Master Innovator: Henry Ford
On June 4, 1896 — 130 years ago today — Henry Ford introduced what he called a Quadricycle — an early automobile.
It didn’t have a steering wheel or rear-view mirrors or turn signals or Bluetooth so he could connect his audio system to his smartphone.
Still, his Quadricycle and its descendants would profoundly impact the lives of every American.
Ford And His Quadricycle
Heny Ford in 1888. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.
In 1891, Ford began work as an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit, Michigan. Two years later, he was promoted to chief engineer, which gave the 28-year-old Ford the means to tinker with his own ideas on his own time in his garage workshop.
Ford had been fascinated with the concept of horseless carriages since the age of 12, when he had seen a steam-powered wagon. He had decided steam was too dangerous to power such a vehicle and that batteries couldn’t hold enough charge. He decided that a small gasoline-powered engine would be the way to go.
Ford built a two-cylinder, four-horsepower engine on his kitchen table but when he was ready to place it into a vehicle, he decided instead of using a horse carriage, he’d build a vehicle from scratch in a workshop behind his home on Bagley Avenue in Detroit.
Ford started out using bicycle wheels — hence, the name he came up with for his vehicle. The engine, fueled by a three-gallon tank under the seat, used a combination of belts and chains to power the two rear wheels.
The Quadricycle had two gears but no ability to go into reverse. It had no brakes and only a rudimentary tiller for steering. In order to warn carriages and pedestrians, Ford did have the forethought to install a doorbell on his vehicle. As work progressed, Ford’s friends and colleagues would join him in his shop.
Finally, on June 4, 1896, Ford was ready to take a spin in his Quadricycle. It was 1:30 a.m., but that didn’t seem to matter to him. It was time.
The first thing Ford discovered: He had built his Quadricycle wider than the doors of his shed. Ford and his friends used an axe to take out a brick wall. With the problem solved, Ford pulled out onto Bagley Avenue and headed for the Edison Plant where he worked — with one friend up ahead on a bicycle to warn anyone they might pass along the way.
Ford hadn’t gone far when his vehicle stopped cold. He and his friends pushed the Quadricycle the rest of the way to the Edison plant where a quick examination showed a nut and a spring had fallen off. It would be a simple repair.
A month later, Ford drove his Quadricycle to his father’s farm to show off for his dad. The elder Ford was unimpressed. After Henry drove away, Ford’s father told his neighbors that Henry’s brothers, “John and William are all right. But Henry worries me. He doesn’t seem to settle down. I don’t know what’s going to become of him.”
Ford would sell his Quadricyle later that year for $200, which he spent buying materials to build his second car. After he launched Ford Motor Co. in 1903, Ford bought his Quadricyle back for $65.
The photo at the top of this page showing Ford sitting in his Quadricyle was most likely taken around that time. If you look closely, you can see, reflected in the shop window, a later version of an automobile.
Other Henry Ford Innovations
While Henry Ford didn’t invent the first automobile, he did more with his than any of his contemporaries. News flash: He didn’t invent the assembly line either. Here’s a look at five things Ford might not have originated but he found innovative ways to use that would change the world:
The Assembly Line
As Ford’s vehicles began to sell, he found himself looking for a faster and cheaper way of meeting the demand. Ford seized upon the idea of using an assembly line — a concept that had been around since the early 1800s — when one of his managers visted a slaughterhouse in Chicago and saw meat butchered, piece-by-piece as it was moved on a line. Each butcher specialized in a certain cut, which made work progress more smoothly. Ford would put his first fully functional assembly line to work in his Model T plant on Oct. 7, 1913.
The Model T
Ford Motor Co.
Ford decided he wanted the next generation of his automobiles, produced with his new assembly line process he was developing, to be affordable for middle-class families to buy and to maintain with interchangable parts. The Model T had its steering wheel on the left side of the cockpit and a system of clutch, brake and accelerator controls on the floor — which other auto manufacturers would emulate. The first Model T rolled out of Ford’s Detroit factory on Sept. 27, 1908. Ford would go on to sell more than 15 million of them over the next 19 years.
Mass Production
Ford Motor Co.
The assembly line concept worked perfectly. By bringing in time-and-motion specialists, Ford’s managers refined the process, dividing the construction of a Model T into 45 steps. They began building cars in just 93 minutes — more quickly than the paint could dry. Ford’s managers learned that a certain lacquer called Japan Black would dry fasters, so that became the only color in which a customer could buy a Model T. Ford then passed along the savings of his processes to his customers: The price of a Model T had started out at $825 in 1908 but dropped to just $575 four years later.
Fair Wages
Henry Ford Museum
At some point, Ford realized he was spending a lot of money hiring new workers. Over time, Ford developed what he called the theory of “welfare capitalism,” in which factories not only produce goods and enrich the company, but they also improve the quality of life for the rank-and-file employees. He more than doubled the pay of laborers to $5 an hour, shortened the work week to 40 hours and introduced the concept of profit sharing. Productivity shot up, turnover dropped and suddenly, Ford’s factory employees could afford to buy Fords to drive. That’s the quintessential win-win.
The Trimotor
NASA
Ford noted the explosion in air travel during the Great War and jumped into the airplane and airplane engine manufacturing business, at first backing airplane designer William Bushnell Stout and then buying his company. He funded Stout’s idea for a tri-motor plane that could carry up to 12 passengers — which helped the Ford 4AT Trimotor become the first successful U.S.-made passenger airliner — famously used by Pan American Airways but also used by presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. Ford would shut down his airplane division during the Great Depression.