Henry Ford and his tryst with the Modern Car

From steam-powered automobiles that were not even capable of carrying two people to electric self driven cars that can go from zero to sixty in 3.2 seconds, it is clear that cars have come a very long way in a very short time (wink). But I often wonder how it all started. How we went from coaches and carriages to Lamborghinis and Teslas.

It all started in 1878 when Karl Benz designed his first engine and had it patented by 1879. Although there were many steam locomotives before this and the internal combustion engine was designed in 1807 by Nicéphore Niépce and his brother, Benz is credited as the creator of the modern automobile. In 1888, Bertha Benz took the first ever automobile road trip to showcase the roadworthiness of her husband’s invention. However, only twenty-five Benz vehicles were sold between 1888 and 1893. In 1892, Rudolf Diesel, a German engineer created and patented a “New Rational Combustion Engine” which became the diesel engine.

In the beginning of the twentieth century, cars were considered a novelty and were not mass produced. The first ever production-line manufacturing was started in 1901 by Ransom Olds at his Oldsmobile factory in Michigan, USA. Henry Ford expanded on the assembly line concept by creating the world’s first ever moving assembly line for cars in 1913 in his Highland Park Ford Plant. This method increased productivity eightfold. A new car was produced every fifteen minutes and an assembly line worker could buy a Ford Model T with four month’s salary.

Henry Ford was an engineer working with the Edison Illuminating Company. After being promoted to chief engineer in 1893, he had enough time and money to start working on his own experiments with the gasoline engine. After many failed attempts to start a company making high quality, affordable cars, Henry Ford finally succeeded in 1903 when his company with his friend Alexander Malcomson was reincorporated as the Ford Motor Company. The Ford Model T was introduced on October 1, 1908. The American model of having the steering wheel on the left was started by this car. By 1918, half of all the cars running in America were Model T’s. However, like all good things, the sales of the Model T also declined due to better and more modern cars offered by other competing companies. In 1926, the flagging sales of the model T convinced Ford to design a new model, the Model A. The Model A was launched in December 1927 and was produced till 1931. Ford also set up assembly plants in Canada and Britain in 1911 and by 1932, Ford was producing around half of the world’s cars.

We have all heard of the American Dream. It was Henry Ford who made owning a car an essential part of that dream. He took a piece of technology that was available only to the crème de la crème of society and gave it to the average middle class person. In doing so, he created a global empire that still stands today. While there were certain aspects of his life that were questionable, to say the least, like his affiliation with the Nazi’s and his anti-Semitism, he is remembered for his contribution towards making automobiles a household commodity. His is a contribution that brought us one step closer to the future of transport.