Automobiles

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The First Cars At the turn of the century there were many

efforts to invent automobiles One early design was a large tricycle with a

small motor and hand bars

Henry Ford Henry Ford popularized the car in North America He invented the ‘assembly line’, the method still

used today in modern auto manufacturing facilities

The Assembly Line Many workers worked together using mass

production to build a car piece by piece One group (or individual) add wheels, another

group (or individual) adds the motor, another group (or individual) adds gas tank, and so on

• Each worker or group did a single job on many cars• Called the “specialization of labour”

The Cost Using the assembly line Ford could produce cars

cheaper and more efficiently The cost of a “Tin Lizzie” in 1917 was $495 By 1925 so many cars were rolling off Ford’s assembly

line in Windsor that the price dropped to $424

The Model-T known as the Tin

Lizzie, Flivver, T‑Model Ford, or T

Produced by Henry Ford from 1908 through 1927

The Model T set 1908 as the historic year that the automobile became popular

The Model-T It is generally regarded as the first affordable

automobile, the car that opened travel to the common middle-class North American

The first production Model T was produced on August 12, 1908 and left the factory on September 27, 1908

The Model T was the first automobile mass produced on assembly lines with completely interchangeable parts, marketed to the middle class

Lives changed by the car…

Autos changed the way Canadians lived Families could drive 30-40 km to visit friends and

make it home for dark Weekend outings became more popular Farmers have more access to the consumer market

Status Cars became a status symbol (and still are

today) Exotic makes like Auburn, Cadillac, Lincoln and

Cord could reach 160km/hr Shared road with lower end cars such as the

Model-T and Chevrolets

Prevalence The number of new cars increased from 838,672 in 1926 to

945,672 in 1927 (an increase of 107,000) In 1927 approximately 9,832 km of new roads were created

because of the increased prevalence of cars on the road and people owning cars

Problems Cars in the 20’s didn’t have much use in the winter Even if you could start the car, the roads were much too dangerous to drive

on Often the cars would get stuck in the mud Ontario drivers were not licensed until 1927 and then you only had to have

previously driven 800km, had no physical/mental impairments and paid $1 Speed limits were set at 30-40km/hour in 1919 (10km/hour when a horse-

drawn carriage was near)