Oil Tank Wagon for Standard Oil Company, circa 1892

The Model T's distinction as a landmark car design can be traced in large part to machines like this -- a high capacity precision machine tool that performed just two production steps on the car engine's cylinder block. The Model T as a design achievement is inseparable from many hundreds of engineering, materials, and production innovations.

The horse-drawn streetcar was an important means of public transportation in 19th-century American cities. New York's Brooklyn City Railroad ran this car on its line between Hunters Point in Long Island City, and Erie Basin in South Brooklyn. But horses were expensive to stable and feed -- and messy too. Operators embraced electric streetcars starting in the late 1880s.

Horse-drawn delivery wagons remained in use well into the automobile age. Even in the 1920s, it wasn't unusual to see milk, ice, or produce delivered by horse--especially in smaller towns. Horses were well suited to the frequent stops and starts along a route and could negotiate poor roads better than early motorized vehicles. As roads improved and trucks became less expensive to operate and maintain, the horse-drawn delivery wagon faded away.