Text B. Henry Ford and the Triumph of the automobile

Henry Ford was by far the most successful of the many early automobile manufacturers who attempted to build a low-cost, reliable car. Born on a Michigan farm in 1863 in a middle class family, Henry Ford early developed a life-long love to machinery. He built his first experimental automobile in 1896 when he worked as an engineer in Detroit. During two unsuccessful attempts to enter automobile manufacturing, Ford gained a national reputation as a designer and driver of racing cars. Then at the age of 40 Ford formed the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan, on June 16, 1903. Competition was intense: the vast majority of Ford’s early competitors failed. Why did he succeed so brilliantly?

The problem was to make cars available at prices the average family could afford, by cutting manufacturing costs without sacrificing the quality of the product.

His $ 600 Model N was one of the better-designed and better-built cars available at any price in 1906.

Encouraged by the success of the Model N. Henry Ford was determined to build an even better low-priced car for a mass market.

The Ford Motor Company innovated mass-production techniques at its new plant. The new plant that Ford opened on January 1, 1910, to meet the huge demand for his cars possessed an unparalleled factory arrangement for the volume production of motorcars. The tool department was constantly devising specialized new machine tools that would increase output. Continuous conveyor belts to bring materials to the assembly lines were installed. Ford assembly line was more than a production technique. It was a new economic philosophy and a new way of managing. The line moved at steady 6 feet a minute while workers added parts or performed other operations on the advancing car chassis. Within two years the time it took to produce a Ford car dropped from twelve hours to ninety minutes. There was an equivalent drop in price. Rather than trying to get as much money as possible for each item produced, Ford cut cost ruthlessly and made the product affordable to everyone.

Soon applied to the manufacture of many other items, these mass production techniques significantly increased the standard of living of the average American family.

By the mid 1920’s automobile ranked first in value of product among American industries. The automobile industry was the lifeblood of the steel industry, and the biggest consumer of many other industrial products including glass, rubber and paints. The motor car was responsible for construction of streets and highways, a suburban real estate and the rise of many small businesses, such as service stations and tourist accommodations. With the new mobility of the population, business locations and residential patterns became more decentralized, and the Sunday drive to the country and the annual automobile vacation to distant national parks became commonplace.

By the end of the 1920’s the automobile had triumphed in the United States.