{"id":10925,"date":"2019-02-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studebaker.priemerhosting.com\/fords-model-t-mass-automobility\/"},"modified":"2019-02-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T00:00:00","slug":"fords-model-t-mass-automobility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studebakermuseum.org\/fords-model-t-mass-automobility\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford&#8217;s Model T: Mass Automobility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Model T ranks with the airplane, radio, television, and the digital computer as one of the key inventions that helped shape the twentieth century.\u00a0 Historian David Hounshell called the Ford Model T \u201cthe only revolutionary automobile of the twentieth century,\u201d because what it did could be done only once. \u201cIts design and mass production made people want an automobile.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ford engineers never set out to change the world. \u00a0They just designed a car to meet the needs of American farmers: light, rugged, simple to operate and repair, and able to successfully navigate the abysmal roads typical of early 1900s America. \u00a0By the time the Model T reached the end of its production run in 1927 it was being assembled in nineteen countries and sold in many more.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5907 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.studebakermuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Ford-ModelT-1-Web-Version-300x214.jpg\" alt=\"Ford Model T\" srcset=\"https:\/\/studebakermuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Ford-ModelT-1-Web-Version-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/studebakermuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Ford-ModelT-1-Web-Version-1024x731.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/studebakermuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Ford-ModelT-1-Web-Version-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/studebakermuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Ford-ModelT-1-Web-Version-1536x1097.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/studebakermuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Ford-ModelT-1-Web-Version-2048x1463.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>The Model T cannot be separated from its method of manufacture. Henry Ford\u2019s relentless search for ever more production at ever lower cost led to the development of mass production: standardized products assembled from interchangeable parts, by workers doing repetitive tasks while the work flows by in an endless stream. \u00a0To get his workers to stay and do this often boring but nevertheless demanding work, Ford eventually had to pay very high wages. In 1914 he began offering his workers $5 per day, double the prevailing wage.\u00a0 As his methods spread to other automakers, the auto industry became the major driving force in the United States\u2019 economy.<\/p>\n<p>Industries around the world adopted, adapted, and often improved upon the methods pioneered by Ford. \u00a0Mass production and mass consumption became two of the characteristics of life in twentieth century industrialized nations.<\/p>\n<p>American mass production industries were essential to winning World War II. None of the other belligerents could match the United States\u2019 ability to turn out guns, helmets, tanks, ammunition, and combat boots.<\/p>\n<p>The Model T\u2019s most visible legacy was mass automobility. \u00a0The Ford\u2019s low price put auto ownership within the reach of the middle class and planted the desire for auto ownership in the mind of nearly everyone. \u00a0It spawned the improvement of America\u2019s awful roads, culminating in the vast interstate highway system. \u00a0Cities were reshaped to adapt to the needs of drivers, and automobility facilitated the growth of sprawling new suburbs, with their attendant schools, retail stores, and industries. \u00a0Along the way we not only changed the way we live, but also the way we die, as auto accidents became a major new cause of death and injury. The automobile elevated the significance of petroleum-rich states like Oklahoma and Texas, and made petroleum-rich countries like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iran both wealthy and strategically important on the world stage.<\/p>\n<p>Small wonder then, that decades after the last Model T was built, one observer would call Ford\u2019s Model T factory in Highland Park, Michigan, \u201cthe place where the mainspring of the twentieth century was wound.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Author<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Bob Casey is a graduate mechanical\u00a0engineer who spent 12 years working for Bethlehem Steel.\u00a0 He worked as a historian\u00a0and curator at the Institute of Electrical\u00a0and Electronics Engineers History Center, Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark, the Detroit Historical Museum, and Henry Ford Museum. He retired from the Henry Ford Museum in 2012 after 21 years as the John and Horace Dodge\u00a0Curator of Transportation.\u00a0 He wrote\u00a0<\/em>The Model T: A centennial History (2008)\u00a0<em>and coauthored\u00a0<\/em> Driving America: The Henry Ford&#8217;s Automotive Collection (2013)<em>.\u00a0 He currently serves as the Secretary of the Society of Automotive Historians.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Series<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>This series of essays explores the vehicles that made up our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.studebakermuseum.org\/?exhibition=ten-cars-that-changed-the-world\">Ten Cars that Changed the World<\/a> exhibition.\u00a0 The exhibition was a partnership with the <a href=\"https:\/\/autohistory.org\/\">Society of Automotive Historians<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Image courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/visitsouthbend.com\/\">Visit South Bend<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Model T ranks with the airplane, radio, television, and the digital computer as one of the key inventions that helped shape the twentieth century.\u00a0 Historian David Hounshell called the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-exhibitions","category-ten-cars-that-changed-the-world"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - 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