Interior View of the Ford Motor Company Highland Park Plant Power House, Rendering by Irving R. Bacon, 1917
01
Artifact Overview
Electricity for Ford Motor Company's Highland Park plant was supplied by an on-site powerhouse with generators connected to nine gas-steam hybrid engines. Together, the nine engines produced 53,000 horsepower. This illustration, created by Irving R. Bacon for a 1917 Ford visitor guide, amplified the powerhouse's cavernous size by including smaller-scaled people in the foreground.
Artifact Details
Artifact
Rendering (Drawing)
Date Made
1917
Subject Date
1917
Location
Not on exhibit to the public.
Object ID
83.1.1645.55
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Material
Paper (Fiber product)
Technique
Painting (Image-making)
Color
Multicolored
Dimensions
Height: 35.75 in
Width: 18.5 in
Keywords |
|---|
02
Related Artifacts
ArtifactHighland Park Plant Engine- Generator, 1915-1916
Ford's Model T mass production system would not have been practical without electricity; by 1919 nine of these Ford-designed hybrid internal combustion/steam engines generated the power needed by the Highland Park plant's assembly lines and associated machinery. By 1926 the engines were rendered obsolete when electricity was fed from the power plant at Ford's River Rouge plant ten miles away.