ON PREVIOUS DAYS:
- YESTERDAY:
Let's Open The Louvre - DAY BEFORE:
The Shocking Debut of the Electric Chair - DAY BEFORE THAT:
Pepsi Owes Me a Fighter Jet - DAY BEFORE BEFORE THAT:
Virginia Woolf's Diary
ON THIS DAY
Ford Puts The World On Wheels
The Ford Model T rolled into production on 12th August, 1908, still hand-assembled in much the same way as its rivals. But Henry Ford’s ambition for the car was bigger: to create a reliable, durable motor that ordinary Americans could realistically afford – a dream he later realised by deploying a moving assembly line.
Built from tough vanadium steel, the car could cope with the rutted, muddy roads of early 20th-century America better than many rivals. It had a 20-horsepower engine which was easy to maintain and could run on petrol, kerosene or ethanol, while a top speed of around 45 miles per hour. Adapted into a bewildering variety of body styles, it became everything from a family runabout to an ambulance, fire engine and military vehicle. By the time production ended in 1927, more than 15 million Model Ts had been sold.
In today’s episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover how Ford’s need for less skilled workers counterintuitively meant doubling his workers’ wages; explain how a trip to a slaughterhouse influenced his Detroit factory; and reveal why customers could have any colour – so long as it was black…
Further Reading:
• ‘Henry Ford – Case Study of an Innovator’ (The Henry Ford Museum, 2021): https://www.thehenryford.org/collections/explore/articles/henry-ford-case-study-of-an-innovator
• ‘US bids farewell to era of Model T’: (Financial Times, 2008): https://www.ft.com/content/36fe2ac2-58f1-11dd-a093-000077b07658
• ‘Driving a Ford Model T Is a Lot Harder Than You’d Think! We Tried It’ (Bloomberg, 2016):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLMS_QtKamg
#Motoring #Inventions #1900s #US
ON THIS DAY
Ford Puts The World On Wheels
The Ford Model T rolled into production on 12th August, 1908, still hand-assembled in much the same way as its rivals. But Henry Ford’s ambition for the car was bigger: to create a reliable, durable motor that ordinary Americans could realistically afford – a dream he later realised by deploying a moving assembly line.
Built from tough vanadium steel, the car could cope with the rutted, muddy roads of early 20th-century America better than many rivals. It had a 20-horsepower engine which was easy to maintain and could run on petrol, kerosene or ethanol, while a top speed of around 45 miles per hour. Adapted into a bewildering variety of body styles, it became everything from a family runabout to an ambulance, fire engine and military vehicle. By the time production ended in 1927, more than 15 million Model Ts had been sold.
In today’s episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover how Ford’s need for less skilled workers counterintuitively meant doubling his workers’ wages; explain how a trip to a slaughterhouse influenced his Detroit factory; and reveal why customers could have any colour – so long as it was black…
Further Reading:
• ‘Henry Ford – Case Study of an Innovator’ (The Henry Ford Museum, 2021): https://www.thehenryford.org/collections/explore/articles/henry-ford-case-study-of-an-innovator
• ‘US bids farewell to era of Model T’: (Financial Times, 2008): https://www.ft.com/content/36fe2ac2-58f1-11dd-a093-000077b07658
• ‘Driving a Ford Model T Is a Lot Harder Than You’d Think! We Tried It’ (Bloomberg, 2016):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLMS_QtKamg
#Motoring #Inventions #1900s #US
ON PREVIOUS DAYS:
- YESTERDAY:
Let's Open The Louvre - DAY BEFORE:
The Shocking Debut of the Electric Chair - DAY BEFORE THAT:
Pepsi Owes Me a Fighter Jet - DAY BEFORE BEFORE THAT:
Virginia Woolf's Diary
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OLLY MANN
Olly Mann made his name with another trivia-wielding podcast, Answer Me This! with Helen Zaltzman – and now presents The Modern Mann, The Week Unwrapped, and Four Thought for BBC Radio Four. He also has an A-Level in History, so Dan Snow beware.
REBECCA MESSINA
Rebecca got a passion for podcasting working at The Week magazine and a passion for trivia appearing on University Challenge in 2011, making The Retrospectors her natural home.
ARION MCNICOLL
Arion started out in satirical news in Australia, then moved to the UK to work for ostensibly serious publications including The Times, CNN, and The Week… before realising that since around 2016 the news has all been satire really.
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