the year in which Jose Zorrilla, author of Don Juan Tenorio, died in Madrid, Anton Dvorak premiered his New World Symphony at Carnegie Hall in New York, the painter Joan Miro was born in Barcelona and the Ford couple had their only son, Edsel Bryant Ford.
In 1894 the first horseless carriage race in the world was held in Europe, between July 18 and 22 the famous Paris-Ruan took place, over a distance of 126 km. In November 1895, organized by the Chicago Times-Herald newspaper, the first automobile race in the United States was held.
In 1896 Henry Ford finished his prototype, the quadricycle, which he sold easily. The income and experience they provided gave way to the construction of the next model, with the idea of lowering its weight and making it lighter. The Fords managed to recover that first unit years later.
Henry Ford, the first companies
Henry Ford finally managed to assemble a group of investors, left his job at the Detroit Edison Company, and in 1899 founded the Detroit Automobile Company, where he had a discrete shareholding. The company was dissolved in a short time due to the difference in criteria between the investors and Ford.
Henry's interest at that time was racing and together with new investors he founded the Henry Ford Company in 1901. His interest in perfecting the engine and the method of building the car took him away from commercial interests, colliding again with the interests of investors. Ford left the company that later became Cadillac.
Henry Ford becomes independent, and Ford Motor Company is born
Henry Ford, after previous failures and with the firm decision to never depend on anyone again, founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903, the company that would soon become the largest automobile factory in the world for years.
Ford's success as a brand was based on the ideas, revolutionary for the time, of its founder. The first was to build all the parts for their vehicles, unlike other manufacturers, who outsourced part of the manufacturing process.
Henry's next genius was the assembly line, which streamlined the production process, allowing each unit to be built in a minimum time at the time. When the system was commissioned, the assembly time per unit was 12 hours, a record in itself. When perfected, each unit took 90 minutes to assemble.
He established the 8-hour day for the first time in history, as well as a minimum wage with incentives for production and participation in business profits. The result is well-paid employees without exhausting hours.
In the commercial aspect, he also introduced an innovative idea, creating a network of franchises distributed throughout the country, thus the figure of the dealership was born. This distribution model is still valid 100 years later.
Henry Ford, his success: Ford T
The first Ford T came off the assembly line on October 1, 1908. I am not going to elaborate on the model since in Motorpasión we have talked about it, I leave you the links at the bottom of the article, but I do briefly comment on some curiosities.
The starting price in the year of the launch was $825, with no possible competition against other brands. With the refinement of mass production, the 1925 Model T cost $260.
In 1914, the year of the outbreak of World War I, Ford factories built 308,162 Model Ts, more than all other manufacturers in the world combined. In 1921, 57% of the cars on the planet were Ford T.
With the Model T, Henry accomplished two very important things: creating the American middle class and putting it in a car. He also motorized the rest of the world, by making the possibility of having a car available to many pockets.
In an attempt to lower the price of the Ford T as much as possible, since 1914 it was only manufactured in black. The same chassis was the basis for all versions. Even the radiator lost its bronze color in favor of black in 1916.
The Model T was very well built, built to last. And as often happens, his virtue was his great defect. Other competitors, such as General Motors, countered with less robust models and designs that changed every year.
More than 15 million units of the Ford T were built, a figure that has remained the absolute world record until the Volkswagen Beetle snatched that honor from it in 1972.
When the 10 millionth unit was manufactured, 9 out of 10 cars in circulation in the world were Ford T. On May 26, 1927, production of this model ceased, closing one of the most brilliant pages in automotive history.
