5. Some manufacturers had also exhibited at a bicycle show in February 1900.
6. NYT, November 4, 1900, 10.
7. HA, January 7, 1900, 61.
8. Some reports have Wills not joining Ford until later, but Charles Sorenson has Wills beginning as a part-time worker about this time. Whenever the date, however, his contributions to Ford’s ultimate success are beyond question.
9. Snow, I Invented the Modern Age, 82.
10. Washington Evening Star, October 11, 1901, 9.
11. HA, November 20, 1901, 723.
12. MW, December 1901, 121.
13. HA, December 4, 1901, 786.
14. As with Wills, there is some question as to exactly when Leland joined the company. Most accounts have him coming on while Ford was still in the shop, which seems most likely; a few after Ford has no longer actively working there. Also as with Wills, it makes little difference to the thrust of the story.
15. Greenleaf, review of Leland and Millbrook, Master of Precision: Henry M. Leland, in Business History Review, Winter 1966, 517.
16. Ford, My Life and Work, 51.
17. Ibid., 50–51.
18. Quoted in Nevins, Ford, 218.
19. MWo, October 30, 1902, 131.
20. Ibid., 154.
21. MWo, September 10, 1903, 925.
22. Sports Illustrated, sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1075655/1/index.htm.
CHAPTER 10: THE ONCE AND FUTURE CAR
1. His father, Mayer, doubtless changed his name upon his arrival in America, but no record survives of the original.
2. A good source for details of Rice’s life is Kathy Cunningham, “Prologue: Preparing the Way for the Columbia Cars, and the Formation of the Electric Vehicle Company,” kcstudio.com/electrobat.html. Another is his obituary in The New York Times, November 3, 1915.
3. North American Review, June 1883, 557–67.
4. William Morrison, an engineer from Des Moines, Iowa, was purported to have built an electric car in 1890, but no record exists of his ever putting the machine to any meaningful use.
5. Harper’s Weekly, December 10, 1898, 1209.
6. NYT, March 7, 1897, 10. Rice was not so busy with the electric cabs that he did not take time out to referee an international chess match between the United States and Great Britain, held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Whenever he was mentioned in the newspapers for chess activities, he was referred to as “Professor Isaac L. Rice.”
7. Automobile, October 1899, 79.
8. Harper’s Weekly, December 10, 1898, 1209.
9. HA, March 1897, 5.
10. For a detailed description of Condict’s amazing work, see Kirsch, Electric Vehicle, 42–43.
11. Lead plates for exide batteries installed in electric cars rose from 7,500 in 1897 to 46,000 one year later.
12. HA, March 1897, 15. The magazine engaged in a long and bitter campaign of condemnation for electric vehicles, although, other than a stated prejudice for “hydrocarbons,” their reasons remained vague.
13. NYT, February 9, 1899, 4.
14. Hendrick, “Great American Fortunes and Their Making,” 38. Root was not without political influence himself. He would twice be secretary of war and, under Theodore Roosevelt, secretary of state.
15. Harvey Wish, “William C. Whitney: Modern Warwick by Mary D. Hirsch,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 36, no. 1 (June 1949): 148–49.
16. Hendrick, “Great American Fortunes and Their Making,” 34.
17. Ibid.
18. Rae, “The Electric Vehicle Company,” 300.
19. NYT, May 6, 1899, 1.
20. Maxim, Horseless Carriage Days, 165.
21. Washington Times, July 13, 1899, 5.
CHAPTER 11: SELDEN REDUX
1. Hazel’s credentials were such that the New York Bar Association declared him highly unqualified for appointment to the federal bench, which dissuaded President McKinley not one bit. For a longer description of Hazel’s rather pathetic record, see Goldstone, Birdmen…a terrific book.
2. Two years later, Judge Coxe, at Thomas Platt’s behest, would be appointed to the United States Court of Appeals, where he would eventually cast a vote for the Wright brothers in their infringement suit against Glenn Curtiss.
CHAPTER 12: FORD BEGINS HIS ALPHABET
1. Ford, My Life and Work, 51.
2. Barnard, Independent Man, 37.
3. Nevins, Ford, 230.
4. Kimes, Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels, 38.
5. SciAm, June 24, 1893, 396.
6. SciAm, May 21, 1892, 329.
7. Glasscock, The Gasoline Age, 40.
8. The company also later denied that gasoline stored in the building was the cause, although they did not suggest an alternative.
9. Kettering, American Battle for Abundance, 51. Kettering was writing for General Motors and as such would certainly be partial to Olds over Ford. Still, the facts as he states them are correct.
10. Glasscock, The Gasoline Age, 42.
11. Hyde, “The Dodge Brothers,” 53.
12. Quoted in Nevins, Ford, 224.
13. Quoted in Kettering, American Battle for Abundance, 53.
14. Wells, “The Road to the Model T,” 503.
15. Hyde, “The Dodge Brothers,” 53.
16. It is unclear whether or not Ford attended this meeting personally. Some Ford biographers imply, but do not state categorically, that he was there, while Couzens’s biographer indicates that he was not. In any case, it does not seem as if Ford played a major role in raising money, although his designs certainly did.
17. Here there seems little question that Ford participated little or not at all in the discussions with those who would back the new company.
18. There is some dispute as to why the Dodges were willing to take such an enormous risk and throw in totally with Ford, whether it was because of fervent belief in the Ford product or that there was an uncertain future with Olds.
19. Couzens wanted her listed as an investor in her own right, but Ford refused to have a woman on the rolls, so her shares were subsumed in his.
20. Ford, My Life and Work, 54.
21. See, for example, the Edgefield (South Carolina) Advertiser, July 22, 1903, or Valentine (Nebraska) Democrat, October 1, 1903.
22. Nevins, Ford, 239.
23. Hyde, “The Dodge Brothers,” 57.
24. The price must have included shipping, because Ford would set the price on the car and advertise it widely at $750.
25. Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal, July 1903, 42.
26. HA, September 23, 1903, 332.
27. Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal, July 1903, 42.
28. MA, April 3, 1903, 10.
29. Quoted in Greenleaf, Monopoly on Wheels, 107–8.
30. Greenleaf, Monopoly on Wheels, 111.
CHAPTER 13: MAN AND DOG OVER THE ROCKIES
1. The cross-country auto trips of 1903 are detailed in the various trade journals, but also excellently recounted in McConnell, Coast to Coast by Automobile, 97.
2. Joy’s belief that the Packard’s run was his answer to the races in Europe was confirmed by Krarup. The Packard left San Francisco timed to arrive in Salt Lake City when the results of the 370-mile Gordon Bennett Cup would reach America from Europe. “This probable coincidence of dates might lead to a comparison of the relative importance of the two events,” Krarup wrote, “one a race at breakneck speed over a smooth course, and the other steady plugging over rough and almost untrodden ground, yet each in its own way intended to demonstrate what this product of modern ingenuity…may be trusted to do.” Quoted in McConnell, Coast to Coast by Automobile, 103.
3. Lincoln Highway, 7.
4. HA, August 5, 1903, 157.
5. New-York Tribune, August 22, 1903, 6.
6. Around the World in Eighty Days had been published in 1873, but was still popular three decades later.
7. MA, February 25, 1915, 27.
8. Ibid., 37.
9. HA, July 29, 1903, 126.
CHAPTER 14: WILLIE K. COMES HOME
1. Although not a single Spanish-made automobile would enter.
2. Motor Car Journal, May 2, 1903, 178.
3. HA, March 11, 1903, 355.
4. NYT, May 24, 1903, 4.
5. NYT, May 24, 1903, 8.
6. Automobile Topics, May 30, 1903, 432–33.
7. Ibid.
8. Jarrott, Ten Years of Motors and Motor Racing, 166.
9. Automobile Topics, May 30, 1903, 434.
10. Ibid., 413.
11. Motor Car Journal, June 13, 1903, 287.
12. HA, June 10, 1903, 670.
13. Automobile Topics, May 30, 1903, 414.
14. Ibid., June 6, 1903, 477.
15. HA, June 10, 1903, 671.
16. Western Reserve Historical Society, wrhs.org/Properties/Peerless_Manufacturing_Company.
17. Automobile Topics, April 18, 1903, 29.
18. Ibid., 17.
CHAPTER 15: COLLISION
1. And might have actually been one, since the author was never identified.
2. Automobile Topics, June 6, 1903, 499–501.
3. George Selden received about a tenth of the monies, far from the millions he had hoped for but a great deal more than he could ever make as a patent attorney in Rochester.
4. Greenleaf, Monopoly on Wheels, 115.
5. Hartford Courant, August 31, 1903, 9.
6. HA, October 7, 1903, 378.
7. Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal, December 1, 1903, 19.
8. HA, October 28, 1903, 445.
9. Sorenson, My Forty Years with Ford, 76.
10. Ford, My Life and Work, 57.
11. Three years later at Ormond Beach, Glenn Curtiss would travel at more than 130 miles per hour on an 8-cylinder motorcycle.
CHAPTER 16: WILLIE K.’S ROAD
1. Burns, Thunder at Sunrise, 19.
2. NYT, February 28, 1904, 16.
3. Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal, July 1904, 25. The rules were published in every other trade journal, as well as major newspapers such as the NYT.
4. The two best sources for information on this and subsequent Vanderbilt Cup races are Howard Kroplick’s Vanderbilt Cup Races of Long Island and Burns’s Thunder at Sunrise.
5. Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal, August 1, 1904, 23.
6. MA, October 6, 1904, 16.
7. Burns, Thunder at Sunrise, 31.
8. MA, October 13, 1904, 3.
9. NYT, October 9, 1904, 2.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 9, 1904, 1.
13. NYT, October 9, 1904, 8.
CHAPTER 17: PALACE COUP
1. Nevins, Ford, 253–54.
2. Ford, My Life and Work, 40. Once again, Ford’s ghostwritten autobiography is a reliable account of his philosophy, at least how it had evolved by 1920.
3. Nevins, Ford, 269.
4. Ibid., 227.
5. Sorenson, My Forty Years with Ford, 74.
6. Nevins, Ford, 267.
7. Ibid., 268.
8. Sward, Legend of Henry Ford, 43–44. Sward’s book was one of the most critical of Ford, dismissed by Ford devotees as character assassination. While many of Sward’s more inflammatory judgments regarding Ford’s character should be viewed with skepticism, his assessments regarding management issues, and in this case, Couzens’s role, seem accurate.
9. Sorenson, My Forty Years with Ford, 36.
10. Barnard, Independent Man, 60.
11. MW, December 28, 1905, 14.
12. Ford and Couzens had tested out this strategy in 1904, when they incorporated Ford of Canada, in which Malcomson was not a stockholder. The open-ended pricing clause was not part of that arrangement, so Malcomson had gone along.
13. Quoted in Barnard, Independent Man, 62.
14. Sorenson, My Forty Years with Ford, 77–78.
CHAPTER 18: THE FIRST SHOT OF THE REVOLUTION
1. MWo, November 1905, 61.
2. This ad appeared in almost every major journal.
3. Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal, January 1906, 105.
4. Greenleaf, Monopoly on Wheels, 170.
5. NYT, January 14, 1906, 10.
6. Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal, February 1906, 76.
7. HA, January 17, 1906, 103.
8. Ibid., 104. Manufacturers who were paying licensing fees to ALAM were allowed to exhibit in the Garden along with the members.
9. HA, January 17, 1906, 104.
10. Ibid., 106.
11. Nevins, Ford, 325.
12. Quoted in Nevins, Ford, 326.
13. MW, August 16, 1906, 16.
14. Ibid., 18.
15. Whether this was coincidence—the earlier production problems were real—or contrivance by Ford and Malcomson can only be guessed at.
16. Sorenson, My Forty Years with Ford, 45.
17. Musselman, Get a Horse!, 184. Musselman was best known as a Hollywood screenwriter, but his father was an eccentric inventor.
18. Kettering, American Battle for Abundance, 60–61. Kettering’s most famous inventions are leaded gasoline, an improved electric starter, Freon refrigerant, and the “aerial torpedo.”
19. Sorenson, My Forty Years with Ford, 45–46.
20. HA, July 11, 1906, 47.
CHAPTER 19: MR. SELDEN COMES TO NEW YORK
1. HA, February 28, 1906, 341.
2. Maxim, Horseless Carriage Days, 172.
3. Greenleaf, Monopoly on Wheels, 152.
4. HA, July 10, 1907, 45.
5. MWo, May 23, 1906, 871.
6. NYT, May 19, 1907, 8.
7. Greenleaf, Monopoly on Wheels, 149.
8. Technical World, September 1906, 2.
9. New York Sun, October 28, 1906, 5.
10. HA, May 23, 1906, 739.
11. MW, May 23, 1906, 871.
12. HA, July 10, 1907, 45.
13. Greenleaf, Monopoly on Wheels, 154.
14. Ibid., 156.
15. MWo, October 11, 1906, 69.
16. MWo, December 27, 1906, 767.
17. HA, December 12, 1906, 877.
18. MW, May 1907, 24.
19. Greenleaf, Monopoly on Wheels, 157.
20. MW, July 1907, 32.
21. Ibid., 33.
22. Greenleaf, Monopoly on Wheels, 159.
23. MW, July 1907, 33.
24. Greenleaf, Monopoly on Wheels, 159.
25. HA, September 11, 1907, 340.
26. HA, September 18, 1907, 371.
CHAPTER 20: FORD MOTOR COMES OF AGE
1. MW, August 16, 1906, 9. (All MW quotations in this section are from this article.)
2. A small portion borders Hamtramck, another island city within the Detroit borders.
3. Greenleaf, Monopoly on Wheels, 175.
4. Ibid., 169.
5. Ford, My Life and Work, 63.
6. Barnard, Independent Man, 57.
7. Automobile, December 13, 1906, 847.
8. Apple’s performance in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008 is a more modern example of the same phenomenon. Both revenues and net income increased in 2009, and then soared in 2010.
9. Nevins, Ford, 342.
10. Dicke, Franchising in America, 64.
11. MW, December 12, 1912, 20.
12. Quoted in Kroplick and Velocci, The Long Island Motor Parkway, 8.
CHAPTER 21: AROUND THE WORLD IN 169 DAYS
1. MW, September 1907, 6.
2. HA, August 28, 1907, 283.
3. Spokane Press, August 20, 1907, 4.
4. NYT, August 11, 1907, C3 (Special Cablegram section).
5. NYT, November 28, 1907, 1.
6. Ibid.
7. NYT, February 11, 1908, 1.
8. MW, February 1908, 10.
9. NYT, March 28, 1908, 2.
10. NYT, April 6, 1908, 1.
11. NYT, May 25, 1908, 1.
12. MA, July 30, 1908, 1.
13. N
YT, July 27, 1907, 8.
14. MA, August 11, 1908, 10.
15. NYT, August 18, 1908, 1.
CHAPTER 22: FORD’S PHENOMENON
1. A practice for which United States automobile manufacturers in the 1960s and 1970s heaped condemnation on Japan, as currently do American technology firms on China.
2. See Sorenson, My Forty Years with Ford, 100.
3. Ford, My Life and Work, 17.
4. Ibid.
5. Sorenson, My Forty Years with Ford, 96.
6. Ibid., 97.
7. MA, September 24, 1908, 47.
8. MWo, September 24, 1908, 28–29.
9. Ford, My Life and Work, 63.
10. Rae, “The Fabulous Billy Durant,” 255. Rae’s article is, by far, the best and most insightful thumbnail of Durant’s life and career.
11. Ibid., 258.
12. Fisher Body was not officially merged with General Motors until 1919, but functioned much as a subsidiary for years before that.
13. Maines, Men, 15.
14. Ibid.
15. Rae, “The Fabulous Billy Durant,” 261.
CHAPTER 23: FALSE END OF A LONG TRAIL
1. NYT, May 6, 1900, 18. The ice pricing scheme ultimately failed amidst revelations of political favors and probably bribery involving New York City’s mayor.
2. NYT, November 7, 1908, 1.
3. Greenleaf, Monopoly on Wheels, 198–99.
4. Ibid., 199.
5. Ibid., 200.
6. Ibid., 202.
7. Quoted in MWo, June 10, 1909, 405.
8. The text of the entire opinion was printed in MW, September 16, 1909, 1064–6.
9. Bunker, “The New Federal Equity Rules.” The notion of pioneer patents, while not specifically addressed in the rules change, soon effectively disappeared from jurisprudence.
10. MWo, September 16, 1909, 1053.
11. HA, September 22, 1909, 313. It was precisely Hough’s lack of experience in patent cases, of course, that would make his decision most vulnerable to appeal.
Drive!: Henry Ford, George Selden, and the Race to Invent the Auto Age Page 36