[john a milne]

I was given a number of Car Catalogues and Information dating from 1914. It was the formative period of the emerging Automotive Industry with Henry Ford pulling rapidly ahead of the pack.

Henry Ford started his first company in 1899, the Detroit Automotive Company which was dissolved in 1901. His racing success during the next two years enabled him to raise $28,000 to found his 'Ford Motor Company" and built a number of models starting with the model A. The Model T was introduced in 1908 which continued in production until 1927 with the introduction of the Model A.

His vision was to build an inexpensive reliable Car to meet the needs of the masses. The first Model T cost $825 ($21,000 in 2008 dollars) about 1/3 of other cars.

He introduced the Moving Assembly Line, using interchangeable parts, in 1913 and by the end of 1914 was producing 240,000 cars per year. By the end of 1916 Ford exceeded 472,00 cars and had dropped the price down on the base model to only $360 ($7,000 in 2008 dollars). By 1918, 50% of the Cars on the road in the U.S. were Fords.

The developing marketing prowess of Ford is exemplified by some of the brochures that I have and thought I should share it with my fellow Team BHP members.

I should also note that all my literature was produced for the Canadian Market and the Ford Cars were produced in "Ford" Ontario, a Bata Shoe type of town, which was later incorporated into the city of Windsor located on the east side of the Detroit River opposite the City of Detroit. Their Head Office was located just outside of Detroit and had an annual capacity of 250,000 cars.

With an annual capacity of 25,000 cars, many of the Ford Cars built in Windsor were sold through out the British Commonwealth In 1911 Ford had built another plant in Manchester, England with a capacity of 15,000 cars by 1914.

It should be noted that Henry Ford was instrumental in raising the daily wage from $2.75 to $5.00 in 1916
and was very much involved in the social aspects of his employees impacting on how industry treated their employees.

SORRY, I had hoped to upload this complete Booklet but just discouvered that I had scanned them at too high a resolution, so I'll have to post the photos later.

[john a milne]

The Booklet is 5" x 7.5" with an embossed cover.
I also have a French version with out as much detail and pages.

Here are the first few pages.

[desertfox]

Most interesting piece of history. Post the other pages as well. A great initiative.

In my village I still have a Model T ford BRJ 73 rusting in a corner of a Guava orchard.

Looking at the pictures, it seems initially the Model T Ford was not supplied with a spare wheel.

[amitwlele]

Wonderful piece of history. Thanks for taking the efforts to scan and post them.

One query. The photos of the models give the specifications and has one sentence - 'No Car Sold Unequipped'. Wondering that is the meaning of this? Does this mean that there is a single variant and it has all the features.

[Zed]

' My Forty years with Ford' by Charles Sorensen, an associate of Henry ford, is an interesting narrative of Mr.Ford and the Ford motor company during its formative years. A must read for auto aficionados. I picked up an early edition at a used book store while I was on a weekend break last year - turned out to be one of my best reads of 2012.

[john a milne]

Here's the balance of pages from this brochure.

[john a milne]

I've had these Automotive Brochures tucked away for many years and just now have been carefully reading the copy of this Sales Brochure discovering all kinds of interesting facts and putting into a clearer perspective why the Ford Model "T" became the "ICON" of the automobile and it's history.

The economy of the Standard Chassis upon which different bodies were placed was another basic principal that is now utilized through-out the automobile industry.

The following pages were taken from the 1916 HYSLOP'S CATALOGUE of Automotive Accessories and Supplies that I am posting on another thread.
Hyslop's, located in Toronto, was Canada's largest company of this kind and offered a number of specialized bodies to drop on the "T". Of their 144 page catalogue - 62 pages were dedicated to Ford Products!