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N0KFQ > TODAY 01.10.15 15:12l 48 Lines 2094 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Oct 1
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<N9PMO<NS2B<N0KFQ
Sent: 151001/1406Z 68740@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.64
1908
Ford Motor Company unveils the Model T
On October 1, 1908, the first production Model T Ford is
completed at the company's Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit.
Between 1908 and 1927, Ford would build some 15 million Model T
cars. It was the longest production run of any automobile model
in history until the Volkswagen Beetle surpassed it in 1972.
Before the Model T, cars were a luxury item: At the beginning of
1908, there were fewer than 200,000 on the road. Though the Model
T was fairly expensive at first (the cheapest one initially cost
$825, or about $18,000 in today's dollars), it was built for
ordinary people to drive every day. It had a 22-horsepower,
four-cylinder engine and was made of a new kind of heat-treated
steel, pioneered by French race car makers, that made it lighter
(it weighed just 1,200 pounds) and stronger than its predecessors
had been. It could go as fast as 40 miles per hour and could run
on gasoline or hemp-based fuel. (When oil prices dropped in the
early 20th century, making gasoline more affordable, Ford phased
out the hemp option.) "No car under $2,000 offers more," ads
crowed, "and no car over $2,000 offers more except the
trimmings."
Ford kept prices low by sticking to a single product. By building
just one model, for example, the company's engineers could
develop a system of interchangeable parts that reduced waste,
saved time and made it easy for unskilled workers to assemble the
cars. By 1914, the moving assembly line made it possible to
produce thousands of cars every week and by 1924, workers at the
River Rouge Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan could cast more than
10,000 Model T cylinder blocks in a day.
But by the 1920s, many Americans wanted more than just a sturdy,
affordable car. They wanted style (for many years, the Model T
famously came in just one color: black), speed and luxury too. As
tastes changed, the era of the Model T came to an end and the
last one rolled off the assembly line on May 26, 1927.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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