Every Day Is Special: Ford

Showing posts with label Ford. Show all posts

June 4 - Henry Ford's First Test Drive!

Posted on June 4, 2021

This is an update of my post published on June 4, 2010:

On this day in 1896, Henry Ford put the finishing touches on his first vehicle.

This self-propelled vehicle ran on a gasoline-powered engine.

Sitting on four bicycle tires, it didn't look much like modern automobiles, but it was their direct ancestor.

Ford called this first vehicle a quadricycle. It was also called a horseless carriage and a gasoline buggy.

On that day in 1896, Ford started up his quadricycle and drove it around the streets of Detroit, Michigan. Naturally, it attracted stares and questions from onlookers.

I wonder if it seemed very low to the ground next to the people on horseback and horse-drawn carriages?

The quadricycle only had two gears—and no reverse! It reached speeds of 20 miles per hour.

Later in 1896, Ford sold this first quadricycle for $200. He built two more in the next three years, and of course went on to make better and better cars, including his famous Model T.

Eventually, Ford bought back his first quadricycle for $65. It is now on display in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

Design a vehicle or transport system of the future.

Think about the stuff you've seen in science fiction movies. Are those vehicles possible? Practical? Desirable?

Do you have any completely original ideas?

Remember, most invention is really REinvention.

Take some vehicle that works and re-design it so that it's better: cheaper, faster, smaller, larger, “greener” (by which I mean better for the environment), or ...

Find Out More

Read a short bio of Henry Ford. Ford is famous for his invention and reinvention, of course, but he is also famous for some of his labor practices, for being pro-peace during the beginning of World War I, for working with fellow inventor George Washington Carver...and for a yucky thing: for being anti-Semitic. That means that Ford said and wrote hateful (and untrue!) things about Jewish people.

Notice that at the bottom of the bio page there is a free jigsaw puzzle and some other activities.

Learn about Henry Ford's assembly line. Then try out assembly-line principles with by making edible cars (first activity).

Also on this date:

Old Maids Day? Yikes!

Fabulist Aesop's birthday

Audacity to Hope Day

Anniversary of the great auk going extinct

Drawing Day

Emancipation Day in Tonga

Revolution Day in Ghana

Anniversary of St. Paul's steeple being destroyed

Estonia's Flag Day

World Hug Your Cat Day

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

June holidays

June birthdays

Historical anniversaries in June

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

April 13 – Happy Birthday to the Henry Ford of Clocks!

Posted on April 13, 2018

Do you know what "interchangeable parts" means?

It means that many different products can use the same gear, or plug, or whatever-it-is. That means it's easier to build things, easier to replace broken things, easier to replace lost parts, easier to use different products together...

Just EASIER!

Consider this example:

Back in the bad old days, every cell phone had a different, but similar looking, phone charger.

Plugging a phone into a car recharger required a different cord attached to something that connected with a car's cigarette lighter.

And plugging the phones into computers or anything else required entirely different cords and cables and connectors and...

Well, nowadays, almost all cell phone chargers and plugs and connectors work with standardized USB technology. My iPhone cord may not be the same as your Android cord, but either one can connect with an electrical plug, and both can connect with a USB outlet on a computer, TV, car, electrical strip, or other device. Because of this, things have become easier.

That "interchangeable parts" thing is what Henry Ford did for automobiles. And before that, it is what today's famous birthday, Eli Terry, did for clocks.

Born in Connecticut 1772, Terry began to make clocks when he was just twenty years old. He had learned the craft from two master clockmakers, but he also innovated:

He had apprentices make rough-cut wheels that he and other skilled clockmakers could shape into precise clockworks.

Then he created water-powered machines to make those rough-cut wheels. Still, a master clockmaker had to make the gears with precision so that they would fit together.

Then he invented jigs and fixtures so that the gears themselves were manufactured - always the same, always fitting together perfectly, and therefore interchangeable with one another!

Before all of Terry's inventiveness, a skilled clockmaker could make six clocks in a year. But, with Terry's inventions, Terry could make three THOUSAND clocks in a year!

Naturally, this meant that clocks could be sold way more cheaply, to average folks. They weren't just for the rich, anymore!

Terry's inexpensive household clocks didn't sell right away. Many people were not used to the idea that they could have timepieces in their homes - they relied on hearing the time from the community or church bells that chimed out the hour, half hour, and quarter hour.

So Terry came up with another innovation - this time in marketing and sales:

Get your free trial!

Own your own clock!

No money down!

Eventually, Terry sold enough clocks that he had accumulated a comfortable bank balance - one might even say a fortune. He then worked to help his three sons who went into the clockmaking business to establish themselves, and he also went back into the making of fine hand-made clockworks for high-end special-order clocks!

Also on this date:

Songkran in Thailand

Anniversary of the coining of the word “microscope”

National Scrabble Day

Thomas Jefferson's birthday

Apollo 13 Day

Anniversary of the arrival of the first elephant in the U.S.

New Year's Celebrations in Cambodia and Laos

Anniversary of a Pulitzer won and lost

Anniversary of the founding of NYC's Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

July 14 – Happy Birthday, President Ford!

Posted on July 14, 2017

You probably know that, if a United States president dies in office, then the vice president is sworn in as president. (Eight presidents have died in office, so far, and have been replaced by their V-Ps.)

And if a president resigns, or is impeached and convicted, or is removed for cause according to the rules of the 25th Amendment, again, the vice president is sworn in as president. (Only one president has resigned; no presidents have been removed from office because of impeachment or according to the rules in the 25th Amendment.)

Of all the vice presidents who became president when the office became vacant, Gerald Ford was the only one to become president because of a resignation. On August 9, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment for attempting to cover up the Watergate break-in, plus other "dirty tricks" and abuses of power. Vice President Ford was sworn in as president that day.

Ford was also the only American president who had never been elected as president or vice president. He had been appointed as the vice president under Nixon when Nixon's elected vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned. (Agnew faced criminal charges of extortion, tax fraud, bribery, and conspiracy! Wow!)

The first four V-Ps to become president were not elected after serving their partial term - and therefore they were president but were never elected president. This group includes John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Chester Arthur.

However, in more recent times, three V-Ps who became president ran for re-election and won a second term. These include Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Ford broke the newer pattern. In 1976, he ran against Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, and Ford lost.

Ford's time in the Oval Office wasn't amazing. He pardoned Nixon (a controversial act), and during his presidency South Vietnam was conquered by North Vietnam. Also, during Ford's term the American economy faced growing inflation and a recession. Wham, wham - double bad news.

More "wham, wham!"

Back before his career in politics, Gerald Ford was in the Navy during World War II. There, too, he faced double bad news: his aircraft carrier, the USS Monterey, was rolling dangerously in giant waves kicked up by a typhoon (a hurricane storm) AND was on fire!

How does a ship catch on fire during a wet, wet storm?

Well, with all that pitching and rolling and yawing, in the storm, several aircraft had torn loose from their cables and collided on the hangar deck!

You see, the hangar deck is the carrier's "garage," where most of the aircraft are kept when not in use. It's not the top deck, which is the flight deck. Rain wasn't falling below decks!

Reporting for duty the morning of December 18, 1944, Gerald Ford was almost swept overboard as the ship rolled. He lost his footing and slid to the edge of the deck. The two-inch steel ridge around the edge of the carrier helped him catch himself and roll into the catwalk below the deck.

At that point, Ford was ordered to face death a second time: he was asked to assess the fire raging below. He managed to gather the information needed and get back safely to his commanding officer, and the ship's crew was able to put the fire out.

With the fire put out, the aircraft carrier limped out of the "Pacific theater" of the war and over to Bremerton, Washington, for repairs. Not only was Ford lucky to have survived, all his shipmates were, as well, because their fleet lost three destroyers and more than 800 sailors during that dreadful typhoon!