Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1914-03-05
How Fords Are Made

The Ford Motor company, continually prodded by the extra
ordinary growth of It's business to speed up its production and to
discover time laborsaving devices, recently adopted a new system
for the final assembling of cars which gives a visitor to the plant
output.
When one sees 80 rear axles grow to real motor ears within
an hour and what was, a comparatively few feet away, an inert
] piece OF metal roll out the door IA completed, complicated auto
mobile running under its own power, words fail. The visitor
is stunned He fails to grasp all that he would of the real sig
l nifcance Of the industrial miracle. For comparison he gropcs
1 around and sttmbles on chickens Matching by the wholesale in a
l glass incubator.
Heretofore the final assembling of Ford ears was a matter
4 Of showing a section of a partially completed car onto a group of
men, who put IN another part and showed the car on to the next
group. Cars We're thus kept moving along in four long rows.
four rows, each 900 feet long, but one Of the four rows has the
advantage of a new arrangement in the way Of a conveyor. With
the aid of the conyeyor production is speedcd up so that the line
produces 30 completed cars in an hour. There is very keen riv-
airy among the worSmen of the four different assembling lines,
especially since the adoption of the mechanical conveyor, which
is really being tested out.
At the beginning of the assembling line is a heap Of rear
axles. These are showed along from group to group, until the
skeleton Of a chassis with wheels is evolved. Then the conveyor
is reached. This consists merely Of two endless rows of revolv-
nag steel wheels, set in grooves on which the car rests. Each car
Is coupled TO the one In front, and a power device with coupling
attachment and starting lever Shovcs the row of couple skeletons
up te lIe: Every few feet stands a group OF workmen, under
their own foreman, whose duty is to do one simple operation in
assembling.
One group fastens on the gasoline tank; another drops in the
complete engine another fastens the steering apparatus in place;
another puts on a certain bolt, etc. The long line of skeleton
cars, always growing a little more like a real automobile every
few feet moves Just slowly enough! over the rollers of the con
~eyor to give each group of men time enough to do one special
Job. Naturally there can be no loafng. AS soon as a radiator is
on or a gasoline tank arranged, the next car has crept up and is
waiting to be similarly treated. The factory is so arranged that
these various parts of the car are easily accessible. Some drop
from the floor above by gravity just where they are needed, some
are carried to their place in the assembling line by power con-
veyor.
When the upper end Of the line is reached the car is com
plee. every part in place and ready to run. The back wheels
are set spinning by the conveyor on which they rest. That
startsthe engine without the necessity Of cranling it. A tester
hops INTO the seat. There is a shove Of a lever from behind which
car rolls off to the floor, the front wheels hit a swinging door so
arranged that this action opens it automatically, and the car is in
me shipping yard, where there remains only the jacking up of the
rear wheels for a brief test before running onto the freight car.
The car you see rolling ont into the yard is the very one
YOU nave watched grow IN that line of magic. 1t is the evolution
oIs that rear axle you saw sixty minutes ago nine hundred feet
away.
notwithstanding the fact that the Ford company is turning
out NOR, cars per@day than any other factory in the world, there
Will no. doubt be a scarcity of cars during the months of Nav
and June. There always has been and always viii be. 1t would
seem that il makes. no difference how many cars the Ford com i
pany turns out N q day, a week, month or year, there is always
g scarcity OF Ford ears In MaYand June. 1T is no doubt because I
those two months are the heaviest buying months of the year. /
&c you contemplate purchasing a Ford car this year # will be /
for you TO give your order now and then you will have one /
when You want i this spring. Dol now-do it today-you are |
gong 49, buy one anyway and you might as well leave your order |
3or one now as to wait u couple of months. @
We also have several second hand cars which we will sell I
at q great bargain.
HEADLEY
AUTOMOBILE COMPANY
MOE BUILDING WATERFOWL. S. /. !
rha Cnasle Cueforo sons we're paid salary o. per diem.