Henry Ford

Dearborn is a real interesting place and I recommend a trip to Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village as well as the Spirit of Ford if you are ever in the area (I spend my days working in Dearborn as well as being a former resident).

Ford left a number of other legacies as well as the Fordson, N Series and Model T. One of the forgotten ones was the Ford Tri Motor done with the help of his friend Wm. Stout.

Anyway, without Henry we wouldn't be hanging out here in cyberspace.

Happy Birthday.

• Ford Tri-Motor

We don't hear much about Fords airplane endeavors anymore. Maybe because one of the things you learn about Ford was that he wasn't a very pleasant guy. The original Stout Metal Aircraft Co building suffered a strike from State Farm lightning and burned to the ground, at the exact time that it was most advantageous to Ford.

Ford was actually issued a patent on a VTOL airplane powered by multiple Fordson engines. There's optimism for you . . . .

llater,

llamas

Henry had been a disaster financially. He had created, and lost, something like seven corporations up to nearly this time. No one would touch him when he'd come around for money to try it one more time.

He managed to talk the Dodge brothers out of making cars for Olds, and making them for him instead. They gambled, taking a large portion of the company (25% I think) they formed, as did other backers. Henry was not allowed to run The Ford Motor Company, instead, it was headed by John Gray.

The Model A was a success. Not a resounding one, but a success. The Model T was the ultimate successor of the Model A. I think it was originally produced at the Dodge brothers facility, and later moved, but I'm not sure of that. At this point in history the Dodge brothers parted ways, dissatisfied with Henry Ford (who had become president). They believed they could build a superior vehicle, and set up their own company, Dodge Brothers Motor Car, doing just that.

Without the Dodge brothers, with both money and a car making facility, there never would have been a Ford Motor Company or the Model T.

Let us point out here that the Model A most people now alive know, built between 1928 and 1931, was Ford's second trip thru the model letters alphabet! In '32 they did the 4 cylinder Model B, in '33 the 4 cylinder Model C, and the letters faded after that. The V-8 vehicles used number model IDs starting in 1932.

My question here- The 4 cylinder products may have retained, at least as internal nostalga, the letter series designations. Where did the N series designation come from? Ford used that little 4 banger N series tractor engine, or a variant, in some light trucks into the 40's.

A seeming paradox in his social tyrant image comes from his business genius and recognizing that products built and marketed to the masses could be fantastically successful. Hence the continual down pricing and expanding customer base of the Model T car. Also, Ford upset the industrial world with high wages and reduced hour work week.

The key to actually doing that with autos was his moving assembly line and the Highland Park assembly plant, which opened up around 1913.

He had some brilliant designs that were far ahead of their time. The "low tension" magneto, using 16 magnets mounted on the fwd side of the flywheel and a stator plate with 16 coils mounted on the back of the block is gonna see a re-birth soon.

Model T enthusiasts sometimes feed that output thru a diode and into a hidden 12 volt battery, so they can have modern accesories. Also, 12 volts fires up a Model T just great, maybe even better than it does an N tractor!

If old Henry had had high current solid state switches and controls available back then (same idea as "stepper motor" used in computer gadgets) I'm sure he'd have done that system as both a starter and very high output generator system...

Exactly that will probably be introduced by a Japanse car firm anytime now, possibly 120 volts DC. So much for crystal ball activity, have a good weekend! IHank

Porsche was hot to build the "people's car" and Ford's expertise with mass production and pioneering marketing to the low price end of a product market was part of what Germany needed.

Someday, take a look at a '37-'39 Ford passenger car, then a '50-'60 Volkswagen styling. Also, there were/are front end kits for Volkswagens that make 'em look like a 7/8 scale '37 Ford!

Lets face it, Ford was a Capitalist, first, last, and always. Please tell us more. IHank

I remember reading extensive tellings about a Porsche and Ford co-op efforts in the 1930s, to help Germany's efforts to re-build an industrial economy, long after World War I.

The big deal then was doing the "People's Car" project.

By modern measures old Henry would be judged a nut case, as to his political activities as expressed within his corporate activities.

One time in the teens he's a pacifist. Shortly after he's pumping spl production Model T Ford ambulances into World War I. The pattern of big swings can be seen easy now.

In World War II Ford did the "Will it run at Willow Run" program, for the US war effort. At the end, once they got thru a gadzillion problems, they were supposedly producing one B-24 bomber per hour! Yes, not flattering to modern acft firms.

After that the complex was sold off and some interesting automotive history stories resulted. Tucker and Kaiser-Fraiser are part of it.

Ford did all sorts of US military projects. Somebody surely can tell about their production of US Navy and Coast Guard craft.

Ford supposedly did an improved variant version of the British Rolls "Merlin" engine. Can't remember where it went, possibly the North American P-51 Mustang acft.

If Old Henry were issued a military "dog tag", it would probably read-

Name: Ford, Henry
Service #: US30071868
Blood type: Money Green
Religion: Capitalist

Yes, the old man and the company were "arm twisted" into many govt. projects. Their wisdom was that the company made at least a little money on 'em.

Adolf, Clyde Barrow, FDR, poor farmers, they were all customers...

A long telling, by somebody, needs to balance this, about his "Peace Ship" and humanitarian efforts during world conflicts and bad times.

IHank

We all need to just "get over it". "The Office" (of Inquistion) is probably responsible for my last two living European ancestors (Hugenots?) getting the hell outta France around 1820. I now thank the "Catlickers" that I'm a 4th generation American!

Read Mitchner's "The Source" for perspective on all the stupidity.

Get over it, then be thankful and proud to be an American. IHank