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International Media Interoperability Framework. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections.
Visit the IIIF page to learn more. View manifest View in Mirador. The collection documents the great diversity of the early industry. It includes electric-, steam-, and gasoline-powered vehicles and runs the gamut from unique one-offs like the Duryea to mass-produced vehicles like this Ford Model T. When Henry Ford got into the car business in the late 19th century, he was one of a slew of inventors and entrepreneurs trying to break into the business.
The Model T spawned mass "automobility," altering our living patterns, our leisure activities, our landscape, and even our atmosphere. Finally, mass automobility meant that everywhere there was crude oil in the ground, from the Permian Basin to the Persian Gulf, there was a potential for wealth and conflict.
The Model T had some advanced features, like a four-cylinder engine with a detachable cylinder head and a one-piece cylinder block. It did use lightweight, high-strength vanadium alloy steel.
But one key to its early success was a simple thing like ample ground clearance, allowing it to deal with abysmal rural roads. The real key to the Model T's importance lies in Henry Ford's oft-quoted desire to "… build a car for the great multitude By the time the last Model T was produced on May 26, , it was obsolescent technology, being fast superseded by more powerful, more comfortable competitors.
But nothing has equaled its impact. On April 1 tests were run, an attempt to assemble a flywheel magneto for the Model T. This was the first moving assembly line ever, utilizing conveyor belts inspired by Chicago meatpacking plants. Each aspect of assembly was transformed into moving assembly, which improved efficiency and cut manufacturing time.
In six months the time to build a Model T was reduced from nine hours and fifty-four minutes for one motor to five hours and fifty-six minutes. The factory was divided into sections, each assembling a single part of the car in an incremental building process. The Highland Park factory eventually featured of these departments in its assembly line. One tradition claims Lizzie was a generic name given to horses and was passed onto the Model T.
Later, a San Antonio car dealer complained to the factory about ill-fitting doors on the car and asked if cars could be shipped without doors but include a tool kit for purchasers to cut their own, reminiscent of a tin can opener.
Ford began to adopt anti-Semitic views and the Model T was used to spread them. Also known as the Ford International Weekly , dealers were required to sell a subscription with each Model T, helping it reach a circulation topped only by the New York Post.
Many dealers, unhappy with this arrangement, complained and tried to circumvent the policy. The final Model T went down the assembly line on May 26, By December, the Dearborn Independent folded as well. Competition arose in the mids giving consumers about 10 times more choices of touring car models than a decade earlier. The Model T tried to compete, but sales dropped and it became considered old fashioned and was the frequent butt of popular jokes.
After much hesitation by Ford, it was announced in that Model Ts would no longer be manufactured. The new Ford called Model A debuted in December after having to scrap 40 thousand tools that could only be used to build Model Ts.
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