A hundred years ago, if you wanted a car, you got on your horse-drawn carriage and headed over to a factory. Once at the factory, you went to the sales department (which usually consisted of the founder of the company) and you paid him an incredibly large sum of money for an engine, a gear-box, some wheels and a frame. You would then take this "rolling chassis" to a coach builder, presumably by pushing it. The rolling chassis did not have any form of bodywork or seats, and was certainly too heavy for a horse to pull. The coach builder, who would be busy making horse drawn carriages would look at your expensive framework and massive engine, and then charge you an unbelievable sum of money to cover your frame with a body and some seats. You could design your own shape, and pick your own leather, and choose your favorite grain pattern for your wood panels.
Then, a man called Henry in America decided that he would sell cars with bodies made straight out of the factory. And he decided he would make a line, inside his factory, where many people would make the same cars many times. And the Ford Model T was born. Its importance simply cannot be highlighted enough. The notion that a complicated machine with thousands of parts, made of many different materials could be assembled in a continuous, pre-meditated fashion was unheard of at that time. The idea of a production line was sheer brilliance. The basic frame would enter the factory at one side on a moving crane/conveyor. There were production stages, where one worker would fit one item to every single chassis that passed that stage. The same applied for the entire engine, the gear - transaxle, the steering system, the entire body, the seats, and all the fittings and switches on the car.
Having thought of all this, Henry Ford apparently forgot that his potential buyers may have wanted to paint their cars in a colour of their choice. So he made every single car black after a while. This was a radically different from what was common practice everywhere else in the world. For instance if you went out and bought a Rolls Royce at the same time, literally everything about the body and the interiors was decided according to your whims and fancies. Ford didn't give you a single choice. You just went to a dealer and bought a Model T. There were some body style options, a Tourer, a Van, and so on. But no actual customisable options.
Ford sold 15 million units of the Model T. 15 million! And while I am not entirely sure, but the Model T could very well have been the first ever mass-produced motorized transport ever. Trains and boats and ships at the time were very much hand built at the time.
Interesting Trivia: While Henry Ford's famous line "any colour as long as it was black" referred to this car, it wasn't the case for the first six years of production. Initially the Model T was available in Grey, Red, Green and Blue. Plenty colourful for the '20s surely.
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| A Rolls Royce rolling chassis Picture courtesy www.cofrase.com |
Then, a man called Henry in America decided that he would sell cars with bodies made straight out of the factory. And he decided he would make a line, inside his factory, where many people would make the same cars many times. And the Ford Model T was born. Its importance simply cannot be highlighted enough. The notion that a complicated machine with thousands of parts, made of many different materials could be assembled in a continuous, pre-meditated fashion was unheard of at that time. The idea of a production line was sheer brilliance. The basic frame would enter the factory at one side on a moving crane/conveyor. There were production stages, where one worker would fit one item to every single chassis that passed that stage. The same applied for the entire engine, the gear - transaxle, the steering system, the entire body, the seats, and all the fittings and switches on the car.
Having thought of all this, Henry Ford apparently forgot that his potential buyers may have wanted to paint their cars in a colour of their choice. So he made every single car black after a while. This was a radically different from what was common practice everywhere else in the world. For instance if you went out and bought a Rolls Royce at the same time, literally everything about the body and the interiors was decided according to your whims and fancies. Ford didn't give you a single choice. You just went to a dealer and bought a Model T. There were some body style options, a Tourer, a Van, and so on. But no actual customisable options.
1914 Ford Model-T Tourer
Courtesy Wikipedia.org
Ford sold 15 million units of the Model T. 15 million! And while I am not entirely sure, but the Model T could very well have been the first ever mass-produced motorized transport ever. Trains and boats and ships at the time were very much hand built at the time.
Interesting Trivia: While Henry Ford's famous line "any colour as long as it was black" referred to this car, it wasn't the case for the first six years of production. Initially the Model T was available in Grey, Red, Green and Blue. Plenty colourful for the '20s surely.
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