Henry Ford

[CND Supercrew]

Found this article

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[lurch]

Standard Oil was not going to let that happen.

 

[FaaWrenchBndr]

I find it hard to believe that he would actually painted one a color other than black

 

[TopOMichXL]

Nice styling,,,for a ‘41’ ???

 

[J929626]

Soybean Car - The Henry Ford

 

[Larrymoe]

What in the name of AI is that picture? That is most definitely not a 1941 car, nor is it Henry Ford.

 

[MoodSwing]

Found this years ago.

 

[Old Hat]

I find it hard to believe that he would actually painted one a color other than black

Green car needed to be green.

 

[Buyer2021]

Just for grins I looked at the New York Times archive (I'm a subscriber) and found the February 2, 1941, article mentioned in the first post above. It's difficult to read the cropped screen-grab but perfectly sharp and readable on the NYT website.

Methinks the article linked in the OP exercised a bit of literary license / hyperbole. The original article, which has no associated pictures, makes no reference to "Model T". and though describing Ford's experiments with agriculture-based plastic, including a projection that it would yield a car 300# lighter than "comparable models", makes it clear that the first prototype was "nearing completion" (but not yet complete) at the time of the original NYT article.

 

[Eighthtry]

I remember that car. It was built to demonstrate Ford Engineering and Design expertise leading into what inevitably became steel shortages during WWII. The fiber swells up when it gets wet. That explains the green die finish, since it obviously can't hold a hard finish like enamel.

It had a heavy duty suspension and serious shocks and springs because of all the extra water and mud that it carried. Ford became an industry leader for many years as it applied the suspension engineering to the rest of its car line. Few knew that the Edsel was the test bed for its introduction of that state of the art application.

Another first for Ford was the application of that suspension technology to the rest of its car line. Few know that was the reason the Edsel was delayed into the '50s. It took a long time to understand that hydraulic shocks, once the sealing of the fluid was perfected, were much better than the canvas strap shocks that were prevalent in the '20s. While Ford had substantially improved the canvas strap shocks by then, Henry Ford's cousin, Monroe Ford, took what Henry had done, tinkered with it in his garage, and further improved that technology. He and Henry formed the Monroe Hydraulic Shock Company.

As an aside Henry and Monroe had a knock down-drag out fight Christmas Day of 1938, which was the beginning of a permanent schism in the family. The rumor is that Henry had formed a separate company that wanted to sell the shock technology to the Germans. Monroe was more than a little miffed that the Germans wanted to further develop those shocks to dampen the engine mounts in their aircraft fleet. While he liked the idea, he felt it impossible to engineer in the short period of time leading up to WWII, and he was suspicious of the Germans, as were more than a few others. While short lived, the Ford/Monroe relationship proved to be even more profitable than Ford Motor Company. It continued engineering the shocks to other automotive and industrial applications.

Monroe did take a page from Henry's book, which proved costly to Henry. Henry was slowly falling behind the rest of the automotive industry in application of technology to newer cars. Monroe had begun to campaign a highly successful race team that had married two four cylinder Ford engines into one, creating what he called the Monroe-Manic V8. Ford felt that the V8 was the engine of the future. He bought the patent and machining from Monroe, paying $15.3 million. Henry was highly successful in marketing that V8. He never acknowledged that Monroe was really a "silent partner". Monroe was not involved in further improvement to that engine He had, however, pocketed several years of profits up front with that sale.

There are other applications of the different technologies developed by Henry and Monroe.

Monroe stole the body composition technology from Ford and developed the worlds first grass based ocean going freighter. It soon became apparent that it could not make it entirely across the Atlantic without becoming so water logged that it could not carry a full load of freight and the gasoline needed to run the engines. A more efficient method had to be developed and Monroe again stepped up with the concrete freighter. While that proved viable, concreete shortages put it on the sidelines. The US had plenty of steel, but had not developed the resources to produce concrete in the volume needed to ply the Atlantic.

This technologhy stuff is fascinating reading. There are plenty of stories about the development of new technology to this day. For instance, another interesting fact is that Maxwell Burns is the father of today's electric cars. He was working with lithium-ion technology as a fuel for jet engines. He could not get it to stay in a fuel tank without melting the fuel tank and the jet if it caught on fire. It was just too difficult to harness the energy stores as jet fuel.

He accidently discovered how to package lithium-ion within a smaller package that seemed to work well and, surprise, could actually store an electical charge. The discovery that lithium-ions could hold a charge was the result of a lab error made by Burns when he electrocuted himself. However, once his patent expired the race was on to perfect battery construction that would package the lithium-ion more safely while using the existing electical grid to supply the energy to recharge the batteries. One thing that was never discussed is where all of the raw materials would come from, as China was not as advanced as it is today. So the technology sat on the shelf for a few decades until the Chinese gradually figured out there was a market to be exploited. The detail behind that exploitation is by itself another two volume book. The problem is that it is buried in the Library of Congress. It will eventually be read and, as the US always does, problems will be solved and the product further developed.

And that is enough history for the day.

 

[HammaMan]

Hemp got the short end of the stick. Reefer madness wasn't about a 'drug', it was about protecting cotton and we've been malaligned ever since.

 

[wessermgm]

I can believe that Henry Ford would develop a auto built from bio-materials at the beginning of our war effort - don't have to believe it happened, it did. However, that is not a picture of it - or Henry Ford. By 1941, cars had doors and inflatable tires. However, this is a picture of the 1942 "Soybean" Car.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean_car

 

[Captain Dirty Beard]

Standard Oil was not going to let that happen.

Or Carnegie Steel

 

[dochawk]

The fiber swells up when it gets wet.

on the bright side, when it caught fire, the passengers all relaxed, although they got hungry. . . .

 

[Larrymoe]

Wtf is going on in here?

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