The Detroit Automobile Company

Henry Ford's first car company wasn't Ford but the Detroit Automobile Company. It was established in 1899 by Henry Ford and a group of notable investors, however, the company failed quickly. Although the Detroit Automobile Company barely lasted a year, the experience provided Henry Ford with valuable knowledge and education that would go on to change not only the automotive industry but manufacturing worldwide.

 

Fuel for the Future is presented by State Farm Insurance and driven by America's Automotive Trust. www.americasautomotivetrust.org

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Before themodel T before the assembly line, before
Henry Ford even became a household nameacross the world,
there was a different companyand it failed spectacularly.
But from its ashes, the automotive worldwould never be the same.
Today we turn the ignition on HenryFord's first big swing.

(00:22):
The Detroit Automobile Company
a tale of big ideas, disappointments
and health failuressometimes leads directly to success.
This is fuel for the future.
Presented by State Farm Insuranceand driven by America's automotive Trust.
I'm Michael May.

(00:42):
Henry Ford was born in 1863,
when there was no such thingas the automobile industry.
He was born in a small farmhousein Greenfield Township, Michigan,
one of six childrento William and Mary Ford, Irish immigrants
who raised their son with workhorsediscipline and little patience for idle
hands.

(01:04):
Henry was fascinated by machinery,
but not the farming kind, as you'd expect.
In 1876, at age 13,he took apart and reassembled
a pocket watch given to him by his father,and that became his trademark.
Take apart tinker, reimagine and improve.

(01:24):
By his early
20s, Ford was working for EdisonIlluminating Company of Detroit.
And Ford quickly rose to chief engineer.
But on nights and weekends,Ford experimented
on his own projects.
Meanwhile, in the 1880s,
a vehicle calledthe quadricycle was created in France,
and this vehiclewas an important innovation

(01:45):
because it helpedcreate the past for modern cars.
It was called the quadricyclebecause it ran on four tires
and it used bicycle technologylike spoked wheels and tires,
and the drivetrain was poweredby the rear wheels.
The steering was a tiller insteadof a wheel, and it had no reverse engine.

(02:05):
In 1896, in a brickshed behind his home on Bagley
Avenue,Henry Ford completed his own quadricycle.
It was gasoline powered and similarto other quadricep
wheels at the time, but it was lighterand nimbler than the others.
He started driving the car around townin these first Runabouts
led Detroit to call Henry Fordan automotive genius.

(02:27):
And this notoriety brought him intothe orbit of the city's business elite.
One of those men, William H. Murphy.
William H.
Murphy, was a lumber baron, real estate
mogul, and investorwith a keen eye for innovation.
He also backed a fellow inventornamed Charles Brady King, who, it's worth
noting, had already built in drivina car down Detroit

(02:49):
streets in 1890,six months before Ford's Quadricycle.
Murphy liked Ford's style,and in August of 1899,
with Murphy and a handful of investors,including the mayor of Detroit
providing capital,the Detroit Automobile Company was born.
Ford was appointed mechanicalsuperintendent and given a modest salary.

(03:09):
It was Detroit'sfirst attempt at an auto manufacturer
with commercial ambitions,but pretty soon things got complicated.
Ford envisioned simple, affordable,reliable vehicles
for the average American.
His investors,however, wanted quick returns.
Fancier cars for the upper class.

(03:30):
The growing automobile sceneat the time was dominated by expensive
European imports, and the idea of a carfor the masses wasn't seen as visionary.
It was seen as too risky.
Cars were toys for the elite and the rich.
The Detroit Automobile Companyset up shop in a brick building on Cass
Avenue, with machinery powered by overheadbelts and steam engines.

(03:52):
Ford dove into designingdelivery wagons and passenger cars.
Some featured twin cylinder enginesproducing 12 horsepower,
substantial for the time,but the vehicles were heavy, unreliable
and constantly breaking down in testing.
It didn't helpthat Ford was a perfectionist.
Ford kept revising his designs, insistingthe next version would be better.

(04:15):
This led to costly delays.
A dozen cars were built, just six sold.
Quality was inconsistent,
and one vehicle reportedly broke downbefore it ever reached its buyer.
By the end of just 1900,the investors had had enough.
The company was losing money,
so it reorganized and renamed itselfthe Henry Ford Company.

(04:37):
But this is not the Ford companythat we know today.
When the Detroit AutomobileCompany closed in 1901,
it had only completed 20 vehicles.
Ford was more interestedin design and experimentation
than churning out products.
He wanted to innovate in the investors.
They wanted that quick profit.
Ford ended up leaving the company

(04:59):
with a bruised ego,perhaps, but valuable experience.
He understood the power dynamicsof capital versus creator,
and he was learning what he didn'twant his next company to become.
Ironically, the Henry Ford Companywould soon dissolve as well.
Its remnants became the Cadillac Motor Car
Company under engineer Henry Leland.

(05:21):
So, yes, one failure led to two Giants.
Ford went backto the drawing board, literally.
And he turned to racing, this timeto prove that lightweight,
well-designed cars could be fast,durable and worth building.
In 1901, he built a 26 horsepowerracer called sweepstakes

(05:42):
for the style of the racehe was entering, and he drove it himself.
At the race, he beat Alexander Winton,who was likely the most famous
driver in America at the time,and the victory stunned the press.
Ford quickly became a folk herowith newfound credibility.
William Murphy returned to the foldalong with a new investor

(06:03):
called dealer Alexander Malcolmson,
and they formed the Ford Motor
Company in 1903, with Henry Ford
finally at the wheel,both creatively and operationally.
This time, Fordheld on to a larger share of the company,
and he had a clear vision.
Simple, reliable cars built on

(06:25):
efficient production linesand no artisan benches.
The model AA was the first rollout,and the model T, of course, would follow.
And Detroit would never be the same.
So what's the
point of this short lived story?
The Detroit Automobile Company failed,not unlike
a lot of otherautomobile companies at the time.

(06:48):
But it didn't failbecause Henry Ford was wrong.
It failedbecause innovation isn't a straight road.
It's a muddy, twisty,turny path where the wheels get stuck
and the investors get impatient.
But the Detroit automobile company,forgotten by many, gave Ford
his first taste of what was possibleand what wasn't.
He learned how to manage,how to not over promise, and how essential

(07:11):
it was to control the visionand not just the tools.
He took that knowledge and revolutionizedan industry.
In fact,not just the automobile industry, but
industrialization around the world.
A failure, yes, but only if you thinkthe first try is the only one that counts.

(07:35):
Thank you for listening to fuelfor the future,
presented by State Farm Insuranceand driven by America's Automotive Trust.
Learn more at America's Automotive Trust.