The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-02-25
A GIGANTIC PLANT
George Badders Tells Of Trip
Thru Ford Factories.
Output of Lizgies Is Now S,5OG
Daily, Says TOpekan.
IS MAKING OWN WINDSHIELDS
viii Establish Sales Agency for
Lincoln Car Here.
New Leather Factory Produces
$4,000 Yards a Day.
is MAKING OWN WINDSHIELDS

The bigness and output of the Ford
and Fordson plants at Dearborn are
beyond the power of words to describe,
and must be seen to be appreciated.
This is the message brought back by
George S. Badders, of the Badders
Motor company. who has Just re
turned from a trip thru the Ford fac-
tories.
Great preparations are being made
for increased production, Badders re-
ports The possibilities of sales all
over the world are practically unlim-
tied in view of the advance being
made in the manufacture of the cars
and the growing industrial activity,
he declares. He also brings back some
valuable light on the Lincoln plant
which Henry Ford has taken over.
The Fordson plant at Dearborn"
says Badders. upon which millions
have already been spent, is but in its
infancy as a place wnere the bulk of
castings for all the Ford products will
be cast as we'll as the place where the
Fordson tractors, now being made at
the rate Of 100 day will soon total
1000 a day The main foundry build
ing at this plant is 1,1S0 feet long and
$50 feet wide. Measured by streets in
Topeka It is two blocks wide and
more than three blocks long. In this
building are cast daily more than 1000
motor blocks for Ford cars, more than
and countless thousands Of smaller
parts.
Dearborn Plant Employs 10000.
AT the Fordson plant the main as
sembly building and the building in
which the machining of parts takes
place is 1850 feet long by sos feet
wide. It is three stories high. The
blast furnaces and heat treating ovens
in connection with the tractor plant
are of the largest, most wonderful and
most expensive construction known
and differ entirely from anything yet
attempted in plants of this kind. The
boilers in the huge building that fur
nishes steam and power are 100 feet
high and are heated with coal and
gas at three different levels, the fuel
supply being automatically regulated.
Not a human being is in sight in the
room filled with thousands of electric
switches, gauges and other parapher-
MALTA making up the controlling ap-
paratus of this section of the plant.
Just one section of the furnaces has
been built-the complete plant will be
four times as large-but they are al
ready producing 100000 feet of gas
and 1000 tons of coke daily. There
are 10000 employees at the Dearborn,
or River Rouge plant, as the tractor
plant is called.
The Highland Park plant. or Ford
Motor company plant proper, en-
manufacturing concern in the world at
this time. and rivalling the famous
Hrupp gun factory of Germany dur
ing the busiest time of the war It
was producing $500 complete Ford
cars every day al the time / visited il.
1t is beyond the power of words to ex-
press the bigness and wonderful
workings of this tremendous place.
one might spend a week there and
not see a tepth OF it.
Makes Own WindshicldS.
The radiator department alone en-
ploys 1000 men and hundreds and
thousands more are used in turning
uCt each of the other parts. Ford
las recently started making his own
windshield glass with the conveyor or
endless chain process-somethfng
which glass manufacturers said could
not be done. But Ford is DOING it in
a. plant containing melting furnaces
and cooling ovens more than 500 feet
long. The glass, at n temperature of
l.S0O degrees, flows from the furnace
onto q flat moving conveyor, passes
ru the G00-fOOt furnace and is
;-rdu1 lily cooled until it reaches the
end OF the furnace in slab five
c-+hths Of an inch thick and the width
Of two windshields. 1t is cut as it
leaves the furnace passes on to the
moving grinder and polishing convey
Ors which carry it the length of the
tEru the furnaces. Three eighths of
~ inch OF glass are taken off by the
FINDERS and pOlishers and it comes
cut a perfectly clear plate a quarter
of an inch thick.
The leather factory is the most re-
cent addition to the Highland Park
plant and at present produces $1,000
Yards daily. The contents of this
building are of such an inflammab BILE
nature that no lights are permitted
inside. Electric lights are arranged on
the exterior and shine thru the glass
windows. I didn't see the sheep from
which the wool 10 make the cloth is
obtained. but presume Henry has a
flock somewhere.
Lincoln Plant Up-to-Dnte.
Nothing in the way Of time, labor
or money has been spared to make
the Lincoln Motor company plant the
best of its kind. Its construction is
designed to provide ample light and
room for employees. so that the meticu-
lousy careful processes of Lincoln
manufacture are continuously posi-
Bile. Equipment is of the most ad-
vanced and exclusive design. The site
covers seventy-five acres of land and
is more than one-half mile long
There are eighteen buildings.
"Ford's idea in the construction of
the Lincoln car is quality first and
price second. He states that he in
tends to improve the present Lincoln
car. if such a thing is possible.
ITO show The degree of fineness of
operation on the Lincoln car: The
term hairs breadth in a Lincoln
car merely symbolizes some of the
coarser measurements. The average
hair on your head is two and one
half thousands of an inch in thickness.
II you could split that hair into ten
equal strands, one strand would de-
note the closeness to a mean standard
prescribed in more than 500 mechan-
ical operations in building the Lin
coin. There are more than 5000 me-
chanical operations in which the de-
Walton from a mean standard is not
permitted to exceed one one-thou-
sandth Of an inch.
Fords Are Common Folks.
THE Lincoln plant represents the
expenditure of twenty millions of dol
lars and at Dresenf has c.fna cJtx- If