The Versatile Ford-Model T

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=50 BGCOLOR="#DDDDDD" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#006699" FACE="Verdana" >  </FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#336699" FACE="Accent SF" >The Versatile Ford-Model T</FONT> <I> </I><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#006699" FACE="Arial" >            </FONT></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=185 BGCOLOR="#EEEEEE" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#EEEEEE" FACE="Verdana" ><B>atot</B></FONT><A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Automotive Technical Firsts"><U><B><IMG SRC="0470b0b0.png" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>   </B><A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Classic Cars News"><U><B><IMG SRC="0480b0b0.png" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>       </B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="11" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="11"><B>   </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="autocluster.com"><U><B><IMG SRC="04a0b0b0.png" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>   </B><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#EEEEEE" FACE="Verdana" ><B>or c</B></FONT><B> </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="autocluster.com"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Automotive Technical Firsts"><U><B>Automotive Technical Firsts</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Versatile FordModel T"><U><B>The Versatile Ford Model-T</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Classic Cars News"><U><B>Classic Cars News</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id44.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Introduction"><U><B>Best Engineered Car of each decade</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Car of the Century"><U><B>Car of the Century</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=430 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="539" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 197 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="09c2cba0.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="186" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="214"><div> The Ford Model T accounted for half the world's car population in the Twenties.  Because the construction was so simple, it lent itself to becoming the most adaptable car in history. Note the lack of windshield and doors in front, in this 1908 model.  </div> <bR> <div> <I>1908 Ford Model T. From the Collections of Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village. </I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 146 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="09d2c8c0.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="140" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="214"><bR> <div> <I>Street scene in America showing Ford Model Ts making up more than half the cars in the street.</I></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> The Model T was introduced on October 1, 1908, and 15,000,000 were produced through 1927 after which it was replaced by the Model A. The first Model T, made at a factory on Piquette Avenue in Detroit, MI, sold for $850. It was the first low-priced, mass produced automobile with interchangeable parts. True mass production was achieved with the Model T, and as volumes rose costs were reduced. It accounted for over half of the auto sales in the U.S. Before the end of its production run, a Model T without extras sold for $260. Early models came in a variety of colors but later black became the norm because black enamel dried faster and thus decreased production time. </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="533" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 164 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="09e2c9e0.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="158" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="203"><div> <I> </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>A farmer could reasonably afford a set of tractor wheels to fit a Model T. If he needed to use his car in the fields, he could mount the tractor wheels and hitch up his plow.  </I></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Model T's were used to generate electricity, pump water, grind feed, shear sheep, shred corn, churn butter and grind sausage. The car made an excellent power plant. If you jacked up the rear wheel and removed the tyre, you could attach a belt from the wheel to your buzz saw to cut wood. </div> <bR> <div> The Model T was the first snowmobile in the 20's. A special undercarriage was developed, the front wheels were moved to the rear, and each double set of wheels was fitted with steel caterpillar treads. After steel sled runners were attached to the front axle, the snowmobile was ready for the farmers and woodsmen in the deep northern snows. </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="485" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 207 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="09f825a0.jpg" border=0 width="130" height="90" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I>Model T mobile chapel</I></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I>Righ</I>t<I> Model T grocer's van</I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="0a02cc90.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="201" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 183 WIDTH="179"><bR> <bR> <div> <I>Model T delivery car advertising Edison's phonograph</I></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="295"><div> <IMG SRC="0a2b4b10.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="177" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div>  </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="532" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 WIDTH="241"><div> <I>Model T with baggage</I></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <I>Model T - Surrey without the fringe on top</I></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 155 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="0a4b48b0.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="139" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="280"><div> <I><IMG SRC="0a5aa950.jpg" border=0 width="170" height="149" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 189 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="0a6c8a00.jpg" border=0 width="200" height="160" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="0a80eb70.jpg" border=0 width="270" height="183" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <I>World War 1 Model T ambulance</I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <I>Mining prospectors in South Africa</I></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> In an article <I>Farewell  My Lovely!</I> published in <I>The New Yorker</I> in 1936 the American humourist E.B. White said: "The last Model T ...is fading from what scholars call the  American scene - which is an understatement, because to a few million people who grew up with it, the old Ford <I>was</I> the American scene...</div> <div> .</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="529" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 182 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="0aa2cb00.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="176" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><bR> <bR> <div> <I>Part of the American scene;</I></div> <div> <I>family outing in a 1910 Model T</I></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Mechanically uncanny, it was like nothing that had ever come to the world before. Flourishing industries rose and fell with it...</div> <bR> <div> The driver of the old Model T was a man enthroned. The car, with top up, stood seven feet high. The driver sat on top of the gas tank, brooding it with his own body. When he wanted gasoline, he alighted, together with everything else in the front seat; the seat was pulled off, the metal cap unscrewed, and a wooden stick thrust down to sound the liquid in the well. </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="539" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 105 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="09882630.jpg" border=0 width="130" height="99" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="381"><bR> <div> ...Directly in front of the driver was the windshield - high, uncompromisingly erect. Nobody talked about air resistance, and the four cylinders pushed the car through the atmosphere with a supreme disregard of physical law.</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> There was this about a Model T ; the purchaser never regarded his purchase as a complete finished product. When you bought a Ford, you figured you had a start - a vibrant, spirited framework to which could be screwed an almost limitless assortment of decorative and functional hardware. Driving away from the agency, hugging the new wheel between your knees, you were already full of creative worry. </div> <bR> <div> A Ford was born naked as a baby, and a flourishing industry grew up out of correcting its rare deficiencies and combating its fascinating diseases. Those were the great days of lily painting. I have been looking at some old Sears Roebuck catalogues, and they bring everything back so clear.</div> <bR> <div> First you bought a Ruby Safety Reflector for the rear, so that your posterior would glow in another car's brilliance. Then you invested thirty-nine cents in some radiator Moto-wings, a popular ornament which gave the Pegasus touch to the machine and did something god-like to the owner. For nine cents you bought a fan-belt guide to keep the belt from slipping off the pulley. </div> <bR> <div> You bought a radiator compound to stop leaks. This was as much part of everybody's equipment as aspirin tablets are of a medicine cabinet.  You bought special oil to stop chattering, a clamp-on dash light, a patching outfit, a toolbox which you bolted on the running board, a sun visor, a steering column brace to keep the column rigid, and a set of emergency containers of gas, oil and water - three disk-like cans which reposed in a case on the running board during long journeys - red for gas, gray for water, green for oil. It was only a beginning. </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="538" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 132 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="0abaa740.jpg" border=0 width="170" height="116" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="350"><div> After the car was a year old steps were taken to stop the alarming disintegration. A set of anti-rattlers (ninety eight cents) was a popular panacea. You hooked them on to the gas and spark rods, to the brake pull rod, and to the steering rod connections. Hood silencers, of black rubber, were applied to the fluttering hood. Shock-absorbers and 'snubbers' gave 'complete relaxation'</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> . .....Persons of a suspicious or pugnacious turn of mind bought a rearview mirror; but most Model T owners weren't worried by what was coming from behind because they would soon enough see it out in front. They rode in a cheerful state of catalepsy. Quite a large mutinous clique among Ford owners went over to a foot accelerator ( you could buy one and screw it to the floorboard), but there was a certain madness in these people, because the Model T, just as she stood, had a choice of three foot-pedals to push, and there were plenty of moments when both feet were occupied in the routine performance of duty and when the only way to speed up the engine was with the hand throttle.</div> <bR> <div> Gadget bred gadget. Owners not only bought ready-made gadgets, they invented gadgets to meet special needs. I myself drove my car directly from the agency to the blacksmith's, and had the smith affix two enormous iron brackets to the port running board to support an army trunk.</div> <bR> <div> People who owned closed models builded along different lines; they bought ball grip handles for opening doors, window anti-rattlers, and the deluxe flower vases of the cut-glass anti-splash type. People with delicate sensibilities garnished their car with a device called the Donna Lee Automobile Disseminator - a porous vase guaranteed, according to Sears, to fill the car with 'a faint clean odor of lavender'. The gap between open cars and closed cars was not as great then as it is now; for $11.95, Sears Roebuck converted your touring car into a sedan and you went forth renewed. </div> <bR> <div> One agreeable quality of the old Fords was that they had no bumpers, and their fenders softened and wilted with the years and permitted the driver to squeeze in and out of tight places.Tires were 30x 3 ½, cost about $12, and punctured readily. Everybody carried a Jiffy patching set, with a nutmeg grater to roughen the tube before the goo was spread on. Everybody was capable of putting on a patch, expected to have to, and did have to.</div> <bR> <div>  During my association with Model T's, self-starters were not a prevalent accessory. They were expensive and under suspicion. Your car came equipped with a serviceable crank, and the first thing you learned was how to Get Results. It was a special trick, and until you learned it (usually from another Ford owner, but sometimes by a period of appalling experimentation) you might as well have been winding up an awning. The trick was to leave the ignition switch off, proceed to the animal's head, pull the choke (which was a little wire protruding through the radiator) and give the crank two or three nonchalant upward lifts. Then, whistling as though thinking about something else, you would saunter back to the driver's cabin turn the ignition on, return to the crank, and this time catching it on the down stroke, give it a quick spin with plenty of That. If this procedure was followed, the engine almost always responded - first with a series of scattered explosions, then with tumultuous gunfire, which you checked by racing round to the driver's seat and retarding the throttle. Often, if the emergency brake hadn't been pulled all the way back, the car advanced on you the instant the first explosion occurred and you would hold it back by leaning your weight against it. I can still feel my old Ford nuzzling me at the curb, as though looking for an apple in my pocket..............</div> <bR> <div> The lore and legend that governed the Ford were endless. Owners had their own theories about everything; they discussed mutual problems in that wise, infinitely resourceful way old women discuss rheumatism. Dropping a camphor ball into the gas tank was a popular expedient; it seemed to have a tonic effect both on man and machine. Exact knowledge was pretty scarce, and often proved less effective than superstition. There wasn't much to base expert knowledge on. </div> <bR> <div> The Ford driver flew blind. He didn't know the temperature of his engine, the speed of his car, the amount of his fuel, or the pressure of his oil (the old Ford lubricated itself by what was amiably described as the 'splash system' ). A speedometer cost money and was an extra like a windshield- wiper. The dashboard of the early models was bare save for an ignition key; later models, grown effete, boasted an ammeter which pulsated alarmingly with the throbbing of the car. Under the dash was a box of coils with vibrators which you adjusted, or thought you adjusted. Whatever the driver learned of his motor he learned not through instruments but through sudden developments.</div> <bR> <div>  I remember the timer was one of the vital organs about which there was ample doctrine. When everything else had been checked you looked at the timer. It was an extravagantly odd little device, simple in construction, mysterious in function. It contained a roller, held by a spring, and there were four contact points on the inside of the case against which, many people believed, the roller rolled. I have had a timer apart on a sick Ford many times. But I never really knew what I was up to - I was just showing off before God. There were almost as many schools of thought as there were timers. Some people, when things went wrong, just clenched their teeth and gave the timer a smart crack with a wrench. Other people opened it up and blew on it. There was a school that held that the timer needed large amounts of oil; they fixed it by frequent baptism. And there was a school that was positive it was meant to run dry as a bone; these people were continually taking it off and wiping it. I remember once spitting into a timer; not in anger, but in a spirit of research. You see the Model T driver moved in the realm of metaphysics. He believed his car could be hexed.......</div> <bR> <div> A Ford owner had Number One bearing constantly in mind. This bearing, being at the front end of the motor, was the one that always burned out, because the oil did not reach it when the car was climbing hills. (That's what I was always told anyway.) The oil used to recede and leave Number One dry as a clam flat; you had to watch that bearing like a hawk. It was like a weak heart - you could hear it start knocking, and that was when you stopped to let her cool off. Try as you would to keep the oil supply right, in the end Number One always went out. "Number One Bearing went out on me and I had to have her replaced" you would say, wisely; and your companions always had a lot to tell about how to protect and pamper Number One to keep her alive......</div> <bR> <div> Springtime in the heyday of the Model T was a delirious season. Owning a car was still a major excitement, roads were still wonderful and bad. ......The days were golden, the nights were dim and strange. I still recall with trembling those loud, nocturnal crises when you drew up to a signpost and raced the engine so the lights would be bright enough to read destinations by. I have never been really planetary since. I suppose it's time to say goodbye. Farewell my lovely!</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I>E.B.White (1899-1985), The New Yorker (1936)</I></div> <bR> <div> <I> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script>  </I></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>