THE AUTOMOBILE

Innovative Industry

New Year's Day 1910 saw the opening of Henry Ford's Highland Park factory, where innovations in the manufacturing process would help to make the Ford Motor Company's revolutionary Model T, introduced in 1908, the car of the decade. In 1910 458,500 motor vehicles were registered in the United States, and motor vehicle manufacturing was rapidly growing into one of the nation's major industries. Ancillary industries produced innovative technologies in rubber, glass, and petroleum refining. The decade witnessed important improvements in automotive engineering, as the all-steel automobile body was introduced and the front-mounted engine that drove the rear axle by means of a turning shaft (rather than by chain as in some early cars) became the industry standard. Perhaps the most important innovation of the early 1910s was Kettering's development in 1911 of the electric starter, which meant that engines no longer had to be started by a cranking mechanism. The innovation made automobiles a much more alluring product and drove their popularity to new heights.

Steam-Powered Cars

Although they were overwhelmed by the internal combustion engine in the 1910s, steam-powered vehicles and electric cars contended for market share in the early years of the automobile industry and continued to be produced in the decade. Working on the same principles that drove locomotive trains, steam-powered cars ran more smoothly than did gas engines—dubbed by their critics "nasty explosion engines." Steam-powered engines freed the driver and passengers from irritating vibrations and difficult, often jerky, gear-changing procedures. Steam engines, however, were difficult to start since the water had to be boiled until pressure within the system reached 180 to 200 pounds per square inch. One model came with lengthy instructions for starting, beginning with "head the car into the wind." As well as being inconvenient, steam-powered cars were expensive. In 1918 the Stanley Steamer was selling for $2,750 while Ford's Model T cost less than $400. (The Stanley Company continued to sell steam-powered cars until 1927.)

Early Electric Autos

Electric cars were used during the 1910s (as they had been during the previous decade) for local trips. Because their batteries had to be recharged after relatively short distances, such vehicles were generally limited to shopping trips or for visits to nearby friends. The typical 1914 electric car was run by forty cells. Its speed was controlled by a pedal that, when released, caused the car to speed up and, when pressed, stopped the vehicle. By 1920 the difficulties associated with charging electric vehicles had not been surmounted, and electric cars fell into disuse.

The Assembly Line

Henry Ford revolutionized production of the automobile with the introduction of the assembly line in 1913. As a result of the economies of scale and the quickened, more efficient work done on the assembly line, Ford reduced the hours of work for his employees from ten to eight while increasing wages to $5 a day for some workers at a time when wages averaged $2.50 a day in the industry. So successful was Ford's assembly-line production in its division of labor, delivery of components to workers on the line, and the "planned, orderly, and continuous progression of the commodity through the shop" that assembly-line production was called "Fordism." The assembly-line came to symbolize U.S. technological and manufacturing efficiency. Increased production with lower production time and lower unit cost was hailed as a great technological achievement. Complaints from workers about the repetitious, mind-numbing labor on the rapidly moving line were drowned out by its successes. The assembly line reduced assembly time for a Model T from twelve and a half hours to two hours and forty minutes by December 1913. By 1914 the assembly line had reduced to one and a half hours the time required to assemble a car. Ropes for hauling materials along on the line were replaced with an endless chain in January 1914. By 1914 it was reported that there were 15,000 machines—among them specially designed milling machines—at work on Ford's assembly line. Even with the rise in wages and decrease in work hours, Ford was able to lower the price of his product dramatically. In 1910 a Model T sold for $850; by 1916 it cost only $345. (The purchase price of the Model T reached a low of $290 in 1927.)

Model T

In its first year of production in 1908, 1,200 Model T cars were sold. In 1910 Ford produced 32,053 Model T's, but after the introduction of the assembly line production soared, and 734,811 cars were produced in 1916—at which time Ford controlled about half of the U.S. market. Mass production of the low-cost cars did lead to some constraints. Henry Ford remarked that the consumer could have any color of car "so long as it was black." Model T owners joked about their cars' lack of aesthetic qualities but often bragged about their efficiency. In all, 15,458,781 Model T's were produced between 1908 and 1927.

An Age of Motor Vehicles

During the 1910s the United States was becoming a nation of automobiles. Four-cylinder cars were the norm, but some six-cylinder engines were introduced, and beginning in 1914 the V-8 was put into production by Cadillac. The V-12 became popular from 1915 to 1923. Although Ford was by far the most successful producer of cars, he was facing increasing numbers of competitors. In 1916, when Ford produced nearly 735,000 cars, the Willys-Overland company produced 140,000, Buick 124,834, and Dodge 71,400. There were also scores of smaller automobile manufacturers. Scientific American reported in its 18 April 1914 issue that motorized taxicabs in New York City covered 819,000 miles annually—roughly twice the distance to the moon and back. By 1916 there were over three million autos in the United States.

THE MILLIONTH PATENT

In a quiet ceremony in Washington, D.C., the one millionth patent was awarded by the U.S. Patent Office on Tuesday, 8 August 1911. Frank Halton of Cleveland received the patent for an improved automobile tire. As William Taft noted in the August issue of Scientific American, "It was fitting that this patent, in itself a monument to progress, should have been awarded to an improvement on the automobile, for there is probably no single recent invention which has done so much to mark American progress or to show the world the prosperity of the United States." Patents had been granted since the beginning of the Republic, but few were granted in the early years. In 1790, for example, only three patents were issued—and all were signed by President George Washington. Before the system for granting patents was overhauled in the mid 1830s, 9,902 patents had been issued; these, however, were not consecutively numbered. In July 1836 the patenting process was overhauled; a commissioner of patents was appointed; and the new U.S. Patent Office granted the first numbered patent. Patent No. 1 was awarded to John Ruggles on 13 July 1836 for a locomotive engine. As Scientific American noted, "It is rather a strange coincidence that Patent No. 1 and Patent No. 1,000,000 should both have been awarded to improvements in the foremost mode of locomotion for their times and that these inventions mark the progress of two machines which represent the highest form of power transference then known."

Trucking

Most deliveries in the 1910s were still made by horse-drawn vehicles, but trucks were beginning to displace horses. In 1915 August Fruehauf, a blacksmith from Detroit, invented the tractor trailer, a truck with its cab and engine separate from the main cargo body. With the outbreak of World War I trucks were needed to fill gaps in transportation that neither horse nor railroad could perform. During the war "Ship By Truck" became a marketing slogan, and three hundred thousand trucks were made in 1917.

Good Roads

For the motor vehicle industry to live up to its potential, reliable roads were needed. In 1912 a Good Roads Convention was held in the nation's capital. Delegates importuned for federal financing of new interstate road systems. In 1913 Carl G. Fisher of Indianapolis led a movement to build a hard-surface transcontinental highway. In an effort to rouse support for the idea he proposed the patriotic name "Lincoln Highway." Congress appointed a Committee on Roads in 1913 and after studying the question brought about the Federal Aid Act of 1916. President Wilson was committed to vetoing the act, for in his view the Constitution left such "internal improvements" to the individual states rather than to the federal government. However, on the day Wilson was going to deliver his veto, a German submarine appeared in the harbor at Baltimore, having eluded the Allied navies. The presence of the submarine on the eastern seaboard, while no immediate military threat, was disconcerting and led Wilson to reconsider his position. He then signed the legislation, arguing that improved roads were a matter of national defense.

Sources:

Henry Ford, with Samuel Crowther, My Life and Work (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1923);

Robert Lacey, Ford: The Men and the Machine (Boston: Little, Brown, 1986);

Stephen Meyer III, The Five Dollar Day: Labor Management and Social Control in the Ford Motor Company, 1908-1921 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981).

THE AUTOMOBILE

The Invention of the Automobile

Although some steam-driven vehicles were built in England, France, and the United States in the early nineteenth century, the prototypes of the modern motorcar were built by the Germans Gottleib Daimler and Karl Benz. Daimler first used his gasoline engine in a four-wheeled vehicle in 1886. The two men licensed their vehicles for production in France during the 1890s.

Ford

Born on a farm in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1863, Henry Ford saw his first horseless carriage (a steam-driven one) at the age of twelve and never forgot the tremendous impression it made on him. His earliest automotive projects were aimed more at developing a practical tractor than a pleasure vehicle. Ford established himself in Detroit in 1891, where he was employed by the Edison Illuminating Company, and soon began to tinker with automobile engines. Ford did not invent the motorcar, nor was he the first American to build one, but he was instrumental in the development of the private automobile. Early American models were behemoths, carriages designed for the wealthy. From the beginning Ford had a different idea: to produce a practical, sturdy vehicle within reach of the common man. He built his first car, the Quadricycle, in 1896.

The First Model A

Ford's work to engineer a more efficient motor led in 1902 to an engine with two cylinders set vertically instead of horizontally; this increased its power and reduced wear. The first engine to be produced by the Ford Motor Company was designed and assembled by Ford and his staff, but its parts were manufactured by the machine shop of John and Horace Dodge. The Model A's wooden body was purchased from a carriage company. By early 1904 the company was making twenty-five cars daily. (This first Model A should not be confused with the second, more famous one of 1927.)

The Model N

In the early days of the automobile, innovations were tried out in car races, with each successive sive race producing faster times. At such a race in 1905, Ford noticed that French cars were lighter and stronger than American entries, including his own Model K, a powered-up six-cylinder racing machine. The French used an alloy of vanadium and steel, unknown in the United States, and difficult to produce because it required very high furnace temperatures. Ford convinced a steel company in Ohio to experiment with and later to manufacture vanadium steel exclusively for his company. The new steel was introduced with Ford's Model N in January 1906. Meanwhile, he had established the Ford Manufacturing Company to make his own engines and chassis. The Model N was envisioned as a mass-production vehicle, but without a movable assembly line (not introduced until 1913), assembly entailed an unavoidable bottleneck. So many workers were required that it was impossible to hold the price to the announced figure of $450.

The Model T

The four cylinders for the Model N's engine were cast separately and then bolted together. For the Model T, Ford wanted all four cast together in a single block and so devised what is still the basic design of the internal combustion engine. A magneto vastly simplified the electrical system, and Ford and his top engineer, Charles Sorensen, developed a new transmission with three pedals, one for forward motion, one for back, one as a brake. The Model T was a huge success, nicknamed the "Tin Lizzie" by loyal consumers. The company sold ten thousand in the first year (ending 30 September 1909). By the end of World War I half the automobiles in the world were Model Ts.

The Competition

Ford's most serious early competitors were the Duryea brothers, who built the first workable American automobile in 1893, and Ransom Eli Olds, whose first "Merry Oldsmobile"—a four-passenger two-seater—went on the market in 1896. In 1899 he established his own plant in Detroit, the Olds Motor Works. There he turned out the first mass-produced motor vehicle in the United States, the "curved dash" Oldsmobile runabout. Not all early automobile manufacturers put their faith in gasoline engines. Starting in 1897, the Stanley brothers of Newton, Massachusetts, manufactured a steam-driven car, the famous Stanley Steamer. All told, between 1900 and 1908, 502 automo-bile companies were started, of which 302 had failed. By 1908 David D. Buick's company was the leading car producer. In that year William C. Durant engineered a merger of three independent companies, Buick, Olds, and Cadillac, to form the General Motors Company. The year also saw the first car manufactured by Walter Chrysler. So by the end of the decade the Big Three automobile companies—Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler—had all been established.

Popular Adoption of the Motorcar

The impact of the automobile was felt immediately in many areas of life. Horse-drawn transportation entered a period of rapid decline. Owners of urban livery stables converted their properties into parking garages and began to rent automobiles. Fewer horses meant less manure to soil the streets, so the automobile was hailed as healthier mode of transportation. The car was also viewed as more reliable than the horse, especially after 1906 when most of the problems that had caused mechanical breakdowns in early autos had been solved. Doctors, who immediately saw the advantage of the motorcar for making house calls, were proportionally the largest group of early owners. Among early specialized motor vehicles were street-cleaning vehicles (1905), post-office mail cars (1909), ambulances, and milk delivery trucks. The military use of autos lagged: not until 1909 were motor vehicles used in military maneuvers. Throughout the decade a series of improvements in car design provided continual stimulus to public interest and rising sales: the wider French-style tonneau body (1901); the steering knuckle, which enabled the front wheels to turn without turning the entire axle (1902); running boards (1903); shock absorbers and the h-slot gearshift (1904); and tire chains (1905) are some examples.

Sources:

Frank Donovan, Wheels for a Nation (New York: Crowell, 1965);

James J. Flink, America Adopts the Automobile, 1895-1910 (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1970);

Henry Ford, My Life and Work (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1922);

Robert Lacey, Ford: The Men and the Machine (Boston: Little, Brown, 1986).