Galaxie 14 Gazette

Henry Ford... More Than Just The Model “T”

Story and pictures by Al Saunders

Henry Ford, born July 30th, 1863, was a man of strong conviction. He had his own ideas of how things should work and work more efficiently. He strongly embraced the emerging indus-trial age while holding onto old world ideals of hard work and living a good life. He did not like drinking or smoking and was an active member of the church. He was raised on a farm but hated it and knew there must be a better way to do the work. As a young boy he saw a steam engine working in a field. It immediately fas-cinated him. He found that he loved to “tinker” with machinery. His father gave him a watch and true to form he took it apart to see how it worked and got it back together properly so it would work again. By doing so he noticed he had a knack for working on watches so as a young man he did part time watch repairs. That tinkering led him to a life long quest to get machinery to people so they can better their lives. Mr. Ford wanted farmers to have machinery to get the farm work done sooner so they could have more time with their families. He wanted city residents to have automobiles to get them out and enjoy nature. Speaking of nature, he was an avid outdoors man. The Fords would go on drives with their friend’s, Mr. Thomas Edi-son, Mr. Harvey Firestone (of Firestone tires), and Mr. John Bur-roughs—they called themselves the “Vagabonds.” They would go on vacation driving modified Model T trucks with paneling enclosures thus creating the first SUV of sorts. On board these vehicles would be all the camping gear needed. They would have assistants setting up tents for them, cooking for them, taking care of the laundry and making “roughing it” not so rough. These modi-fied trucks had electric generators and even a small refrigeration unit on them. They would drive from Dearborn or Detroit to des-tinations in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Whenever a vehicle would break down it was Mr. Henry Ford that would assume the responsibility of the repairs. I remember read-ing of an instance in some small town when one of the vehicles broke down and a local mechanic said it could not be repaired for some time because the broken part was not available in that town. Mr. Ford took off his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves and got to work. After making what he had available work he got the group to the next larger town where the needed part could be replaced. Henry Ford was no stranger to hard work. He has an inscription in a mantle in his home that reads “cut your own wood and it’ll warm you twice.” Mr. Henry Ford worked as an engineer for Thomas Edi-son in his early twenties at the Edison Illuminating Company. He eventually moved his way up to chief engineer. This work relation-ship would grow into a lifelong friendship between the two. This friendship was so strong that on Thomas Edison’s deathbed upon the request of Henry Ford, Edison’s son captured his last breath in a test tube bottle and corked the end. This very test tube bottle is on display in the grand hall at the Henry Ford Museum in Dear-born Michigan. It wasn’t long though before Ford became interested in the internal combustion engine. He ordered a kit for an engine and he would work on it in his home with his wife Clara Ford. One night in particular the Ford’s were working on getting the engine

to start in their kitchen. (I wonder how many of us could get away with this these days!) They did get the little engine to fire up and all the while this is going on baby Edsel Ford was in the next room asleep. The Ford’s were renting a place at 58 Bagley Avenue in Detroit, MI. He wanted to make a horseless carriage so in his off time from the Edison Illuminating Company he would work on his project in the shed area of the house. He made a lot of the parts himself but would also call on friends to help. He made a basic vehicle with bicycle tires, a small cushioned bench seat and hand controls. The engine was mounted under and behind the seat and it had a crank to start it. He called his vehicle the Quadracycle. This was completed in 1896. He felt good about getting it completed and was looking forward to trying it out on the streets of Detroit. Only one problem though, the width of the Quadracycle was too wide to get thru the standard door. So he took an axe or sledgehammer and “widened” the door opening by busting bricks out until he was able to fit the Quadracycle through! The Quadracycle had a handle that

Entrance/clock tower to the Henry Ford Museum

Galaxie 15 Gazette

would swing from side to side to steer it. It had two speeds, one for 10 mph and one for 20 mph and no reverse. To stop it you had to hold the clutch while applying the foot brake. It was chain driven and weighed in at 500 lbs. There was a small bell on the side and a bicycle lamp mounted to the front panel of it. Henry was pleased with the Quadracycle but kept thinking of ways to improve on it so he sold it. He used the money to build a new improved version. Years later though, the original Quadra-cycle was repurchased and is on display in the Henry Ford Mu-seum. As he began to build more cars his operation naturally grew also. There were a few models of the Ford car until the year 1909 hit. That was Henry Ford’s shinning star. The Model T! This was exactly what he wanted to produce and that is evident by the run of production. It was produced with virtually no changes year to year from 1909 to 1929! Any part from any year Model T would fit any other year Model T. Henry wanted an inexpensive car the average person could afford. While other company’s cars were priced at $1,500.00 or more, the Model T had a sticker price of $850.00 and after the advancement of the assembly line he invented for auto-motive production he was able to get the cost as low as $275.00. The assembly line saved an enormous amount of time and proved to be so efficient with the use of belts and chains, and production became so great that a Model T would roll of the assembly line every 90 seconds! As mentioned earlier, Henry Ford did not like drinking or smoking; he thought it to be nonproductive and not beneficial to the family. As young Edsel Ford was growing into a young man Henry tried to make his new home named “Fairlane” a place Edsel would not want to leave to have fun. Henry did not want his son

out with kids his age drinking and driving and hanging out in De-troit clubs. Henry had an indoor pool constructed and an indoor bowling alley to try and keep Edsel from going out. It didn’t work too well. Eventually Henry’s grand kids got more use out of these amenities than Edsel did. He had an idea of how he could make his workers fol-low the no drinking and smoking idealism—the $5.00 a day pay rate. At a time in the automotive work environment (1914-1915) the average pay was about $2.34 a day. Henry Ford wanted to not only encourage his own workers to afford the cars they were building he also wanted them to build their family life as well. If a man wanted to earn $5.00 a day he needed to be faithful to his wife, give up drinking, smoking and keep himself and home clean. Henry Ford had an office of morality that would check up on the workers to make sure they were treating their wives properly and that they committed to being a better man. The theory was that if a worker had a stable home life he would be a better worker and if he was out partying and doing unstable activities he would not be as productive and he may bring his problems from his life to the work place and corrupt a harmonious work environment. By doing this they would earn pretty much double what they were previ-ously making and what other workers in other plants were making. Needless to say, Ford had a lot of workers wanting a job. The pay was not just a straight $5.00 a day. The worker made the normal pay rate and the rest was set up as a profit sharing and the worker was strongly encouraged to put the extra profit sharing amount into a Savings and Loan set up by Mr. Ford. With this $5.00 a day program it dramatically dropped the turn over rate of workers at

The house Henry Ford was born in

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Ford and increased productivity. The turnover went from 370% in 1914 to 16% in 1915. In 1915 he distributed $8 million to 19,000 workers at the Highland Park assembly plant. If you like working an 8-hour workday instead of 9 or 10 then you have Henry Ford in part to thank. Part of the $5 a day program was shortening the workday to 8 hours. Henry Ford felt he treated his employees very well. So when unions started showing up he fought to keep them out of his factory. After a few years he had to discontinue the $5.00 a day program and instead raised the base salary a bit. By the 1920’s the automotive industry was growing and there was much more competition out there so he had to find ways to cut costs. Mr. Ford had big plans to up the production on his com-pany. It would be the Rouge Factory. This huge factory would enable him to bring in raw materials like rubber trees from his own tree farms in South America and mineral ore from northern Michigan. It was located along the Rouge River so ships would be able to stop right at the factory to unload raw material that was shipped and it also had railroads running into it so trains could carry materials brought in by rail. On location, was its own foundry to melt the materials down and forge them into the parts needed. This factory is still in production today. It is currently one of the assembly plants for the F150 pickup truck. The Rouge factory originally produced the Model T after Mr. Ford moved pro-duction from the Highland Park factory. He held onto the Model T as long as he could. While other manufacturers were building more expensive cars targeting the wealthier consumer, Henry Ford wanted everyone to be able to afford his cars. The Model A replaced the model T in 1930. It was a larger car that had more sweeping lines than the Model T. As the Ford Motor Company grew and demanded less of his time Henry Ford pursued other endeavors. He was inter-ested in the use of soybeans in all types of products. He be-friended George Washington Carver who was famous for his uses of the peanut. There is a picture of Mr. Ford sitting in a wheat field wearing a suit made from soybeans. Henry Ford is also credited for inventing the charcoal briquette. He learned of a process of making the briquettes from the wood scraps of Model T production. The Model T had a wood frame for the body. The

Al with his wife Donna in a model at the Museum and in a special edition Model T in Henry Ford’s GARAGE at his estate!!

chassis was steel of course. He built a charcoal factory and started the Ford Charcoal Company; you may know this company today as Kingsford charcoal. It was named after E.G. Kingsford who was a relative of Henry Ford. From his early years he did have some interest in farming but not actually being a farmer. He and his son Edsel produced the Fordson brand of tractors from 1917 to 1920. In 1920 Fordson was merged into the Ford Motor Company and they produced them from 1920 till 1964. In the early years Ford was the only automotive company to build and sell cars, trucks and tractors simultaneously. Henry Ford was very much opposed to war. He tried to pre-vent WWI from happening by going in with some others to char-ter a ship to go over to Europe and try and talk through the differ-ences. This endeavor was known as the Peace Ship. It failed its mission and WWI happened anyway. Earlier I spoke of the Rouge factory; it was built at about the same time of WWI. The US gov-ernment quickly commissioned Ford to build Eagle boats for them. These were submarine chasers. In July of 1918 the first Eagle boat was launched into the Rouge river slip. During the war efforts not only boats were produced at the Rouge factory—helmets, tanks, airplane engines, Model T cars, trucks, ambulances and Fordson tractors were also built there. After WWI the plant was converted to civilian use and Ford was producing just cars, trucks and tractors. Ford did not like charity; he promoted working instead. If a man came to him and asked for a handout he would not give him anything. Instead he would tell the man, “If you give me an honest attempt at work I would find you a job. It may not be the most glam-orous but you will receive an honest wage for an honest days work.” He for the most part did not care too much of a man’s past if he was willing to work hard. He had a saying that went: “It is all one to me if a man comes from Sing-sing or Harvard; we hire the man not his history.” On November 6, 1893, Edsel Bryant Ford, Henry and his wife Clara’s only child, was born. He was groomed by Henry to take over the leadership of the Ford Motor Company and did so in 1919. He was president of Ford until his death on May 26th 1943. He was married to Eleanor Ford and had 4 children: Henry Ford II (1917-1987), Benson Ford (1919-1978), Josephine Clay Ford (1923-2005), and William Clay Ford (1925- ). William Clay Ford is the owner of the Detroit Lions and father to the President of Ford

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Motor Company, William (Bill) Clay Ford Jr. Henry Ford built such a quality car that even criminals chose to drive Fords! Henry received a letter from Clyde Barrow in 1934 praising the V8 Ford. The following is what the letter said:

Mr. Henry FordDetroit, Michigan

Dear Sir: While I still have got breath in my lungs I will tell you what a dandy car you make. I have drove Fords exclusively when I could get away with one. For sustained speed and freedom from trouble Ford has got every other car skinned, and even if my busi-ness hasn’t been strictly legal it don’t hurt anything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V8.Yours truly

Clyde Champion Barrow

The misspelled words are the way he spelled them in the letter. Clyde Barrow and his female partner Bonnie Parker (Bonnie and Clyde) were the famous bank robbers from the 1930’s. This letter is on display at the Henry Ford Museum. Ford was one of the builders of the Jeep that later became the Wrangler model. Ford also produced airplanes for WWII. Hen-ry applied the same principals to producing airplanes as he did for producing cars. It is rumored that the government told him that he could not produce airplanes like cars. Before Ford, production of a B-24 Bomber could be one bomber a day. Ford built the Willow Run Hanger plant and runway and at its peak produced one B-24 every hour! The height of production produced 600 bombers per 24-hour shifts. At the time, it was the largest plant in the world at over 3,500,000 square feet. GM and other American auto manu-

facturers made several supplies for the allied effort. With the invent of flying, Henry Ford become interested in airplanes. The most famous is probably the Ford Trimotor. This non-painted silver plane had corrugated panels all along the hull and wings. The panels were constructed of a mix of metals, mostly aluminum. The corrugated panels were designed to give the plane extra strength without added weight. It had one large engine in the nose of the plane and an engine under each wing. It was de-signed for commuter flying and was in production from 1925 to about 1929. Due to the great depression Ford had to discontinue production of the Trimotor and commuter flying basically halted. Another interest of Mr. Ford was racing. From the earli-est times after building the Quadracycle he had been interested in building race cars to draw attention to his abilities as an auto maker. One of the most famous race cars he built was the 999. It is on display in the Henry Ford Museum. This was basically a frame, 4 wheels/tires, an engine, a fuel tank, a seat, and the steering was done by a crude pivoting metal bar. There was neither body panels nor any kind of windshield. Henry drove the red 999 on January 12, 1904, to a speed of 91.37 mph. That was a new land speed re-cord that would only stand for one month but it was long enough to bring publicity to the Ford Motor Company. The 999 had an inline, 4-cylinder 1155.3 cubic-inch engine and was named after a New York Central Railway train that set records back in 1893. Henry Ford was an amazing visionary with a tremendous work ethic and was one of America’s greatest industrialists. He lived a long and very interesting life. On the night of April 7th, 1947, during an incredible storm which caused the flooding of the Rouge River, therefore resulting in the failure of all 3-power sources at his estate, Henry died in his bed the same way he came into the world, by candlelight. He was 83.

The Estate Of Henry Ford