The Model T & The Assembly Line

This 1909 brochure explains some of the Model T's selling points, including two innovations that later became standard on all cars. Its one-piece cylinder block and removable cylinder head made the engine lighter, easier to manufacture, and easier to maintain. Ford also put its steering wheel on the left, allowing passengers to enter and exit the car from the curb.

On August 5, 2003, modern Ford Model T enthusiasts demonstrated their cars' suspensions adjusting to uneven terrain on a road in Colorado's San Isabel National Forest. Ninety-five years earlier, the Model T's ability to easily traverse the nation's terrible roads helped make it more popular than other early 20th century automobiles.

This Ford Motor Company leaflet discusses its exhibit at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, the Model T, and its U.S. factories. The image of the main plant at Highland Park, Michigan, illustrates the comprehensive manufacturing operations. The plant had facilities for casting, machining, stamping, assembly, and shipping. The massive power plant with five smokestacks generated the factory's electricity.

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 first Ford assembly line at the Highland Park, Michigan, plant was relatively crude. Here, in 1913, workers put V-shaped magnets on Model T flywheels to make one-half of the flywheel magneto. Each worker installed a few parts and simply shoved the flywheel down the line to the next worker.

On May 26, 1927, when Edsel Ford drove the last Model T off the line at the Highland Park Plant, his father's face betrayed conflicting emotions. Henry's Model T had changed the world, but its day was over. How did he follow a legend? Some two months later Ford summed up his challenge, "Sixty-four today and the biggest job of my life ahead."