Ford Methods and the Ford Shops

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

PREFACE 11

CHAPTER I — THE GENIUS OF THE PLANT 13

HENRY FORD’S OWN STORY 20

HENRY FORD: A CHARACTER STUDY 27

HENRY FORD AS A FACTORY MANAGER 31

THE BASIS OF FORD’S SUCCESS—THE FORD CAR 32

THE HIGHLAND PARK PLANT 34

CHAPTER II — THE FORD STOCK SYSTEM AND EMPLOYMENT METHODS 43

MAXIMUM PRODUCTION THE OBJECTIVE 44

LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENT OF OFFICES 45

THE STOCK SUPERINTENDENT 46

THE FORD SHOP TRANSPORTATION 48

THE FORD WORKERS 51

TOOL-MAKERS, EXPERIMENTAL-ROOM HANDS AND DRAFTSMEN 52

HIRING FORD HANDS 53

THE EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 54

PAY-DAY 54

ADVANCE PAY 55

EMPLOYMENT-DEPARTMENT RECORDS 55

FACTORY LABOR REQUISITIONS ON THE EMPLOYMENT DEPARTMENT 56

FOREMEN 56

DISCHARGE PROTEST 56

FORD PAY ROLLS 58

TIME CLOCKS 60

THE CLOCK CARD 60

RECORD-OF-EMPLOYEE ENVELOPE 61

IDENTIFICATION TICKET 61

RECOMMENDATION FOR ADVANCE 62

TRANSFER REPORT 62

DISCHARGE 63

REPORT OF DEPARTMENTAL DISCHARGE 63

DEPARTMENTAL DISCHARGE FORM 65

TIME TICKETS 66

CHANGE OF ADDRESS 67

BETTER ADVANTAGE NOTICE 68

FORD EMPLOYEES WHO DO NOT COME IN THROUGH THE EMPLOYMENT DEPARTMENT 69

FORD FACTORY WOMEN WORKERS 69

FORD PLANT WORK HOURS 69

OFFICE-FORCE HOURS 69

FACTORY WORKERS’ HOURS 70

THREE-SHIFT HOURS 70

MACHINISTS, CAR ASSEMBLERS, TESTERS, SHIPPING AND STORES—RECEIVING FORCE, LABORERS, AND TRUCKERS, WORKING TWO SHIFTS 71

GIRLS AND WOMEN IN FACTORY 71

DRAFTSMEN 71

OTHERS WORKING ONE SHIFT ONLY 71

CHAPTER III — HOW THE WORKS IS DONE 73

THE SHORTAGE CHASERS 74

THE DAY SHORTAGE CHASER 75

THE CLEARING HOUSE 76

CLEARING-HOUSE OFFICIALS 76

THE CHECKERS 77

CLEARING-HOUSE ORIGINAL RECORDS 78

THE CLEARING-HOUSE CHIEF CLERK 78

CLEARING-HOUSE TAGS 78

CYLINDER MACHINING, CRANK-BOX CONSTRUCTION, AND BRAZING 82

MACHINING THE FORD EN BLOC CYLINDER 82

GAUGING AND INSPECTION 84

FORD CYLINDER-MACHINING OFERATIONS 87

THE FORD MOTOR PRESSED-STEEL CRANK BOX 96

CRANK-BOX PRESS WORK AND ANNEALING OPERATIONS 96

FORD SPOT BRAZING, WITH OXYGEN FLAME 107

CHAPTER IV — INSPECTION AND ASSEMBLING 109

THE TRAVELING INSPECTOR 112

INSPECTION FORM BLANKS 112

INSPECTOR’S REPORT 113

FORD SHOPS ASSEMBLING 114

THE FORD PISTON AND CONNECTING-ROD ASSEMBLING 117

FORD PISTONS AND PINS 118

PISTON-AND-ROD-ASSEMBLING BENCH 118

OLD-STYLE, ONE MAN PERFORMING SIX OPERATIONS 120

NEW-STYLE, OPERATION SPLIT INTO THREE DIVISIONS 120

HEIGHT OF MOVING ASSEMBLY LINES 123

FLY-WHEEL MAGNETO MOVING ASSEMBLY 124

FIRST ASSEMBLING LINE 130

CHAPTER V — MOTOR-TEST BLOCKS AND CHASSIS-ASSEMBLING LINES 144

THE MOTER-TEST BLOCKS 146

MOTOR-ASSEMBLY RECORD 147

LIST OF POSSIBLE IMPERFECTIONS FOR WHICH EVERY FORD MOTOR IS TESTED 147

FORD SPECIAL NUT-BRACE 150

FORD CHASSIS ASSEMBLING 150

CHASSIS ASSEMBLING IN CHAIN-DRIVEN LINES 151

CHASSIS-ASSEMBLING OPERATIONS 155

OPERATIONS 157

THE JOHN R STREET TRACK 166

AUTOMOBILE-ASSEMBLY RECORD 175

DAILY CAR REPORT 176

CHAPTER VI — MACHINING AND ASSEMBLING THE FRONT AXLE 177

FORD’S GLOBE-JOINTING OF AXLES 179

FORD FRONT-AXLE COMPONENT FINISHING 191

SPRING HANGERS—T-246, T-91½ 194

FRONT-AXLE COMPONENTS FINISHING DEPARTMENT 198

PRODUCTIVE TIME-TICKET, FORM 915 201

WORKMAN’S INDIVIDUAL PRODUCTION RECORD, FORM 858 202

DEPARTMENTAL REPORT OF STOCK MACHINED—FORM 552 203

FRONT-AXLE ASSEMBLING DEPARTMENT 204

FORMER FRONT-AXLE ASSEMBLING PRACTICE 214

CHAPTER VII — THE CRANK-SHAFT, PISTON AND PISTON-RINGS 218

THE CRANK SHAFT 219

OPERATIONS ON CRANK-SHAFT 220

THE FORD PISTONS 229

THE PISTON PACKING RINGS 232

THE PISTON-RING POTS 234

RINGS INSPECTION 240

CHAPTER VIII — THE COMMUTATOR PRODUCTION AND ASSEMBLING JOB 241

COMMUTATOR OPERATION 241

ROLLER AND PIN HARDENING 248

SPECIAL MACHINE-TOOL CONSTRUCTIONS 249

DRILLING JIGS 249

FORD SHOPS PROGRESSIVE TOOL-PLACING 250

PLACING A FOUNDRY IN THE MACHINE SHOP 250

SNAGGING CASES, T-4439 253

FINISHING THE COMMUTATOR CASE, T-4439 255

MACHINING THE FIBER RING, T-4447 255

MACHINING THE CONTACT HEAD, T-4462 256

COMMUTATOR CONTACT STUD, T-4471 257

T-462-B ASSEMBLE CONTACT HEAD, T-4462 AND STUD, T-4471 257

L. H. COMMUTATOR CASE ASSEMBLY, T-4443, OPERATION LIST 258

T-671 COMMUTATOR-STUD INSULATION-FIBER BUSH 261

CHANGES MADE IN T-671 PRODUCTION MILLING MACHINE 262

BURRING, T-671 265

OPERATION 268

COMMUTATOR ROTOR BODY, T-4446 271

COMMUTATOR ROLLER CLEVIS, T-672 273

CONTACT ROLLER, TOOL-STEEL, T-673 276

ROLLER-PIN, T-675, TOOL-STEEL 277

CLEVIS PIN, T-476 277

ROLLER-PIN LOCKING PIN, T-676 277

COMMUTATOR-ROLLER AND CLEVIS-PIN ASSEMBLY, T-4474 277

COMMUTATOR ROTOR ASSEMBLY, T-4481 277

COMMUTATOR DISASSEMBLING 278

HOW FORD SHOPS MAKE A COMMUTATOR IN 16 MINUTES AND 27 SECONDS OF ONE MAN’S TIME 279

CHAPTER IX — SHEET-METAL WORK 285

HOW THE FORD METAL RUNNING BOARDS ARE MADE 285

THE FRONT-FENDER JOB 290

MAKING THE FENDER PEAK 290

THE FENDER RIBBON 291

THE FRONT FENDER BODY 295

THE FENDER APRON 296

THE FENDER BRACKET 297

HOW THE FRONT FENDER IS ASSEMBLED 297

THREE INTERESTING DRAWN JOBS 299

THE STEERING-GEAR QUADRANT 300

STEERING-GEAR COLUMN FLANGE 301

HOW THIS PIECE IS MADE 301

THE FAN-BELT PULLEY 302

CHAPTER X — CONVEYORS, WORK SLIDES AND ROLL-WAYS 305

LABOR-COST REDUCTIONS GAINED BY GRAVITY WORK-SLIDE INSTALLATION 307

GRAVITY ROLL-WAYS 310

THE FORD FLY-WHEEL FINISHING LINE OF TOOLS 311

SLIDES ON WHICH WORK IN PROGRESS IS MOVED BY HAND 315

ENDLESS-BELT CONVEYORS 316

ENDLESS-CHAIN ELEVATORS AND CARRIERS 320

CHAPTER XI — THE BUSHINGS JOB 323

FINISHING ROUND HOLES WITH CIRCULAR BROACHES 325

ROUGH-BORING BRONZE BUSHES 330

BROACHING BORE TO FINISHED DIAMETER 330

BROACHING BUSHES 332

BROACH GRINDING 333

FORCING ARBORS INTO AND OUT OF THE BUSHINGS 335

TURNING THE BUSHINGS 336

DRIVING AND TURNING BUSHES 337

LATHE CENTERS 337

TURNING BUSHES OPERATION 338

BUSH-FORMING DIES 340

SPRINGS AND SPRING PLUNGERS 341

OPERATION 342

CHAPTER XII — SPECIAL MACHINES AND FIXTURES 344

PAINTING THE REAR-AXLE ASSEMBLY 345

A NEW COOLING TOWER 346

SOME SPECIAL RADIATOR MACHINES 347

MAKING THE FORD GASOLINE TANK 354

SPECIAL MACHINE AND CUTTERS FOR FILLETING CRANK-SHAFT BEARINGS OF CYLINDER 361

TESTING TRANSMISSIONS 362

SPINDLE PUNCH-DRILLING MACHINE FOR MAKING WOOD-SCREW HOLES IN FLOOR BOARDS 365

POWER FILING AND BURRING MACHINES 365

FORMING AND HARDENING SPRING LEAVES 365

CAM-SHAFT GRINDING MACHINE 365

SPECIAL FORD FLY-WHEEL BALANCING MACHINE WITH DRILLING ATTACHMENT 368

CAM-SHAFT SHAPING MACHINE 369

CHAPTER XIII — THE FOUNDRIES 370

THE FOUNDRY BUILDING 373

CAN OTHER FOUNDRIES REACH THE FORD COSTS? 373

THE FORD FOUNDRY UNIT 377

POWER-DRIVEN MOULD CARRIERS 379

SOME MOULD-CARRIER CONSTRUCTION PARTICULARS 380

CORES, CORE DRIERS AND CORE OVENS 384

CORE DRIERS 385

ENDLESS-CHAIN CORE OVENS 386

SOME PARTICULARS OF ENDLESS-CHAIN CORE-OVEN CONSTRUCTION 387

CRANES 388

BRASS CASTINGS 388

ALUMINUM FLOOR 390

CYLINDERS CLEANING 390

CASTINGS 390

PRODUCTION PER SQUARE FOOT OF FOUNDRY FLOOR 391

FUEL 395

GRAY IRON ANALYSIS FOR MODEL-T COMPONENTS OTHER THAN CYLINDERS 398

CUPOLA CHARGING FOR MODEL-T COMPONENTS OTHER THAN CYLINDERS 398

COST OF IRON IN LADLE 398

CORE-SAND MIXING STAGE 399

FORD FOUNDRY EQUIPMENT, EXCEPTING CRANES, MONORAIL AND CARRIER UNITS 400

CYLINDER MOULDING 401

SECOND-SHIFT CUPOLA TENDERS 403

METAL PATTERN-MAKERS 404

FORD FOUNDRY REGULAR THREE SHIFTS 404

SUMMARY 404

CHAPTER XIV — HOW THE FORD BODIES ARE FINISHED. PAINTING, UPHOLSTERING, JAPANNING AND BAKING 406

HOW THE CUSHIONS ARE MADE 419

THE TOP MACHINE DEPARTMENT 421

HOW THE BOWS ARE MADE 422

PAINTING FORD WHEELS 424

WHERE THE TIRES ARE PUT ON 426

HOW THE WINDSHIELD IS ENAMELED 426

HOW THE FENDERS ARE ENAMELED 427

HOW THE REAR-AXLE ASSEMBLY IS PAINTED 432

CHAPTER XV — THE NEW FACTORY ADDITIONS 434

WALLS 440

FLOOR CONSTRUCTION 440

COLUMNS 440

ROOF 442

DOORS 443

WINDOWS 443

ARCHITECTURAL ORNAMENTATION 444

ELEVATORS, STAIRWAYS AND CLOSETS 444

WOMEN WORKERS’ ROOMS 447

THE CRANES 447

ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING 450

FIRE PROTECTION 451

FORD NEW BUILDING WORK-SHOP SUITABILITY 453

MERCHANDISE PURCHASING AND RECEIVING 455

THE TRAP CARS 455

SEQUENCE OF FREIGHT-CAR PLACING 456

FLOOR BRIDGES 457

ROUGH STORES TO TOP, FINISHED PRODUCT AT BOTTOM 457

PRESENT USE OF NEW BUILDING FLOORS 458

SOURCE OF AIR-SUPPLY 460

CONDITIONING THE AIR 461

CHAPTER XVI — SAFEGUARDING THE WORKMEN 464

FORD METHODS AND THE FORD SHOPS

BY

HORACE LUCIEN ARNOLD

AND

FAY LEONE FAUROTE

PREFACE

FORD’S success has startled the country, almost the world, financially, industrially, mechanically. It exhibits in higher degree than most persons would have thought possible the seemingly contradictory requirements of true efficiency, which are: constant increase of quality, great increase of pay to the workers, repeated reductions in cost to the consumer. And with these appears, as at once cause and effect, an absolutely incredible enlargement of output reaching something like one hundred fold in less than ten years, and an enormous profit to the manufacturer.

What is the personality behind these startling results? What are the ideals worked out in them? What are the conditions and methods in the shops where they have been secured in regular everyday operation?

The story is told completely, practically, and graphically in the pages of this book. It was begun at the direct suggestion of the editors of The Engineering Magazine by Horace Lucien Arnold, who has never been surpassed for clear vision of shop matters and clear description of the things that are of value therein. Upon his death, with the story still unfinished, in January, 1915, the work was taken up and completed by Fay Leone Faurote, who carried it out loyally in the spirit of its inception. Both authors worked with the direct co-operation of Henry Ford himself and of the Ford engineers. They had full access to the most intimate data of every department, and unstinted assistance in the preparation of illustrations and the compilation of figures. In the volume now presented the pages are rearranged in sequence slightly different from that of their appearance as a series in The Engineering Magazine, so that the work of the two authors is to a certain extent interleaved, chapters IX on sheet-metal work, XII on special machines and fixtures, XIV on body finishing, painting and upholstering, and XVI on safeguarding the workmen being from the pen of Mr. Faurote, while the rest of the book is Arnold’s. Notwithstanding this divided authorship, the work as a whole was carried out with unity of purpose and singleness of viewpoint, the rearrangement serving merely to present the entire study in a somewhat more logical order of development.

To the manufacturer, manager, or engineer confronted by the problems of mechanical production this exposition will excel in interest and value anything of the kind heretofore attempted, not only by the intrinsic quality of the text and illustrations, but by their exposition of what is up to now the final word in efficient, standardized, repetitive production. The Ford product represents the limit of specialization in a single type, of which each part has been evolved from practically unlimited service tests. But while it thus deals with the production of interchangeable components, embodied, so far as manufacture is concerned, in semi-automatic machinery, and turned out by progressive processing and gang assembling with specialized transportation, it has very wide application in other lines where similar practice can be adopted in whole or in part, with similar advantages to purchaser, worker, and consumer. Wherever standard articles are manufactured, some part, and perhaps the most important part, of the Ford policies will be found applicable. The manufacturing world is indebted to the great manufacturer who gave his methods and policies so freely to public description, and to the knowledge and conscientious care of the authors who have realized so fully the opportunity afforded them.

CHARLES BUXTON GOING.

New York, October, 1915.

FORD METHODS AND THE FORD SHOPS

CHAPTER I — THE GENIUS OF THE PLANT

BEYOND all doubt or question, the Ford Motor Company’s plant at Highland Park, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A., at the time of this writing is the most interesting metal-working establishment in the world—because of its size (something over 15,000 names on the payroll); because it produces one single article only (the Ford motor car) for sale; because the Ford Motor Company is paying very large profits (something like $15,000,000 a year); and because, with no strike and no demand for pay increase from its day-wage earners, the Ford Company made voluntary and wholly unexpected announcement January 5, 1914, that it would very greatly increase day-pay wage and would at the same time reduce the day-work hours from nine to eight.

The Ford Motor Company is under one-man control, Henry Ford, head of the company, holding 58½ per cent of the $2,000,000 capital stock; and it was Mr. Ford’s own initiatory proposal to augment day-pay largely while reducing work-day hours from nine to eight, with an entire disregard of the commercial features of the situation—simply and solely with a view to the increased happiness and self-respect of his workmen, and in the face of Ford Company dividend reductions made Ford bonus announcement, as first published in the Detroit afternoon papers of Monday, January 5, 1914.

Employers of labor the world over burst into a torrid eruption of denunciatory comment over the Ford bonus as soon as it became generally known, giving no heed whatever to its stated cause—a desire to better the condition of day-pay earners by wage increase, and to augment the number of day-pay workers by shortening the work day from nine hours to eight hours, all as given out by the company at the time of first announcement. The Ford Motor Company turns out one thousand automobiles per day at its Highland Park plant; two other plants, one at Ford, Ont., Canada, and one at Manchester, England, bring the total Ford car-producing capacity to at least 1,200 cars per day, and the company has a worldwide selling and service organization which ensures the sale of its cars up to production capacity limit.

The volume and growth of the business are most strikingly shown by a simple tabulation of the company’s gross sales for the past eight years, the figures below being for the fiscal year which ends October 1.

1907 was a panic year. The sales from October 1, 1913, to February 1, 1914, were $26,814,842.12, an increase of $8,034,601.33 over the same period twelve months ago. The expansion has followed closely the placing of more sales agents in the same territory, giving each agent less territory to cover. From these figures of astounding growth, better perhaps than any other form of statement, one may realize the problems the shops have had to meet to fill output demands.

Besides these altogether unusual industrial and commercial features, the Ford company has gone into thermo-dynamics on original lines by installing a 5,000 horse-power gas engine, the largest yet shown, of its own design, to drive the Highland Park plant. This large engine, and a smaller gas engine, of the same general design as the large engine but only 1,500 horse power, driving an 850-kilowatt dynamo and a 2,000 cubic-foot air compressor, now occupy the floor of the present power house, single floor and basement., as will be shown fully in later chapters. But not content with this impressive gas-engine exhibit, the Ford company is now actively engaged in enlarging the power-house ground plan and giving it two additional floors to make room for no less than seven motors with gas producers, regenerators and steam boilers, all based on an entirely novel scheme of heat saving, original with this company.

The top floor of the enlarged and remodeled power house will carry 30,000 horse power of gas producers and 6,000 horse power of steam boilers, connected by regenerators, which are entirely new elements in heat-saving; the second floor, 10-foot ceiling, serves for ash-handling, while the main floor will carry seven engines, the present small gas engines of 1,500 horse power, to drive the present 850-kilowatt dynamo and 2,000 cubic-foot air compressor, and, in addition, five combined steam and gas-engine units, of 6,000 brake horse power each. The idea of combining steam cylinders with gas-engine cylinders for heat saving is entirely new, so far as now known to the Ford engineers. The dimensions and arrangement of these five new combined steam and gas engines, all alike, are, gas-engine side, two 4-cycle, water-cooled cylinders, tandem, pistons 42 inches diameter by 72 inches stroke; steam side, tandem-compound, high-pressure pistons, 36 inches diameter by 72 inches stroke, low-pressure pistons 68 inches diameter by 72 inches stroke, both sides to work on the one crank-shaft, each combined gas and steam unit to show 6,000 brake horse power.

The gas-producer-regenerator-steam-boiler combination and working scheme are confidently expected to form, when completed, the most economical heat-engine plant ever shown.

The entire cost of these Highland Park power-plant changes and additions, including everything, will he something like a million and a half of dollars, showing conclusively that the Ford company does not hesitate to follow its own convictions as to what is the correct thing in the way of plant-driving engines.

Again, in the matter of low labor-cost production, the Ford company elects to pay day-wages instead of working its men at piece rates or on the premium plan; and, as the Ford plant profits are large while the cars are low-priced, the labor recompense is of much interest.

The Highland Park plant has a gray-iron foundry believed to be better equipped for time saving and low-cost production than any other foundry in the world, and has developed a machine-shop system of subdividing workmen’s duties which effects very large labor-cost savings. It has applied team work to the fullest extent, and by this feature in conjunction with the arrangement of successive operations in the closest proximity, so as to minimize transportation and to maximize the pressure of flow of work, it succeeds in maintaining speed without obtrusive foremanship. It works on a single unit assembly for sale and on only one production order per year, keeping the stock of components constantly between close limits through the use of shortage chasers reporting at two-hour intervals—all as will be explained fully in a following chapter. It has a machine-tool plant, largely of specialized construction, which cost $2,800,000, works about 240 tool-makers and 50 special tool-and-fixture draftsmen in its tool and fixture-making department, and today employs 40 wood-pattern makers and 65 metal-pattern makers in improving its own shop facilities. It has installed shop lines of overhead transportation in various forms not equaled elsewhere, and is improving its already superlatively excellent metal-working plant so rapidly that Ford-factory methods are more than likely to be changed before the description is published. Lastly, and quite the most notably of all, the Ford company is willing to have any part of its commercial, managerial or mechanical practice given full and unrestricted publicity in print. Therefore these disclosures of Ford company means and methods for production-cost reduction and profit ensuring will be read with deep interest by all students of metalworking economies the world over.

The Ford Highland Park plant is the direct result of the thoughts and desires and fancies of Henry Ford’s own mind and the work of Henry Ford’s own hands; hence a brief sketch of Henry Ford’s life is not only the most befitting introduction to these revelations of Ford plant practice, but is absolutely indispensable to a full understanding of the Ford Highland Park plant—the establishment, its efficiency, and its colossal commercial success.

HENRY FORD’S OWN STORY

William Ford, of English ancestry though born near the town of Brandon, Ireland, and bred a farmer, emigrated to America in the year 1847 at the age of twenty years, bought forty acres of the two hundred and forty acre Litogot farm in Greenfield township, eight miles west of Detroit, Michigan, and began as farmer of his own estate. He found favor in the eyes of Mary Litogot, married her in his thirty-fifth year, and later fell heir to the Litogot farm. Six children, three boys and three girls, were born to the Fords before the untimely death of their mother at the early age of thirty-five years, and of these six children the eldest was Henry Ford, born July 30, 1863, who grew to be a slender lad, unlike either parent, with a passion for mechanical construction.

The boy Henry learned to read and write at home, and began to attend school in the town of Springwells, a division of the original township of Greenfield, when between seven and eight years of age, walking the two and a half miles between the Ford farm and the schoolhouse twice a day through the winter school terms and working on the farm (which he detested) through the summer times.

Henry Ford’s mind and fancy both drove him to things mechanical, while his father wished him to become a farmer, the result being that the boy decided for himself that his schooling was completed at the age of sixteen, and that he would not be a farmer and would be a mechanic. Following the bent of his irresistible inclination towards things mechanical, the boy Henry left the farm, against his father’s commands, went to Detroit, eight miles eastward, and entered Flower Brothers’ machine shop at apprentice wages, and at the same time began to do night work with a watch and jewelry repairer, McGill, who had a little place at Baker and Twentieth streets. On the farm, before leaving for Detroit, the boy Henry had a shop of his own gathering together and building, in which he had a vise, a bow-string driven lathe, and some sort of a forge, and he made himself a competent countryside repairer in general of everything which came in his way, so that he fell easily into his night work at McGill’s, as he did into his apprentice duties at the shops. Flower Brothers were general machinists and steam-engine builders, working about 30 or 40 men, and here young Ford served for about nine months only, leaving this first machine-shop job to enter the employ of the Dry Dock Engine Company, Detroit, Lake marine engineers, building steam engines exclusively. They worked 206 hands and had the largest machine shop at that time in Detroit.

At the end of his two years of Dry Dock Company service Henry Ford, aged nineteen, felt himself master of the machinist’s trade as practiced at those shops, and he left his job there and took service with John Cheeny, State agent for the Westinghouse portable steam engines, built at Schenectady, New York. His position was that of road expert, going out to set up new engines of 10 to 20 horse power, to give instructions to purchasers, and to make repairs. This was a summer job; and Henry Ford, never idle for a minute, put in the two winters of his two years with John Cheeny in his old shop on the farm in Greenfield, where he had a forge, vise, and upright driller, and a hand-lathe, foot-power driven, together with a varied kit of hand tools that enabled him to build almost any small-size machine that interested his adventurous mind. During these two winters Henry Ford, twenty and twenty-one years of age, worked most of the time on a farm locomotive, mounted on mowing-machine cast-iron wheels and driven by a single-cylinder steam engine, piston about 4 inches diameter with 4-inch stroke, with gear reduction to the rear drivers. It was not designed for any especial service, the idea being to make it serve as a general farm tractor. The gauge was somewhere about 48 inches, wheel-base about 72 inches. It had a fire-tube vertical boiler, and the machine ran well and pulled well and taught its youthful constructor many lessons that can be learned only from the experience of a young mechanic directing the labor of his own hands in constructing new machines of his own devising. During this period he also made many experiments with electric machines.

At the end of two years’ work for Cheeny, Henry Ford’s father, seeking to win his son from the degradation of things mechanical, made him a present of 40 acres of land in Dearborn township, two miles west of Greenfield. This 40 acres of land was largely forest—maple, beech, oak and basswood and young Ford bought a circular saw mill, rented a 12-horse-power portable engine to drive it, went to work for the Buckeye Harvester Company setting up and repairing Eclipse portable farm engines in the summers, and ran his saw mill and sold lumber winters for two years. At the end of his twenty-fourth year, Henry Ford, being now a landed proprietor and a lumber manufacturer, happily married Miss Clara J. Bryant, born and raised in the township of Greenfield, Michigan, but not a schoolmate of her husband. The issue of this marriage was an only child, a son, Edsel Bryant Ford, born November 6, 1893. Immediately following his marriage, Mr. Ford, feeling the need of a home, used lumber of his own sawing to construct a house, 31 feet square and a story and a half high, on the Dearborn 40-acre farm, moved into it with his bride, and also moved his private machine shop from his father’s farm to the Dearborn farm; he sawed lumber and sold it, did some farming, and began building a steam road-carriage to fill in his leisure moments.

For the chassis of this, the first Ford passenger car to run on common roads, an ordinary buggy was taken, and equipped with a single-cylinder steam engine, piston 2-inch diameter and 2-inch stroke. The speed reduction was double, a belt from the motor crank-shaft to a sprocket shaft and chain from the first sprocket to the differential-gear sprocket, with divided axles to which the rear driving wheels were fixed. The gauge was 56 inches and the wheel base about 60 inches. The steam boiler for this road carriage was the same puzzle to Henry Ford that it has been to every common-roads steam-carriage builder from the days of Cugnot, 1769, to the present time. Boiler after boiler was built—water-tube and fire-tube and flash designs, all with high pressures, from 250 to 400 pounds. None of them was entirely satisfactory to their designer, who finally concluded that the steam engine was not the best driver for a common-roads passenger vehicle, and abandoned this, his first and only steam-car, uncompleted, when he was twenty-six years old. At the same time he gave up his life as a farmer and lumber manufacturer on the Dearborn 40-acre homestead, obtained employment as night-shift engineer for the Detroit Edison Illuminating Company (twelve hours out of the twenty-four, from 6 p.m. to 6 a. m., at $45 per month), rented a house at 58 Bagley Street, only two squares from the Edison plant, and began living there with his wife, bringing his machine shop from the Dearborn farm and setting up his tools in the barn of the Bagley-street residence. At the end of three months the Edison Company began to recognize the value of the new engineer and