Really Good series of articles on the various aspects of Henry’s wonderful Flathead V8 on the Racing in Retrospect website from the Mid State Antique Stock Car Club.
Read on here
Henry Ford
Did Henry Design the Model T as a Multi Fuel Vehicle? – Hemming’s Daniel Strohl
Interesting article from Daniel Strohl at Hemming’s.
Was the Model T designed to run on Multi Fuels?
Read on here
Henry Ford Random Patents #8 – US 610040 Carburetor
Henry patented a carburetor way back in 1898 under US Patent 610040
Full patent detail here
Henry Ford Random Patents #7 US 769734 A Chain adjustment for motor-vehicles.
All the patent detail can be found here
The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant
If you are ever in Detroit you can now visit the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant the birthplace of the Model T.
The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant is recognized as one of the most significant automotive heritage sites in the world.
The building is undergoing a restoration and was saved by volunteers.
The website is here
A great historic place to visit!
Today, you can vi
sit the birthplace of the Model T. Avenue Plant is again open and evolving into a symbol of Detroit’s ability to invent, innovate, and rebound. Walk the plank floors worn smooth by hundreds of workers and thousands of cars. See Henry Ford’s competition, his early successes and false starts. Learn how volunteers saved one of the world’s most significant industrial building
The Dozen Most Important Cars of All Time – The Model T Ford
The Model T, included in the Time Magazine “Dozen Most Important Cars of All Time”
The article is here
Henry Ford Random Patents #6 US 1850006 A Brake
Henry published patent US 1850006 A in March 1932
The patent detailed a new improved braking system
It appears he was still sticking doggedly to the mechanical operation of brakes at this time.
You can see the full details here
Henry Ford Random Patents #5 Motor-carriage. US 686046 A
On the 12th September 1899 Henry filed a patent for a Motor-carriage which was finally published in November 1901 as US 686046 A
The full details of the patent can be found here
Henry Ford Random Patents #4 – US 2269451 A Automobile body construction (Henry’s Plastic Car)
Henry applied for and was granted US Patent 2269451 A
This is an excerpt, including the spelling!
Provide an automobile body construction of improved’ construction. 1 v
More specifically, the object of my invention is to provide a body construction in which plastic body panels-are employed, .not only for the doors and side panels, but also for the roof, hood and all other ‘exposed panels on the body.
Plastic parts have many advantages in that they produce a quiet body, may be molded to exact sizes, may be formed economically from soy bean oil, may be readily replaced in case of accident, and result in a lighter construction.
However, there are also many disadvantages to g all such constructions in the past because the panels are not able structurally to resist the stresses to which such panels are exposed in the conventional body. In the present all-steel body the “panels are depended upon almost entirely to resist the many stresses set up in the body.
An object of this invention is, therefore, to
provide a body frame structure which will resist all normally encountered stresses independently of the body panels.
The full patent detail can be found here
It’s believed the war overtook things and the idea was never pursued.
There is also an interesting article on Henry’s plastic car by Ben Judge that can be found here at Money Week
One Hundred and Three Years Ago Today, Henry Ford Introduced the Assembly Line: His Workers Hated It | Smart News | Smithsonian
Read the story here
