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The Ford Motor Company has constructed and equipped, in eight months an airplane engine building. It covers 17.8 acres, will employ over 14,000 men, will turn out Pratt and Whitney engines at the rate of one an hour for sixteen hours a day. Building and machinery cost twenty-three million dollars. Photo shows three machines on truck, on their way to be installed in the new aircraft building

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The Ford Motor Company has constructed and equipped, in eight months an airplane engine building. It covers 17.8 acres, will employ over 14,000 men, will turn out Pratt and Whitney engines at the rate of one an hour for sixteen hours a day. Building and machinery cost twenty-three million dollars. Photo shows three machines on truck, on their way to be installed in the new aircraft building

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Summary

Picryl description: Public domain image of a locomotive, train tracks, rail transportation, railroad, railway, 19th-20th century, free to use, no copyright restrictions.

Henry Ford built his first automobile, which he called a quadricycle, at his home in Detroit in 1896. His first company called Detroit Automobile Company, founded in 1899 but failed soon. On June 16, 1903, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated. During its early years, the company produced a range of vehicles designated, chronologically, from the Ford Model A (1903) to the Model K and Model S of 1907. In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model T. By 1913, Ford introduced the world's first moving assembly line that year, which reduced chassis assembly time from 12 1⁄2 hours in October to 2 hours 40 minutes (and ultimately 1 hour 33 minutes), and boosted annual output to 202,667 units that year. By 1920, production exceeds one million a year. Turnover of workers was very high. In January 1914, Ford solved the problem by doubling pay to $5 a day, cutting shifts from nine hours to an eight-hour day. It increased sales: a line worker could buy a T with less than four months' pay, and instituting hiring practices that identified the best workers, including disabled people, considered unemployable by other firms. Employee turnover plunged, productivity soared, and with it, the cost per vehicle plummeted. Ford cut prices again and again and invented the system of franchised dealers who were loyal to his brand name. Wall Street had criticized Ford's generous labor practices when he began paying workers enough to buy the products they made.

date_range

Date

01/01/1941
person

Contributors

Palmer, Alfred T., photographer
United States. Office of War Information.
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Location

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Source

Library of Congress
copyright

Copyright info

Public Domain

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