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THE MODEL T

Motor Car for the Multitude

As the Model T was unveiled to the public in October 1908, Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, remarked of his "Tin Lizzie" that it came "in any color you choose, so long as it's black." He also called the automobile "a motor car for the great multitude." The latter statement was an appropriate tribute to the Model T, for mass production lowered its price and made it the first automobile average Americans could afford. The Model T car was not revolutionary, but the process of mass production revolutionized the automobile industry. As a result American life and culture would be transformed as the car became an everyday necessity in a mobile society.

Precursor to the Model T

The Model N cars manufactured in 1906-1907 were the precursor to the Model T and introduced the interchangeable-parts system for large-scale production. The system was implemented under the direction of Walter E. Flanders, a former machine tool salesman and mechanic whom Henry Ford hired as a production manager in 1906. The concept of the static, or stationary, assembly line, where workers moved from car to car as they built them, was also used at this time. With improved production equipment, designs, and manufacturing methods, Ford was the first auto manufacturer that could fill hundreds of orders a day, a contribution recognized when the Cycle and automobile Trade Journal proclaimed the Model N "the most important mechanical traction event of 1906." Sales on the Model N skyrocketed, and the more expensive models, Models K, C, and F, were selling poorly in comparison. Ford realized that progress and profit were in mass production of inexpensive, dependable, and easy-to-drive cars, and the route to that goal was constant simplification, standardization, and efficiency through experimentation and innovation. The result was the Model T.

Features of the Model T

The Model T advertising flyers sent to dealers in March 1908 captured the attention of the public with the slogan "No car under $2,000 offers more, and no car over $2,000 offers more except in trimmings." The Model T had a stout, utilitarian look despite its high roofline. It sported a four-cylinder twenty-horsepower engine, magneto ignition, refined planetary transmission, and tank capacities often gallons for the touring sedan and sixteen gallons for the run-about. The Model T was also lighter than other models, had well-placed headlights, good suspension, and a completely enclosed power plant and transmission. By 1909, after using red, gray, and black as colors, the Model T was painted green with black trimming and red striping.

New Production Techniques

The revolution, however, was in the process of making Model T. Using the principles of Taylorism, or scientific management, Ford designers vastly improved the efficiency of the assembly line on the Model T by making it movable. No longer did workers have to move from car to car; rather, the car would come to them. The moving assembly line, often referred to as Fordization, became an industrial staple worldwide during the next several years and was one of the major steps in the advancement of the Industrial Revolution. The use of the assembly line made changes and improvements to the model easy to implement; indeed, there were many alterations made through the years, as the initial Model T was far from being a perfect car. The negative side of this revolutionary manufacturing process was the same as it was for scientific management in general: it displaced artisanship and created worker alienation, fatigue, and boredom.

Continuing Innovations

The Model T production rate dropped from 728 minutes when the car was introduced to 93 minutes at the production plant in Highland Park, Michigan, in 1913. As production increased and prices dropped, consumption increased and profits soared. Though some critics contended that the Model T was produced for too long, consumers bought more than fifteen million cars by the time the Model T went out of production in 1927. The production of the Model T also brought other revolutionary changes to the automobile industry. The Ford Motor Company was a forerunner of in house manufacturing, which assured the Ford Manufacturing Company of a constant supply of critical auto parts such as the chassis and engine, an especially important element in the efficiency and standardization process used on the Model T.

Creating an Empire

Ford also stirred up controversy in setting the standard for higher wages in the auto industry, paying more than double the going wage rate in order to attract and keep skilled labor. The higher wages in turn created disposable income that workers eventually spent on consumer goods, including cars, which resulted in the further growth of the company. Many social critics, however, contend that the higher wages were more than offset by the demanding, high-production work that the moving assembly line created. While the social consequences of mass production are debatable, there is no doubt that the Model T changed America. Henry Ford's ingenuity as a designer was embodied in the "Tin Lizzie," a car that helped make Ford Motor Company an enduring automobile empire.