100 Years later the Automobile Continues to Expand upon Its Name
The automobile. Was there ever an invention that so changed life in America and around the world? Electricity, telephones, airplanes, computers, and modern medicines have all been life-enhancing marvels of science and human ingenuity. Yet the automobile stands alone. Its significance can be gauged in part by a litany of associative words that are almost synonymous: Detroit, Indianapolis, Daytona, Le Mans, NASCAR, Petty, Earnhardt, NHRA, Shell, Sunoco, Firestone, Goodyear, and Route 66. The list is diverse and seemingly endless, not to mention the names of hundreds of automobile makers like Chrysler, General Motors, and Mercedes. Still, there is one name that was prominent from the beginning and remains so today—Ford.
A century ago, in 1915, the one-millionth Model T rolled off the assembly line of the Ford Motor Company. In his race to meet consumer demand, Henry Ford, the company’s visionary founder, was too distracted with increasing his business to be mindful about the total number of cars he had been making. Thus that special Ford was sold and driven away without any fanfare. Only later did company officials realize they had reached the production milestone of one million cars in seven years. It would not be long, however, before Ford was producing a million cars in a single year. Like no other manufacturer, Henry Ford was fulfilling his stated goal of building cars for “the great multitude.” As if demand was not great enough, Ford was a master at creating ever greater demand. In June 1924, the company’s famed racing driver Frank Kulick took the wheel of the ten-millionth “T” for a publicity tour, traveling from New York City to San Francisco via the Lincoln Highway.
The four-door Model T Touring Car was a favorite with Henry Ford and customers alike, perhaps because it symbolized the American spirit of freedom and adventure in the modern age of the twentieth century. In 1914, Ford gave a Touring Car to his friend John Burroughs, the renowned naturalist, to assist him in his nature studies. Initially Burroughs was skeptical of driving a Tin Lizzy into the rural unpaved great outdoors. But once behind the wheel, he was quickly won over. He used the car until his death in 1921. This open-air model was the economical family convertible of its day, with lots of leg room and a fold down top. It stayed in production, with only modest improvements, for nineteen years, from 1909 to 1927. A major enhancement would have been the addition of side windows that could have been rolled up as a shield against inclement weather, wind, and dust. For that luxury, one would have to buy a more expensive model. But Ford was all about mass production and reducing costs in the interests of affordability. Consequently, over the years the cost of the Touring Car steadily declined, from $850 to $350.
Today it is hard to imagine that a virtually windowless Model T could have ever stayed on the market for nearly two decades. But early automobiles, in whatever form, represented a seismic shift in land transportation that was centuries old, dating back to an age when someone first hitched a chariot to a horse. Now, in 2015, the modern horseless carriage navigates an endless network of paved roads, bridges, and billions of dollars of infrastructure. Automobiles use computer technology to perform a multitude of functions, including climate control and automatic breaking. Just recently Freightliner, maker of heavy-duty trucks, unveiled the Inspiration Truck—“the first road-legal big rig that can drive itself.” What will motoring be like a century from now? Or will land travel have evolved into something entirely new?
-- James Barber, Historian, National Portrait Gallery
Images:
Henry Ford (right) leans against his first motorized vehicle, while his son Edsel stands beside the Ten Millionth Ford Model T to be manufactured. Gelatin silver print, 1924 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Henry Ford (1863-1947) by Samuel J. Woolf (detail)/ charcoal and chalk on paper, 1938 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
