Ford Model T

Ford Model T — The Model T Ford (1908; United States), also known as the “Tin Lizzie”, was the first mass produced automobile

The Ford Model T (colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie and the Flivver) was an automobile produced by Henry Ford’s Ford Motor Company from 1908 through 1927. The model T set 1908 as the historic year that the automobile came into popular usage. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, the car which “put America on wheels“; some of this was because of Ford’s innovations, including assembly line production instead of individual hand crafting (though the Oldsmobile Curved Dash had done this first), as well as the concept of paying the workers a wage proportionate to the cost of the car, so that they would provide a ready made market.The first production Model T was built on September 27, 1908, at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan.

There were several cars produced or prototyped by Henry Ford from the founding of the company in 1903 until the Model T came along. Although he started at the ’Model A, there were not 19 production models; some were only prototypes. The production model immediately before the Model T was the Ford Model S , an upgraded version of the company’s largest success to that point, the Model N. For some reason, the follow-up was the Ford Model A and not the Model U. Company publicity said this was because the new car was such a departure from the old that Henry wanted to start all over again with the letter A. As it happens, the first Plymouth car (1928), built by competitor Chrysler Corporation, was named the Model U.

The Ford Model T was named the world’s most influential car of the twentieth century in an international poll. The Ford Model car was designed by Childe Harold Wills and two Hungarian immigrants named Joseph A. Galamb and Eugene Farkas. Also, Harry Love, C. J. Smith, Gus Degner and Peter E. Martin were part of the team. While production of the Model T began in 1908, model years range from 1909 to 1927.