As for the cost of upkeep, the Tin Lizzie was a marvel. A replacement muffler cost 25 cents, a new fender $2.50.
What made such bargain prices possible was mass production, a competitive weapon that Henry Ford honed with obsessive genius. Its basis, the use of standardized, precision-made parts, had spun fortunes for a number of earlier American industrialists—armaments maker Samuel Colt and harvester king Cyrus McCormick among them. But that was only the starting point for Ford and his engineers. In search of efficiencies they created superb machine tools, among them a device that could simultaneously drill 45 holes in an engine block. They mechanized steps that were done by hand in other factories, such as the painting of wheels. Ford's painting machine could handle 2,000 wheels an hour. In 1913, with little fanfare, they tried out another tactic for boosting productivity: the moving assembly line, a concept borrowed from the meat-packing industry. What made such bargain prices possible was mass production, a competitive weapon that Henry Ford honed with obsessive genius. Its basis, the use of standardized, precision-made parts, had spun fortunes for a number of earlier American industrialists—armaments maker Samuel Colt and harvester king Cyrus McCormick among them. But that was only the starting point for Ford and his engineers. In search of efficiencies they created superb machine tools, among them a device that could simultaneously drill 45 holes in an engine block. They mechanized steps that were done by hand in other factories, such as the painting of wheels. Ford's painting machine could handle 2,000 wheels an hour. In 1913, with little fanfare, they tried out another tactic for boosting productivity: the moving assembly line, a concept borrowed from the meat-packing industry.
At the Ford Motor Company the assembly line was first adopted in the department that built the Model T's magneto, which generated electricity for the ignition system. Previously, one worker had assembled each magneto from start to finish. Under the new approach, however, each worker performed a single task as the unit traveled past his station on a conveyer belt. "The man who puts in a bolt does not put on the nut," Ford explained. "The man who puts on the nut does not tighten it." At the Ford Motor Company the assembly line was first adopted in the department that built the Model T's magneto, which generated electricity for the ignition system. Previously, one worker had assembled each magneto from start to finish. Under the new approach, however, each worker performed a single task as the unit traveled past his station on a conveyer belt. "The man who puts in a bolt does not put on the nut," Ford explained. "The man who puts on the nut does not tighten it." The savings in time and money were so dramatic that the assembly line approach was soon extended to virtually every phase of the manufacturing process. By 1914 the Ford factory resembled an immense river system, with subassemblies taking shape along tributaries and feeding into the main stream, where the chassis moved continuously along rails at a speed of 6 feet per minute. The time needed for the final stage of assembly dropped from more than 12 hours to just 93 minutes. Eventually, new Model Ts would be rolling off the line at rates as high as one every 10 seconds. So deep-seated was Henry Ford's belief in the value of simplicity and standardization that the Tin Lizzie was the company's only product for 19 years, and for much of that period it was available only in black because black enamel was the paint that dried the fastest. Since Model Ts accounted for half the cars in the world by 1920, Ford saw no need for fundamental change.
Nonetheless, automotive technology was advancing at a rapid clip. Disk brakes arrived on the scene way back in 1902, patented by British engineer Frederick Lanchester. The catalytic converter was invented in France in 1909, and the V8 engine appeared there a year later. One of the biggest improvements of all, especially in the eyes of women, was the self-starter. It was badly needed. All early internal combustion engines were started by turning over the motor with a hand crank, a procedure that required a good deal of strength and, if the motor happened to backfire, could be wickedly dangerous, breaking many an arm with the kick. In 1911, Charles Kettering, a young Ohio engineer and auto hobbyist, found a better way— a starting system that combined a generator, storage battery, and electric motor. It debuted in the Cadillac the following year and spread rapidly from there.
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