Industrial Revolution

Henry Ford andThe Model “T” Car

Impact of Technology

• From: http://www.teachersdomain.org • From: http://www.teachersdomain.org

http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/phy03/sci/engin/design/techcars/index.html

Industrial Revolution Inventors

Person Invention DateJames Watt First reliable Steam Engine 1775Eli Whitney Cotton Gin, Interchangeable Parts for Muskets 1793, 1798Robert Fulton Regular Steamboat Service on the Hudson River 1807Samuel F. B. Morse Telegraph 1836Elias Howe Sewing Machine 1844Isaac Singer Improves and Markets Howe's Sewing Machine 1851Cyrus Field Transatlantic Cable 1866Alexander Graham Bell Telephone 1876Thomas Edison Phonograph, Incandescent Light Bulb 1877, 1879Nikola Tesla Induction Electric Motor 1888Rudolf Diesel Diesel Engine 1892Orville and Wilbur Wright First Airplane 1903

Henry Ford Model T Ford, Assembly Line 1908, 1913

Industrial Revolution

Manufacturing Concepts: Interchangeable Parts Assembly Line Industrialization

The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain in the 1700s, brought about huge changes in manufacturing.

Interchangeable Parts• Eli Whitney developed a process for manufacturing

muskets (early rifles), which involved producing parts to precise standards. In theory, all parts of the same type are virtually identical to one another – so one part could be used in any musket and still function properly.

• Henry Ford utilized this concept to manufacture cars faster resulting in the lowest cost car of the time.

• Today, standardization is universal in manufacturing. Precision measuring systems – specifications and tolerances – are enforced to ensure parts are produced to meet standards.

Manufacturing Concepts: Interchangeable Parts Assembly Line Industrialization

Assembly Line

The Assembly Line allows each worker to complete a specific task. As a task is completed the partially assembled automobile is moved down the line to the next worker, who performed another task.

Assigning workers specialized tasks and moving the evolving product from worker to worker was a very efficient system. Assembly lines are widely used today, not only for automobiles but also for many types of products.

First assembly lines had no conveyers.

Manufacturing Concepts: Interchangeable Parts Assembly Line Industrialization

Division of Labor in Industry

Assembly lines double the output.

Industrialization• Powered machines began to replace manual

human labor for many tasks. James Watt’s steam engine provided the power to energize the machines. Later, the development of electrical power generation provided a superior energy source for industrial machines.

• Henry Ford used steam and electrical power to move parts and cars down the assembly line.

Manufacturing Concepts: Interchangeable Parts Assembly Line Industrialization

Henry Ford1863-1947

• In 1893, the automobile was still a novelty item of the rich or do-it-yourself engineers.

• In 1899 cars were built one at a time. • Ford incorporated ideas from other industries:

Interchangeable parts as Eli Whitney had used with gun manufacturing and Assembly line methods George Eastman introduced in photo processing .

• Ford met resistance to his ideas for mass production of a car the average worker could afford.

• In 1908, he began production of the Model T.• Ford gradually improved the production line until in 1913, his plant

incorporated the first moving assembly line.• Before Ford stopped making the Model T in 1927, 15 million had been sold,

and Ford had become the leading auto manufacturer in the country. • In addition to the moving assembly line, Ford revolutionized the auto

industry by increasing the pay and decreasing the hours of his employees.

Henry Ford did not invent the automobile. He revolutionized the production of the automobile.

Model “T” FordsEarly Models – the Brass Cars1908 – 1916Various Colors until 1913

Model “T” FordsLater Models – “Any Color You Want, As Long As It Is Black”1917-1927

Display Car• 1925 Model “T” – Tudor (two door)

Car is 82 years old 20 Horsepower 4 cylinder engine Original Purchase Price - $580 Prices of Other Models:

• Touring - $290• Runabout - $260• Fordor (four door) - $660

Only 3 owners since 1925• Original Owner in Illinois and loaned to a museum• Purchased by man in Kentucky - 2002• I purchased in 2007

Model T Ford• 1907 Ford Motor Company Goal: to create "a motor car for everyone."

At that time, automobiles were expensive, custom-made machines.• The Model T, a simple, sturdy car, offering no factory options -- not even a choice of

color. • The Model T, first produced in 1908, kept the same design until the last one --

number 15,000,000 -- rolled off the line in 1927. • From the start, the Model T was less expensive than most other cars, • Ford realized he'd need a more efficient way to produce the car in order to lower the

price. He and his team looked at other industries and found four principles that would further their goal: interchangeable parts, continuous flow, division of labor, and reducing wasted effort.

Interchangeable parts meant making the individual pieces of the car the same every time. To improve the flow of the work, it needed to be arranged so that as one task was finished,

another began, with minimum time spent in set-up. Divided the labor by breaking the assembly of the Model T into 84 distinct steps. Each

worker was trained to do just one of these steps along the assembly line. Time and motion studies were used to determine the exact speed at which the work should

be preformed• In 1913, Ford built the first moving assembly line ever used for large-scale

manufacturing. • Producing cars at a high rate resulted in lower costs and therefore a lower sale price.• Ford's manufacturing principles were adopted by countless other industries. Henry

Ford went beyond his 1907 goal of making cars affordable for all; he changed the habits of a nation and shaped its very character.

Henry Ford Interesting Facts• In 1914 Henry Ford doubled the wages of factory workers from $2.50 to $5.00 per 8 hour

work day. • Early in 1941 Ford was granted government contracts. Initially he was to manufacture

parts for bombers and later the entire airplane. By the end of World War II (1945) his plant had manufactured more than 8000 planes.

• Ford died in 1947 leaving a personal fortune estimated at $500 to $700 million.• Henry Ford had a long time interest in plastics developed from soybeans.• Almost 50 years before a single McDonald's hamburger was sold, Ford invented the dealer-

franchise system to sell and service cars. He knew that business had to be local. Ford's "road men" became a familiar part of the American landscape. By 1912 there were 7,000 Ford dealers across the country.

• Ford was instrumental in developing charcoal briquettes, under the brand name Ford Charcoal. Along with his brother in law E.G. Kingsford they used wood scraps from the Ford factory to make the briquettes, The company name was later changed to Kingsford.

• By 1921, Ford Motor Co. dominated auto production with 55 percent of the industry's total output.

• The Ford Motor Company was one of only forty-four U.S. automakers left in 1929 of the hundreds that had entered the fray since the beginning of the century. That year, Ford, General Motors, and the newly formed Chrysler Corporation -- known then and now as the Big Three -- accounted for 80 percent of the market.

• Patent # 747,909 was the number issued December 22, 1903 for motor-vehicles.