No. 008 of 207
This 1915 Ford Model T was donated to the Martin Museum by Robert Fisher.
The Ford Model T has an extensive history that stretched over nearly 20 years. It is often called the Tin Lizzie, Flivver, Leaping Lena, or Jitney, and is credited with "putting America on wheels." In 1915, the Model T cost approximately $440.
Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, produced a vehicle that was affordable, but more importantly, mass produced. By using an assembly line to construct parts, rather than the traditional hand assembly, the process was streamlined. With dealerships and factories setup throughout the world, the Model T was mass produced and easily available to many buyers. In 1915, Ford produced 1-million Model T vehicles.
Henry Ford conceived a series of cars between the founding of the company in 1903 and the introduction of the Model T. Ford named his first car the Model A and proceeded through the alphabet up through the Model T. Twenty models in all, not all of which went into production. The production model immediately before the Model T was the Model S, an upgraded version of the company's largest success to that point, the Model N. The follow-up to the Model T was another Ford Model A, rather than the "Model U". The company publicity said this was because the new car was such a departure from the old that Ford wanted to start all over again with the letter A.
The Model T was Ford's first automobile mass-produced on moving assembly lines with completely interchangeable parts, marketed to the middle class. Henry Ford said of the vehicle:
I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one – and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces.
Production Oct 1908 through May 1927
Front-mounted 4-cylinder, 177 cubic inch engine
20 horsepower
Magneto ignition
Electric start
Rick DeBruhl's Commentary - The Model T Changed Everything
The Brass Era / 1886–1915
