By that time, Ford has already developed the concept of the “people’s car” is a reliable, inexpensive, easy to maintain and repair. The first car on the way to the “folk” was released in 1904, Ford-A (by the way, do not confuse it with the model 1928, which was subsequently and in our country called the GAZ-a). It was a double car with two-cylinder 8-horsepower engine, which cost $ 850. In the first year it sold about 1700 of these cars – for those times – quite a decent figure.
Henry Ford 10 millionth car
In the early XX century the production technology of automobiie little different from the one that was used in the manufacture of horse-drawn wagons. Most of the components the company ordered on the side, and the Assembly was carried out at the plant. It was done at fixed stations, each car completely, from the radiator and to the exhaust pipe, collecting a team of two or three skilled workers.
In 1905 was launched quadruple Ford-B with a 24-horsepower four-cylinder engine. Accordingly, the price jumped to $ 2000, which was contrary to Ford’s concept of the “people’s car”. According to historians, the release of Ford-B was a concession to shareholders of the company who did not believe in the successful mass production of inexpensive cars and vystoupi for the creation of expensive cars for wealthy buyers. The same concession to the companions became a and Ford-K six-cylinder engine, released in 1906.
Meanwhile, Henry Ford worked tirelessly to promote its concept of “people’s car”. While its main task was the purchase of shares from the conservative owners of the Ford Motor Company – another way to get rid of their short-sighted care Ford was not.
In 1908, the designers and engineers of the company prepared to release kwintesencja the concept of the “people’s car” -the Ford-T, which became the most famous and one of the most popular cars in the history of the automotive industry. Design of a machine takes Josef Galamb and Childe Harold wills, of course, under the permanent patronage of Ford.
Common wheel Ford-T production in 1908
Ford-T was a car with four-cylinder 15-horsepower motor, able to accelerate to 63 km/h. the machine Design was very pragmatic and cheap, but all parts and mechanisms had a margin of safety and reliability, sufficient for their long service.
The car had excellent maintainability, the firm began to produce major components to be replaced which could not only a professional mechanic, but the owner of the car. Ford-T had very good maneuverability because of the huge ground clearance 250 mm, large wheels with tires with a diameter of about 780 mm and is sufficiently flexible characteristics of the engine. All this has made the Ford-T is very attractive not only for citizens but also for farmers and rural residents.
The design of the car was meticulously crafted and calculated. According to some historians of technology, the creators of the Ford-T was widely used in its design vanadium steel with a high tensile strength that allows you to make many of the parts lighter and more durable than other machines. However, many skeptics deny it, citing their point of view the fact that ispolzovanie steel mixed with vanadium had significantly increase the cost of the machine, however its price declined steadily.
The frame of the car had a constant spar section. The wheels were suspended on two transverse semi-elliptic leaf springs.
To reduce the weight of the vehicle, wills proposed to equip it with a gearbox with planetary gear, lighter and more compact than the classic, with fixed bearings on the shafts. To all, changing gears in a planetary transmission was made without disconnecting gears – just needed to slow down relevant stage “of planetary”. This unusual transmission provided two forward gears and one back, the shifting was done with the two pedals and lever.
And also to simplify and reduce the cost of the car in the engine not envisaged that the adjustment mechanism of the valves. For the same reason, the wheels of the machine made fixed – if necessary, removed just the tires (and later the rim), and an all-metal body of the future version was a simplified design, which the Americans called the Ford-T in my own way – Tin Lizzy (“Tin Lizzie”). By the way, Tin in English is the white (tinned) tin or tin tin and the name Lizzy American farmers were often called for their horses, so the nickname could be translated as “the tin horse”.
The four-cylinder engine with detachable cylinder head was cast integral with the engine block and transmission, combined with the motor into a single unit, was a small technical masterpiece. First of all, it was very simple – there was no water and oil pumps cooling system was a thermosyphon (i.e., the water flow in it due to temperature difference), and the lubrication of the crankshaft and cylinders was carried out by spraying. In the car and also missing the fuel pump – the fuel is located under the front seats of a cylindrical tank from coming in to the engine by gravity. Interestingly, when driving uphill, the gasoline often had ceased to flow into the carb, but it does not bother ingenious Yankees – the driver had to turn the car 180 degrees, put it in reverse and boldly overcame the rise.
The compression ratio was 4.5:1, which made the engine very reliable in continuous operation. When the working volume 2,893 l engine Tin Lizzy has developed a power of 22.5 BHP and torque of 112 Nm is reached at engine speed of 1800 Rev/min machine Weight depending on body type ranged from 788 to 906 kg With a standard gear ratio of main gear to 3.67 speed reached 65 – 70 km/h. Consumption of gasoline (according to the national test run, held in 1912) was about 11 l / 100 km.
The clutch – “wet” type, the main items were two steel discs positioned in an oil bath. Further torque is transmitted to the two speed transmission. Shafts and gear transmission grind from hardened vanadium steel. Lubrication system, holding about 4 liters of oil, was uniform for the whole power plant. Radiators liquid cooling system initially purchased in France, and then Ford Motor Company started to make them on their own. Although the maximum speed of a standard Tin Lizzy was about 70 km/h, racing variants of the Ford-T was developed to 150 km/h.
The fuel tank had a capacity of 45 l at a flow of 11 litres per 100 km the car can drive about 400 km – an important indicator for the beginning of the XX century, when even in the US gas station while seldom seen on the roads.
It should be noted that in the early XX century in the automotive industry was not yet established stereotypes – in particular, each firm was placed an armchair of the driver as it seemed easier. Starting with Ford-T, drivers of Ford’s car meant to sit exclusively on the left side.
Assembly line at the plant of the company Ford Motor Company
The ambulance on chassis Ford-T
Ford-T pick-up of issue 1909
Four-door Ford-T. Please note that the car is not equipped with a spare wheel and a spare rim with tyre, as well as headlights with bulbs
Ford T had a number of features that had to be taken into account during its operation. As you know, start the car and starting the engine is carried out using arm. In the cold season, when the oil in the transmission was thick, this operation was unsafe – the engine is not completely separated from transmission, and the car start moving, trying to crush his master. There was another trouble when starting the motor he has, as a rule, immediately “grasped” only two or three cylinders. The fourth came into work with 2 – 3 second delay, so that in these 2 – 3 seconds the car together with passengers frantically shaking.
Headlights with bulbs appeared on the Ford-T in 1919, their food was produced from the low-voltage winding of the magneto. When driving slowly (in the fog or at night, and even on a dirt country road) headlights faded, and the lights began flashing.
However, the Tin Lizzy had a reputation as a very reliable and hardy car, has excellent permeability due to a significant clearance and wheels of large diameter. In the early twentieth century, the United States was famous for its roads, so that, in the opinion of many historians of technology, these quality Ford T let him be the car that started mass motorization of America.
Careful analysis of the construction of the Ford-T shows that it was noticeably different from the machines of those years, the originality of many of its nodes. So, magneto consisted of 16 horseshoe-shaped magnets mounted on the flywheel of the engine, and coils 16 mounted against them inside the case. During rotation of the flywheel (and thus the magnets) in coils suggests electromotive force of low voltage, which is converted to high using a coil-bobbin and circuit breakers.
Design features of the Ford-T are the reason that the controls on it were somewhat different, and they are arranged not as on the machines of other brands. Respectively, and for driving such a vehicle was necessary specific skills. In particular, the Tin Lizzy was not the gas pedal, and its functions were performed by a small lever right under the steering column. Was not familiar to modern drivers, the three pedals are arranged in a row. First, on the first two thousand cars had only two pedals and two large lever to the left of the driver. Later on Ford-T has three pedals (though they are not arranged in a row and the vertices of the triangle), and one of the two arms were excluded. While using the left pedal, the driver was engage first gear and using the right – rear drum brakes… rear transmission. So to operate the machine was not easy to learn it required a lot of time.
Brake system Tin Lizzy also differed from those used by competitor machines, and the process of braking on the Ford-T was one of the most difficult while driving. The fact that “gun it” the brake pedal and brake lever to stop the Ford-T was not easy. As mentioned above, the Tin Lizzy had two brake – gear-driven floor lever – it was a steel band, which was stopped the main shaft of the transmission, and drum brakes rear wheels driven by the right pedal. Brake pads at that time were cast in bronze, so they wear out quickly and replacing them was quite time-consuming.
Suspension Ford-T, even by the standards of the early twentieth century was not the height of perfection. The front and rear wheels mounted on a kind of movable spindles mounted on chetvertellipticheskih springs. Rods were steel, fixed; one end of each attached to the hinge of a steering column, and another on the spindle housing. It should be noted that the steering system of the Tin Lizzy was not one of the lubricated site. Ford rightly judged that vanadium steel and has good wear resistance, and another lubrication system will increase the cost of the car.
The car tires were rubber, chamber. Hub and spokes were cut from the special, so-called “artillery” of wood, strengthened in places loaded with bronze rims. Oddly enough, but Ford, always furious former fan of unification, used in the design of the Tin Lizzy front and rear wheels of different dimensions, forcing drivers to carry not one, but two spare wheels or more cameras!
Salon equipment Ford-T, to put it mildly, did not Shine with luxury. A large wooden wheel with a diameter of 360 mm with bronze spokes, was held immovably on the end of the steering shaft. Right under them was two short of a bronze lever with rubber tips – one of them ran the fuel feed and the other ignition. On the base version of the car the speedometer was not provided.
Chassis of Ford-T
The main controls and instruments car Ford-T:
1 – the lever of an advancing of ignition; 2 – horn button; 3 – a control lever throttle carburetor; 4 – the ignition lock; 5 – ammeter; 6 – a lamp of illumination of devices; 7 – button control pad device of the carburetor; 8 – wheel; 9 – the lever of a drum brake; 10 – a coupling pedal; 11 – a pedal of inclusion of a reverse gear; 12 – transmission brake pedal; 13 – speedometer
Although the components and assemblies of the Tin Lizzy was unusual in design, removal and repair has been so easy that to carry out this work might even unskilled mechanics in primitive workshops. The fact that the designers and engineers of the Ford Motor Company during the design Ford-T drew attention to the experience of the company Cadillac, which is widely used in its vehicles, the principle of interchangeability of parts and components. The use of this experience has allowed Ford Motor Company to produce parts with such tolerances that they fit to any machine of this series at no additional fit.
By 1910 – 1911 years, the firm has exhausted almost all resources to reduce the cost and increase the production of the Ford-T. And her next step was the rationalization of the technological process of manufacture of the vehicle, consisting in the replacement of a team assembling the car conveyor Assembly.
Many believe the pipeline invention of Henry Ford, but it is not so great owner only used the working principle of the conveyor line, which functioned at that time one of Chicago’s slaughterhouses.
For starters, Ford was ordered to clear one of the Assembly plants and it made a sort of pipeline, for which the shop has established a string of car chassis, tied together with ropes; moving along a series of machines housed pickers performing one or two operations. The experiment was successful, and on 7 October 1913 at the Ford plant in highland Park launched the first automotive Assembly line. Then the same lines were equipped with other shop; subsequently, all these lines are combined, thus creating a complex of complete conveyor Assembly of cars. In the end, worked round the clock of the conveyor (three shifts of 8 hours) started to get hundreds of thousands of cars a year, car prices declined to $ 350, and total production of the Ford-T amounted to 15 million cars!
Interestingly, the famous phrase of Ford’s “the Buyer is entitled to buy a car of any colour provided that its color will be black” appeared just after the start line – the frantic pace of the Assembly corresponded to the only Japanese fast-drying black enamel.
By the middle of 1920-ies-sale Ford-T began to decrease. Ford, Tin Lizzy considered a complete masterpiece, stubbornly clinging to old design – and this despite the fact that the varied tastes of customers, improved roads, and technological progress forward, not marking time. But the main thing – not dozing competitors, creating although more expensive, but more convenient, more reliable, more powerful and fast cars painted in the colors that were chosen pickiest buyer.
And I had to order Ford Tin Lizzy for quick-drying enamels of different colors, install the electric starter, move the fuel tank from under the seat under the engine hood, to reduce the size of the wheels and to increase the diameter of the wheel. Besides, the frame is lowered relative to the wheels 39 mm, and the wings and the body gave a more modern form.
However, by 1927 Ford T completely obsolete, losing the championship more stylish and more perfect cars competing firms. And on 31 may 1927 the factories of the company Ford Motor Company was closed for six months with a view to their conversion to release a brand new Ford car-A has been waiting for glory no less than the Tin Lizzy.
Technical characteristics of the car Ford-T
Igor EVSTRATOV
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Ford T – the first mass car. To do one car per month at the beginning of the XX century -a difficult task for teams of skilled mechanics and engineers, but doable. It is realistic to collect in the same time a dozen machines in the presence of a specialized Assembly stocks, uninterrupted supply for the posts of parts and team of trained pickers. However, even thousands of workers using the most modern for that time equipment would not be able to produce tens of thousands of cars per month.