September 16, 2014 • 28 mins
Where did the Dodge company come from? How did it get started, and who exactly are the Dodge brothers? Join Scott and Ben as they celebrate Dodge's 100th anniversary in this special episode.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from house stuff Works dot com. I walking
car stuff. I'm Scott Benjaman and then two times bowl
and two times that's right. Second take bold ye second take.
That's what they call you right here, that's my street name,
how stuff Works. That's not so bad anyways. All right,
(00:24):
So today, Ben, we are going to talk about the
couple of brothers that made a big impact on the
automotive industry, bigger than most people would think. Really, there's
a lot more to the story than a lot of people. Absolutely,
we're talking about the Dodge brothers and Scott. Just one
note before we dive into this, I know that you
and I both really enjoy these history podcasts and listeners.
(00:49):
Uh you guys probably enjoy those two I mean, at
least based on the emails that we get. Uh No
one has written in saying I hate you know, the
Honda story or something. Uh So we just want to
let you know that if you enjoy this podcast that
we're about to do, we also have a wealth of
other origin stories of the titans of the auto industry,
(01:10):
exactly right. And what I like about these the most, then,
I think, is is some of the side notes that
we get into because as we discuss, you know, the story,
because you can you can summarize anything in a paragraph
or two and that's pretty easy. In fact, the articles
that we have in front of us right now, the
research material, Uh that that's what they are. There's just
a couple of pages here. But what happened is along
the way, as we made notes, we kind of go
(01:31):
off on a tangent on something like we have to
say a name or a phrase or a company or whatever.
We dig in a little deeper into that and then
it becomes an interesting side note and the story becomes
very very large, very full, very lush story as we
go through this whole thing. So hopefully you find that
entertaining as well. I know that you know when you
talk about Henry Ford, and we talked about we've talked
(01:52):
about Packard, We've talked about all kinds of different brands,
and uh, the Dodge brothers are no different, right at salutely,
let's go ahead and introduce our main players here. That
would be John Francis Dodge, he's the elder brother, born
in eighteen sixty four, and Horace Elgin Dodge. Uh, the
younger brother eighteen sixty eight. And I'm gonna be honest
(02:14):
with these, Scott, I think John Francis got the better
pick of names. Horace Elgin is a lot to walk
around with. Horace Is is quite a name, isn't it.
But I guess, you know, we were talking like late
eighteen hundreds. Maybe it was more common than we think. Yeah,
maybe it was. They They were the children of a
machinist named Daniel Rugg and his wife Mario Costo Dodge
(02:39):
of Niles, Michigan. That's right, Ben, But if I may,
I want to take it back even one generation farther,
just we get a kind of a baseline of where
their mechanical interests may have come from. Oh yeah, that's great.
I think that's important to know that. You know, these
guys had their their own characters, I guess, and that's
how they worked well. They were. They were a great
team as they worked together. One was a businessman, a
(03:01):
financier as they would call it, and the other one
was a very talented machinist. And we'll tell you which
is which in just a minute. But um, you know
he was very mechanical and the two of them together,
I guess they wouldn't make any decisions without the other
one knowing. So you know, as they paired together to
form this new company, UM, it made sense that, you know,
they would always be together, they would always make decisions
(03:21):
together because one didn't really know the other side of
the business like the other one did, and they trusted
each other and and that really worked for them. It's
a it's a great story of teamwork, entrepreneurship. UM, just
just you know, a great American story. I guess, you
know what, I don't think it's stepping too too far
to say that because they were a great collective unit. Uh.
(03:42):
They fought all the time, which we will talk about,
but not just with each other, as brothers would write,
and and and with other people too. I mean there's
a huge dispute with with some of the titans of
the industry. UM. We'll get into all this, I promise,
But but it should be an inspiration a story for
entrepreneurs all over the world. Really. I mean, the way
(04:04):
that they work together a great example of teamwork, as
we said, UM. And it's a story that doesn't really
start with wealth, but it definitely ends there, that's for sure. UM.
And and still I mean this, this is a company
that's what more than a hundred years old at this point.
I haven't really done the math, I guess, but we're
gonna find out how these guys turned ten thousand dollar,
ten thousand dollar investment into you know, two hundred plus
(04:26):
million dollars in a very short period of time. Okay,
and Scott, that's my bad. I derailed this just a bit. Uh,
we're going a little bit before the beginning, right before
the Dodge kids. Actually, yeah, that we have to, I
think only because it helps lay the groundwork for this
whole story. So you know that their grandfather, his name
was Ezekiel Dodge, and we're talking about like in the
(04:48):
eighteen fifties, so you know, prior to them being born,
you know, twenty years before they're born. Even um, he
ran a successful machine shop on the banks of the St.
Joseph River in Niles, Michigan. So that's in southwest Michigan,
kind of near the South Bend, Indiana area, you know,
right on the border there. Um and his idea, not
his idea, but his his main focus, I guess, was
(05:09):
to fix the steam engines that were on some of
the boats that the local fisherman had, so that was
kind of his main thing was it was more like
marine engines, right, steam engines in a marine application. And
Ezekiel and his wife, her name was Anna, so that's
their grandfather and grandmother. Um. They had thirteen kids. Ben
thirteen kids now maybe not all that common now, sort
(05:33):
of common back then, I guess you can have the
big farm family, right, had two daughters and eleven sons,
including Daniel Rugg Dodge. Now that is the father of
John and Horace. So I thought it was important to
lay the groundwork that the mechanical background kind of comes
from there. And of course Daniel, uh, you know, he
was also taught to be a machinist in Ezekiel's shop,
(05:55):
and that's how he passed it onto his son and
then so on and so special lies in machines for
marine use. As you said, that doesn't end with the
Zekiel uh. So the family is pretty pretty close knit.
The brothers especially are inseparable. They built the first bicycle
in their town, which is a cool story. Yeah, that's
(06:17):
pretty nate. And uh. They moved eventually to Ontario where
they got jobs as machinists working for a place called
the Canadian Typographic Company. Yeah, now I have to tell
you something about this side this bicycle. All right, this
is kind of interesting because, um, remember we mentioned that
one was a gifted machinists and and more mechanical than
(06:38):
the other one. Well, well, I guess, um that's Horace
was was more um skilled, I guess in the technical
aspect of whole thing, and and John was more of
the businessman. Alright, So Horace designed a dirtproof ball bearing
right there on his homework bench, you know, just kind
of working on his own decided that, you know, he's
gonna work on the design of a ball bearing, maybe
(06:59):
to the point where it's dirt proof, which was something
I guess. Prior to this, there was no shielding on
belt ball bearings, and they got gummed up and foul
and everything. So he designed this this fantastic thing in
seven that um you know, they got patents on at
everything else, and they designed a bicycle around the ball bearing,
believe it or not, to work. Yeah, it's smart. I
guess you're right. It's something simple to build, right that
(07:20):
that requires ball bearings. And they started to manufacture these, uh,
these brand new bicycles, and so if you think about it.
The first Dodge brother vehicle was actually a bicycle. Yeah.
And the first Dodge company was the Evans and Dodge
Bicycle Company. Yeah. Yeah, so, and they were based out
of Windsor, Ontario, which was right across the river from Detroit.
(07:43):
And that bicycles manufactured in a building that they leased
from their former employer, that the Canadian company UM over
in Windsor. So um, I don't know, it's a profitable venture,
I guess. I mean they made a lot of money
off of this bicycle design and this bicycle manufacturer, enough
so that they could open their own en shop, which
was the goal all along, right, Yeah, and they quickly
(08:05):
gained a reputation for being just top notch manufacturers. Uh
they started with just twelve employees. Their business was off
and running, you know, and and expanding. As you say,
this is one right, yes, and uh so the Dodge
Machine Shop was supplying another character. They're gonna be a
(08:28):
lot of cameos in the story, folks. And our first
cameo is Ransom E. Olds, who erected the first auto
plant in Detroit. And as you said, nineteen o one,
they're supplying this guy with engines now Ransom E. Olds,
and this is the guy that actually invented the assembly line. Now,
remember Henry Ford gets credit for this, but Henry Ford
(08:49):
is the one who perfected the assembly line production. Now,
now Ransom Olds is the guy who invented this whole idea.
And again he's creating something called the was it was
it called the curve dash Oldsmobile at the time. Right now,
that's his that's his first automobile nineteen o one. He
comes to the Dodger Brothers because they have this outstanding
reputation for quality and uh and for uh, you know,
(09:13):
as as near perfect machining as you could get at
the time in nineteen o one. You gotta remember when
this is right. So these guys are, you know, the
top of their game right now. They're they're doing the
best work in town. And Ransom E. Olds comes to
him and says, I want you to build the transmissions
for my car, which is, by the way, selling like
hot cakes. Yes, and uh. This makes the Dodge Brothers
(09:35):
one of the largest part suppliers in Detroit's auto industry. Right,
and so word gets around town that you know, these
guys are are the best, right, you know, everybody should
go to them. So guess who catches wind of this
story are number one favorite mad genius of all things automotive,
Henry Ford himself. In nineteen o three, they agree officially
(09:57):
to supply Henry Ford with six hundred and fifty chassis.
So this is this counts the transmission, the axles, the
engine for two hundred fifty bucks each. Yeah, and see
the thing is that they had met with him, you know,
Ford approached them, and think about this forward. Around that time,
he would have been like thirty nine, maybe forty years
old at the time, he's in his prime. He's also
had a couple of failed companies at this time, remember,
(10:20):
because the Ford Motor Company doesn't exist yet, there's there's
no Ford Motor Company. When he approaches them and the
Dodge Brothers see his design, they see you know, the car,
the engine, and they're intrigued by it. They think that,
you know, there's there's something to this that you know,
it's better than what they've seen so far. And so
they're so impressed with this that they decided that they're
going to risk their own business, you know, the Dodge
(10:40):
Brothers business at this time, to have a contract with
him as you mentioned Ben for you know, these these chassis, right. Yeah.
At this point, their company, the Dodge Company rather, had
expanded to about a hundred and fifty people. Yeah, And
so the the stipulation that's put in this contract with
them is that Dodge would receive all of Ford's assets
at four went bankrupt, which he had with his other
(11:02):
companies twice twice. So here's the thing. You know, they're
in a pretty good position they either you know, it's
sort of inherit all this stuff. I mean they're taking
a risk, of course, you know, they're loaning him some money.
They're loaning him some you know, I guess, uh properties, right,
And the dollars amounts that these uh these come out
to is that they're giving him seven thousand dollars worth
of automobile parts and three thousand dollars in cash, uh
(11:25):
that they needed, you know, just to get this Ford
Motor Company going, which they had never heard of before,
right and wouldn't know if it was gonna you know,
succeed or not. Um the total amount of ten thousand dollars.
And for this ten thousand dollars, he gives them a
steak in Ford Motor Company when it isn't really Ford
Motor Company yet, and I think that was like fifty
(11:45):
shares of the company. That's what that amounted to. So
so again, ten thousand dollars, ten percent steak in Ford
Motor Company when it's brand new. Now, I've done an
inflation calculator and I've got a few of these as
we go along, if you like. Okay, yes, right, so, um,
you know the amount that they gave to Henry Ford
in exchange for again this ten percent you know steak
(12:06):
in Ford Motor Company ten thousand dollars in nineteen three
is equal to two hundred and fifty eight thousand and
sixty three dollars in two fourteen. So it's a sizeable
amount of money. But somebody's starting up an automobile company.
That's not a lot of money. That's uh, not enough
to I don't know, that's not really enough to do it.
(12:27):
I know, I don't think so. But you know, his
idea was enough that you know, they said, we really
believe in you. We know you can get things going.
You're you're a man of your word that you do
start these companies up, and you know you do produce
at least a few vehicles and we'll see how it goes, right,
because they really believed in this design. This this, I
guess it was the Model A design. You know, I'm
not talking the Model A that came out later in
(12:48):
the nineteen you know, late twenties, early thirties. This is
the model at the very first forward production car. Now,
I'm gonna go ahead and if you if you're okay
with this, I'm gonna peek behind the curtain of the
official story a little bit for our listeners. Scott, Henry
Ford and the Dodge brothers did not get along. Uh.
(13:11):
They butted heads all the time. And it's not really
a surprise because Henry Ford, now earlier I said he
was in his prime, you know, his thirty nine forty.
I mean he's in his physical and mental prime. I mean,
clearly financially is having difficulties. But as he aged, she
just did stranger and stranger things. Um, because that's nature
(13:32):
of genius, right. He was already uh not suffering disagreement,
and so are the Dodge brothers, especially when you know
they're the ones helping him. Uh. So he's he's complaining
all the time. He's saying, you know, hey, Horace, Hey,
John Uh, your employees are turning out substandard stuff and
(13:53):
it's garbage because they're paid by the piece. But you
know what, this is important to note to think about this,
all right, all right, So Henry Ford's his name is
on the company, that's true, the Ford Motor Company. And
he's got the Dodge Brothers building. And this is this
may be a surprise or listeners to the Dodge Brothers
are building every single part of the new Forward car
except for the wooden wooden seats which are made of buckboard,
(14:17):
you know, the buckboard seats and the rubber tires, and
that's it. They're building every other single piece. They're they're
they're completely manufacturing this car for Ford. So Ford, you know,
he's going to poke his nose into a lot of
stuff and say, I think you should be doing it
this way. I think he should be doing you know
this instead of that. I mean, that makes sense. It's
just the way that I've seen it depicted is that
(14:38):
he was not happy ever, but continually ordering more vehicles.
He was a problem client. He's a problem client. That's
a perfect way to say. It's yes, I guess, but
he's you know, he's still has the you know, the
controlling share of the company, right, he's got what I
think at this pointer, if not more, because you know,
the Dadge brothers had ten percent, and then there were
(14:58):
other what they call a minority shore holders, which have
you know, little bits of stock in the company, but
not enough to control the board, I guess, and so eventually,
I mean, let me not I guess overstated. It's true
that they butted heads a lot, but they both knew
it was a good business relationship because despite his complaints,
he continued ordering engines and by the spring of oh five,
(15:22):
nineteen o five, when he moved into a new plant, UH,
they were still supplying his rigs, so that would be
the engines and transmissions, and they were always there was
major supplier for a while. But we know that even
though by nineteen o five Ford was trying to produce
his own engines and transmissions for the model in UH,
(15:44):
we know that their fates were intertwined. That's the way
I read this phrase. Before fates were intertwined for the
next fifteen years. Yes, and we're gonna as we'll do
often I think in this podcast, UM, I want to
point out the first board and who bought it. Because
I think that's pretty that's such a good story, that's okay.
(16:05):
Is a good doctor. His name is E. Fenning, and
he was a Chicago dentist who bought the very first
model a Ford eight hundred and fifty dollars. And now
that was eight hundred fifty dollars in nineteen o three. Uh,
the the inflation calculator tells me that that is equal
to one thousand, nine hundred and thirty five dollars and
thirty six cents in two thousand and fourteen. So you know,
(16:28):
average price car, I guess, I mean a little low
for what we have now, but you know, we've got
that crazy inflation going on. It makes sense though that
a doctor would buy it if you think about house calls.
It really does, you know. And and also you know,
kind of he's got the money to this man. Probably
even then doctors were wealthy, right likely, I mean in Chicago,
I would think, you know, big, you know, big town
doctor versus you know, like a country doctor. Yeah. I
(16:50):
wonder if he had student loans though, I mean that
back then, I guess, so, I mean, you know, Chicago dentist,
I don't know every bet he was making a lot
of money. So anyways, at the time of the sale,
this is kind of important, I think, or yeah, you
know interesting, if nothing else, Ford had two hundred and
thirty three dollars and sixty five cents left in his
bank account when he finally made that first sale. So
(17:12):
when Dr. E. Fenning bought the very first Ford, he's
down to the last two dollars in his account, you know,
Henry Ford is so he's really hoping that this takes
off right now, because it's now or never. And they say,
right from the time of that very first sale, all
the money was just coming in. There was no more
money going out, and at least there's more money coming
in than there was going out. We're back in, back
(17:34):
in the black, exactly right. And so you know the
direction is only you know, the money flow is only
going up from this point. So the Dodge Brothers, now,
remember they gave him ten thousand dollars, remember the seven
thousand dollars worth of parts three thousand cash that very
first year. They received ten thousand dollars in stock dividends,
which is, you know, the payoff to investors based on
(17:55):
the amount of money the company earns, etcetera. You know,
look that up if you want. But the Ford stock
eventually would pay out millions more to them over the
next what do you say, fifteen years? Then? Yeah, through
about nineteen fourteen, they collected three point eight million in
dividends and that's million. That's almost four million in nineteen fourteen, guys. Uh.
(18:17):
Then they got another almost two million, one point seven
million profits from the Ford contracts um at the same
time around let's see August nineteen fourteen. Uh, John Dodge
resigned as director and vice president of the Ford Motor
Company because you have been working with them, Um, but
they retained that stock, uh, that they've had since nineteen
(18:40):
oh three. Um. This is important because they were profiting
in two different ways. Right. They had the Ford stock,
which you know again paid out millions and millions right
in dividends, But the Dad's brothers actually profited a second
time by selling the parts, by selling for the parts.
So they're selling for the parts for the cars that
they manufacture, and they hold stock in the company and
(19:00):
they're also profiting on that. So this is a very
very shrewd move on the on the part of the
Dodger brothers. I mean, you're making money at both ends,
but they're still tied to an outsider and outside company,
an outside person, not ideal, that's right. But you know,
Henry Ford was working on his own project, right, and
his project was the River Rouge Plan. And the River
Rouge Plan is still around, it's still operational, and you know,
(19:23):
there's some fantastic photos of that from you know, back
in the time when Henry Ford was still running the place,
when it's brand new, and there's there's some some great
photos of it. Now, don't get me wrong, but back then,
some of the classic photos are really really cool. River
Rouge is a huge complex. So anyways, the this this
River Rouge complex is finally complete, and Ford realizes that,
(19:43):
you know, Dodges really I mean in a way, they're
no longer needed, right because they have that small machine
shop that they've been working out of, or relatively small anyways,
and um, he wants to lease out the Dodge machine
shop and still use it. But the Dodge brother don't
want to do that. They don't want to lease the
space to Henry Ford. They want to hang onto it.
(20:05):
So the Dodge brothers decide that they're going to create
their own product that will compete with the Henry Ford product.
Now this is this is remarkable. Right. So they're building
they're already building the Model T, right, and they're they're
they're making all these parts and just bread the whole
vehicle relates. So they know all the ins and outs
of this literally including the weaknesses. And that's key here
(20:27):
because they know the weaknesses of the Model T. And
what they do is they set out to build their
own car that fixes all those weaknesses. So it has
everything that the Model T has. But it's also you know,
um making changes that were necessary all along the way
that Henry Ford, you know, had been notified of. And
he said, no, I don't want to change it in
any way because remember all those stories we told you
(20:49):
about Henry Ford early on, you know, on our Henry
Ford podcast, that he was very resistant to change. If
something was working, he would never alter, he would never
update anything. Don't complicate things, don't Okay, Just for an example,
because I know that it might sound like I'm beating
up Henry Ford and calling him crazy, he tore a
car apart with his bare hands, and just want to
(21:09):
point that out. And that was because they had decided
to change his vehicle and he didn't. He didn't like
the idea that they had done that without him. So
so the Dodge brothers got off kind of easy if
you think about it, because he just said no. I guess, yeah,
he did just say no. But you know he was fuming.
You know, he was angry, very angry. He had a temper,
and um, so they wait. So the Dodge car, which
(21:30):
they're going to build in their own factory, would include
all the improvements that they had talked to Henry Ford about,
but Henry didn't want to make those changes. Remember, so
you know, Henry's got this, Uh, I guess at this
point an inferior product. Really, do you want to look
at it that way? Really? Well, they wanted to sell
it almost to a different market. Yeah, and you know,
I hate to say an inferior product because we're talking
(21:51):
about the Model Team. Yeah, it's an icon. Really, it's
hard to say that about it. But remember the Dodge
brothers were building it, and now they're improving on it
with their own designs. So again they're they're taking it,
they're taking it a step up. I think, you know,
if we were if we were to call the Model
T there's a horrible comparison. But if we were to
call the Model T the equivalent of fast food, the
(22:13):
idea being that it's easy to replicate and it's easy
to expand, and it's everywhere like McDonald's, then what the
Dodge brothers were trying to do is build something that's
a little bit more like to sit down restaurant. Okay,
I see what you're saying. So they improved upon the
design and they're they're gonna make just slightly more of
it's more of an upscale version, right right. It's so
this is also that it does not directly compete, because
(22:36):
that would be bad for their business. Well, it does
directly compete though, because it goes into the same market,
and people know that the Dodge Brothers have been building
that Model T, and that, you know, these guys who
were known for their quality, known for the machine work,
known for their their expertise in this area, are now
building their own product. I think that a lot of
people are swayed by that to say, why not go
(22:56):
right to the source. These guys are the ones that
are responsible for equality behind the Model T. I'm gonna
go and I'm gonna go try out their product and
see what that's like, well, that's true because they were
competing that they already had such a great reputation, but
the vehicle that they were creating was going to be
more expensive than the model T. Yeah, but that's what
I'm saying. You're right, You're right, not by much, like
(23:19):
a hundred dollars more, which which okay, a hundred dollars
more in I've done the calculation, So just one hundred
dollars more in nineteen fourteen is the equivalent to about
two thousand, three d and thirty dollars more, which is
really that's not a whole lot, I guess. I mean, yes,
you're right, it's kind of it's it's an upsell. It's
(23:40):
not a lot. I mean, it's still competition, but you
know again, it isn't upsell. So you're you're saying, I've
got a product that's similar, it's it costs more. Are
you willing to take a risk on this? And most people,
in fact say, you know what, because it's the Dodge Brothers,
I am Scott. Before anyone even saw the new vehicle,
thirteen thousand d Owlers asked to become Dodge agent teen thousand.
(24:02):
Now that we're talking about the Dodge Model thirty that
was the very first Dodge that they produced. It was
a four cylinder again kind of an upscale version of
the Model T I guess if you will, um, and
it had a couple of unique features that other vehicles
at the time didn't have. Now, some of these they
did something they didn't, but it did have an all
sealed body, and that was unusual because most people are
(24:25):
still using wood at the time, right, a lot of
wood panels. It had a twelve volt electrical system, which
again most were using six volt at the time. It
had a thirty five horse power four cylinder engine. As
I mentioned that, again, thirty five horse power doesn't sound
like a whole lot, but you got to remember that
the Model T had just twenty horse power at the time,
so this is a significant up cell from that, I guess, um.
(24:47):
And the other thing is that it had a sliding
gear transmission, which you know the you know, the Model
T um that used the older planetary gear design all
the way through the end of the Model T production,
which was in nine So in nineteen fourteen, Dadgett already
advanced to the point where they're using this sliding gear transmission.
And again Henry Ford held onto that, you know, that
(25:09):
planetary gear design for another thirteen years beyond that. I mean,
he just did not he resisted change. He did not
want to change. Well, I can see where he's coming
from though, because why I fix it if it ain't broke.
That's true. And you know what, and he did very
very well for himself, I mean extremely well for himself.
And we're not trying to disparage the model t in
(25:31):
any way or nor Henry Ford. It's just that, you know,
this is part of his character and it shows in
everything that he does. And he uh, he's still around
when all this other stuff is happening, most of it.
And uh, let's go ahead and talk about the huge
expansion that they experience upon Yeah, so nineteen fourteen, Uh,
(25:55):
they don't actually end up making that many cars. Uh,
they make a smaller number of cars for that first year.
But just to jump ahead a little bit, by April
nineteen fifteen, their workforce increased to seven thousand people scott
and by the end of that year their firm produced
over forty five thousand cars at their ham Tramm plan.
(26:16):
That is incredible. So in ham Trammic they're building forty
five thousand cars in nineteen fifteen, and they've got seven
thousand employees cranking away and this probably twenty four hours
a day, if I had to guess, Yeah, unbelievable because
they started in that little bicycle shop with what seven
or twelve employees? Twelve employees. Here they are and this
isn't that much longer. This is nineteen fifteen. When did
they start the bicycle shop. That was in eighteen nineties, Yeah,
(26:40):
eighteen or nineteen o one, I guess when they first
had their machine shop, so so nineteen o one. So
fourteen years later they're up to seven thousand employees. That's incredible,
which doesn't usually happen in any business. It is amazing,
all right, So, Ben, I think we're at a point
here where I'm gonna have to say we're gonna have
to cut for the day. Um, But that's by no
means the end of this story, because we're gonna pick
(27:01):
up with nineteen sixteen, and there's a major twist in
the whole thing here, in the whole story that happens
in nineteen and it makes a big impact on the
entire rest of the story. So I think this is
a solid point to stop at here if you'll mind,
Oh yeah, absolutely, let's go ahead and make this a
two parter. Guys, thanks for listening to the Origin of
the Dodge story. Please stay tuned for the sequel, The
(27:26):
Dodging Ing. Now I'm kidding. Uh, we're just gonna call
it number two or part two. That's probably a safer
all right, and we're gonna go ahead and get to
work on that. Find us on Facebook, you can drop
us a line on Twitter. You can send us an
email directly. We are our stuff at how stuff work
dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
(27:49):
this is how stuff works dot com. Let us know
what you think. Send an email to podcast at how
stuff works dot com. Four
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from house stuff Works dot com. I walking
car stuff. I'm Scott Benjaman and then two times bowl
and two times that's right. Second take bold ye second take.
That's what they call you right here, that's my street name,
how stuff Works. That's not so bad anyways. All right,
(00:24):
So today, Ben, we are going to talk about the
couple of brothers that made a big impact on the
automotive industry, bigger than most people would think. Really, there's
a lot more to the story than a lot of people. Absolutely,
we're talking about the Dodge brothers and Scott. Just one
note before we dive into this, I know that you
and I both really enjoy these history podcasts and listeners.
(00:49):
Uh you guys probably enjoy those two I mean, at
least based on the emails that we get. Uh No
one has written in saying I hate you know, the
Honda story or something. Uh So we just want to
let you know that if you enjoy this podcast that
we're about to do, we also have a wealth of
other origin stories of the titans of the auto industry,
(01:10):
exactly right. And what I like about these the most, then,
I think, is is some of the side notes that
we get into because as we discuss, you know, the story,
because you can you can summarize anything in a paragraph
or two and that's pretty easy. In fact, the articles
that we have in front of us right now, the
research material, Uh that that's what they are. There's just
a couple of pages here. But what happened is along
the way, as we made notes, we kind of go
(01:31):
off on a tangent on something like we have to
say a name or a phrase or a company or whatever.
We dig in a little deeper into that and then
it becomes an interesting side note and the story becomes
very very large, very full, very lush story as we
go through this whole thing. So hopefully you find that
entertaining as well. I know that you know when you
talk about Henry Ford, and we talked about we've talked
(01:52):
about Packard, We've talked about all kinds of different brands,
and uh, the Dodge brothers are no different, right at salutely,
let's go ahead and introduce our main players here. That
would be John Francis Dodge, he's the elder brother, born
in eighteen sixty four, and Horace Elgin Dodge. Uh, the
younger brother eighteen sixty eight. And I'm gonna be honest
(02:14):
with these, Scott, I think John Francis got the better
pick of names. Horace Elgin is a lot to walk
around with. Horace Is is quite a name, isn't it.
But I guess, you know, we were talking like late
eighteen hundreds. Maybe it was more common than we think. Yeah,
maybe it was. They They were the children of a
machinist named Daniel Rugg and his wife Mario Costo Dodge
(02:39):
of Niles, Michigan. That's right, Ben, But if I may,
I want to take it back even one generation farther,
just we get a kind of a baseline of where
their mechanical interests may have come from. Oh yeah, that's great.
I think that's important to know that. You know, these
guys had their their own characters, I guess, and that's
how they worked well. They were. They were a great
team as they worked together. One was a businessman, a
(03:01):
financier as they would call it, and the other one
was a very talented machinist. And we'll tell you which
is which in just a minute. But um, you know
he was very mechanical and the two of them together,
I guess they wouldn't make any decisions without the other
one knowing. So you know, as they paired together to
form this new company, UM, it made sense that, you know,
they would always be together, they would always make decisions
(03:21):
together because one didn't really know the other side of
the business like the other one did, and they trusted
each other and and that really worked for them. It's
a it's a great story of teamwork, entrepreneurship. UM, just
just you know, a great American story. I guess, you
know what, I don't think it's stepping too too far
to say that because they were a great collective unit. Uh.
(03:42):
They fought all the time, which we will talk about,
but not just with each other, as brothers would write,
and and and with other people too. I mean there's
a huge dispute with with some of the titans of
the industry. UM. We'll get into all this, I promise,
But but it should be an inspiration a story for
entrepreneurs all over the world. Really. I mean, the way
(04:04):
that they work together a great example of teamwork, as
we said, UM. And it's a story that doesn't really
start with wealth, but it definitely ends there, that's for sure. UM.
And and still I mean this, this is a company
that's what more than a hundred years old at this point.
I haven't really done the math, I guess, but we're
gonna find out how these guys turned ten thousand dollar,
ten thousand dollar investment into you know, two hundred plus
(04:26):
million dollars in a very short period of time. Okay,
and Scott, that's my bad. I derailed this just a bit. Uh,
we're going a little bit before the beginning, right before
the Dodge kids. Actually, yeah, that we have to, I
think only because it helps lay the groundwork for this
whole story. So you know that their grandfather, his name
was Ezekiel Dodge, and we're talking about like in the
(04:48):
eighteen fifties, so you know, prior to them being born,
you know, twenty years before they're born. Even um, he
ran a successful machine shop on the banks of the St.
Joseph River in Niles, Michigan. So that's in southwest Michigan,
kind of near the South Bend, Indiana area, you know,
right on the border there. Um and his idea, not
his idea, but his his main focus, I guess, was
(05:09):
to fix the steam engines that were on some of
the boats that the local fisherman had, so that was
kind of his main thing was it was more like
marine engines, right, steam engines in a marine application. And
Ezekiel and his wife, her name was Anna, so that's
their grandfather and grandmother. Um. They had thirteen kids. Ben
thirteen kids now maybe not all that common now, sort
(05:33):
of common back then, I guess you can have the
big farm family, right, had two daughters and eleven sons,
including Daniel Rugg Dodge. Now that is the father of
John and Horace. So I thought it was important to
lay the groundwork that the mechanical background kind of comes
from there. And of course Daniel, uh, you know, he
was also taught to be a machinist in Ezekiel's shop,
(05:55):
and that's how he passed it onto his son and
then so on and so special lies in machines for
marine use. As you said, that doesn't end with the
Zekiel uh. So the family is pretty pretty close knit.
The brothers especially are inseparable. They built the first bicycle
in their town, which is a cool story. Yeah, that's
(06:17):
pretty nate. And uh. They moved eventually to Ontario where
they got jobs as machinists working for a place called
the Canadian Typographic Company. Yeah, now I have to tell
you something about this side this bicycle. All right, this
is kind of interesting because, um, remember we mentioned that
one was a gifted machinists and and more mechanical than
(06:38):
the other one. Well, well, I guess, um that's Horace
was was more um skilled, I guess in the technical
aspect of whole thing, and and John was more of
the businessman. Alright, So Horace designed a dirtproof ball bearing
right there on his homework bench, you know, just kind
of working on his own decided that, you know, he's
gonna work on the design of a ball bearing, maybe
(06:59):
to the point where it's dirt proof, which was something
I guess. Prior to this, there was no shielding on
belt ball bearings, and they got gummed up and foul
and everything. So he designed this this fantastic thing in
seven that um you know, they got patents on at
everything else, and they designed a bicycle around the ball bearing,
believe it or not, to work. Yeah, it's smart. I
guess you're right. It's something simple to build, right that
(07:20):
that requires ball bearings. And they started to manufacture these, uh,
these brand new bicycles, and so if you think about it.
The first Dodge brother vehicle was actually a bicycle. Yeah.
And the first Dodge company was the Evans and Dodge
Bicycle Company. Yeah. Yeah, so, and they were based out
of Windsor, Ontario, which was right across the river from Detroit.
(07:43):
And that bicycles manufactured in a building that they leased
from their former employer, that the Canadian company UM over
in Windsor. So um, I don't know, it's a profitable venture,
I guess. I mean they made a lot of money
off of this bicycle design and this bicycle manufacturer, enough
so that they could open their own en shop, which
was the goal all along, right, Yeah, and they quickly
(08:05):
gained a reputation for being just top notch manufacturers. Uh
they started with just twelve employees. Their business was off
and running, you know, and and expanding. As you say,
this is one right, yes, and uh so the Dodge
Machine Shop was supplying another character. They're gonna be a
(08:28):
lot of cameos in the story, folks. And our first
cameo is Ransom E. Olds, who erected the first auto
plant in Detroit. And as you said, nineteen o one,
they're supplying this guy with engines now Ransom E. Olds,
and this is the guy that actually invented the assembly line. Now,
remember Henry Ford gets credit for this, but Henry Ford
(08:49):
is the one who perfected the assembly line production. Now,
now Ransom Olds is the guy who invented this whole idea.
And again he's creating something called the was it was
it called the curve dash Oldsmobile at the time. Right now,
that's his that's his first automobile nineteen o one. He
comes to the Dodger Brothers because they have this outstanding
reputation for quality and uh and for uh, you know,
(09:13):
as as near perfect machining as you could get at
the time in nineteen o one. You gotta remember when
this is right. So these guys are, you know, the
top of their game right now. They're they're doing the
best work in town. And Ransom E. Olds comes to
him and says, I want you to build the transmissions
for my car, which is, by the way, selling like
hot cakes. Yes, and uh. This makes the Dodge Brothers
(09:35):
one of the largest part suppliers in Detroit's auto industry. Right,
and so word gets around town that you know, these
guys are are the best, right, you know, everybody should
go to them. So guess who catches wind of this
story are number one favorite mad genius of all things automotive,
Henry Ford himself. In nineteen o three, they agree officially
(09:57):
to supply Henry Ford with six hundred and fifty chassis.
So this is this counts the transmission, the axles, the
engine for two hundred fifty bucks each. Yeah, and see
the thing is that they had met with him, you know,
Ford approached them, and think about this forward. Around that time,
he would have been like thirty nine, maybe forty years
old at the time, he's in his prime. He's also
had a couple of failed companies at this time, remember,
(10:20):
because the Ford Motor Company doesn't exist yet, there's there's
no Ford Motor Company. When he approaches them and the
Dodge Brothers see his design, they see you know, the car,
the engine, and they're intrigued by it. They think that,
you know, there's there's something to this that you know,
it's better than what they've seen so far. And so
they're so impressed with this that they decided that they're
going to risk their own business, you know, the Dodge
(10:40):
Brothers business at this time, to have a contract with
him as you mentioned Ben for you know, these these chassis, right. Yeah.
At this point, their company, the Dodge Company rather, had
expanded to about a hundred and fifty people. Yeah, And
so the the stipulation that's put in this contract with
them is that Dodge would receive all of Ford's assets
at four went bankrupt, which he had with his other
(11:02):
companies twice twice. So here's the thing. You know, they're
in a pretty good position they either you know, it's
sort of inherit all this stuff. I mean they're taking
a risk, of course, you know, they're loaning him some money.
They're loaning him some you know, I guess, uh properties, right,
And the dollars amounts that these uh these come out
to is that they're giving him seven thousand dollars worth
of automobile parts and three thousand dollars in cash, uh
(11:25):
that they needed, you know, just to get this Ford
Motor Company going, which they had never heard of before,
right and wouldn't know if it was gonna you know,
succeed or not. Um the total amount of ten thousand dollars.
And for this ten thousand dollars, he gives them a
steak in Ford Motor Company when it isn't really Ford
Motor Company yet, and I think that was like fifty
(11:45):
shares of the company. That's what that amounted to. So
so again, ten thousand dollars, ten percent steak in Ford
Motor Company when it's brand new. Now, I've done an
inflation calculator and I've got a few of these as
we go along, if you like. Okay, yes, right, so, um,
you know the amount that they gave to Henry Ford
in exchange for again this ten percent you know steak
(12:06):
in Ford Motor Company ten thousand dollars in nineteen three
is equal to two hundred and fifty eight thousand and
sixty three dollars in two fourteen. So it's a sizeable
amount of money. But somebody's starting up an automobile company.
That's not a lot of money. That's uh, not enough
to I don't know, that's not really enough to do it.
(12:27):
I know, I don't think so. But you know, his
idea was enough that you know, they said, we really
believe in you. We know you can get things going.
You're you're a man of your word that you do
start these companies up, and you know you do produce
at least a few vehicles and we'll see how it goes, right,
because they really believed in this design. This this, I
guess it was the Model A design. You know, I'm
not talking the Model A that came out later in
(12:48):
the nineteen you know, late twenties, early thirties. This is
the model at the very first forward production car. Now,
I'm gonna go ahead and if you if you're okay
with this, I'm gonna peek behind the curtain of the
official story a little bit for our listeners. Scott, Henry
Ford and the Dodge brothers did not get along. Uh.
(13:11):
They butted heads all the time. And it's not really
a surprise because Henry Ford, now earlier I said he
was in his prime, you know, his thirty nine forty.
I mean he's in his physical and mental prime. I mean,
clearly financially is having difficulties. But as he aged, she
just did stranger and stranger things. Um, because that's nature
(13:32):
of genius, right. He was already uh not suffering disagreement,
and so are the Dodge brothers, especially when you know
they're the ones helping him. Uh. So he's he's complaining
all the time. He's saying, you know, hey, Horace, Hey,
John Uh, your employees are turning out substandard stuff and
(13:53):
it's garbage because they're paid by the piece. But you
know what, this is important to note to think about this,
all right, all right, So Henry Ford's his name is
on the company, that's true, the Ford Motor Company. And
he's got the Dodge Brothers building. And this is this
may be a surprise or listeners to the Dodge Brothers
are building every single part of the new Forward car
except for the wooden wooden seats which are made of buckboard,
(14:17):
you know, the buckboard seats and the rubber tires, and
that's it. They're building every other single piece. They're they're
they're completely manufacturing this car for Ford. So Ford, you know,
he's going to poke his nose into a lot of
stuff and say, I think you should be doing it
this way. I think he should be doing you know
this instead of that. I mean, that makes sense. It's
just the way that I've seen it depicted is that
(14:38):
he was not happy ever, but continually ordering more vehicles.
He was a problem client. He's a problem client. That's
a perfect way to say. It's yes, I guess, but
he's you know, he's still has the you know, the
controlling share of the company, right, he's got what I
think at this pointer, if not more, because you know,
the Dadge brothers had ten percent, and then there were
(14:58):
other what they call a minority shore holders, which have
you know, little bits of stock in the company, but
not enough to control the board, I guess, and so eventually,
I mean, let me not I guess overstated. It's true
that they butted heads a lot, but they both knew
it was a good business relationship because despite his complaints,
he continued ordering engines and by the spring of oh five,
(15:22):
nineteen o five, when he moved into a new plant, UH,
they were still supplying his rigs, so that would be
the engines and transmissions, and they were always there was
major supplier for a while. But we know that even
though by nineteen o five Ford was trying to produce
his own engines and transmissions for the model in UH,
(15:44):
we know that their fates were intertwined. That's the way
I read this phrase. Before fates were intertwined for the
next fifteen years. Yes, and we're gonna as we'll do
often I think in this podcast, UM, I want to
point out the first board and who bought it. Because
I think that's pretty that's such a good story, that's okay.
(16:05):
Is a good doctor. His name is E. Fenning, and
he was a Chicago dentist who bought the very first
model a Ford eight hundred and fifty dollars. And now
that was eight hundred fifty dollars in nineteen o three. Uh,
the the inflation calculator tells me that that is equal
to one thousand, nine hundred and thirty five dollars and
thirty six cents in two thousand and fourteen. So you know,
(16:28):
average price car, I guess, I mean a little low
for what we have now, but you know, we've got
that crazy inflation going on. It makes sense though that
a doctor would buy it if you think about house calls.
It really does, you know. And and also you know,
kind of he's got the money to this man. Probably
even then doctors were wealthy, right likely, I mean in Chicago,
I would think, you know, big, you know, big town
doctor versus you know, like a country doctor. Yeah. I
(16:50):
wonder if he had student loans though, I mean that
back then, I guess, so, I mean, you know, Chicago dentist,
I don't know every bet he was making a lot
of money. So anyways, at the time of the sale,
this is kind of important, I think, or yeah, you
know interesting, if nothing else, Ford had two hundred and
thirty three dollars and sixty five cents left in his
bank account when he finally made that first sale. So
(17:12):
when Dr. E. Fenning bought the very first Ford, he's
down to the last two dollars in his account, you know,
Henry Ford is so he's really hoping that this takes
off right now, because it's now or never. And they say,
right from the time of that very first sale, all
the money was just coming in. There was no more
money going out, and at least there's more money coming
in than there was going out. We're back in, back
(17:34):
in the black, exactly right. And so you know the
direction is only you know, the money flow is only
going up from this point. So the Dodge Brothers, now,
remember they gave him ten thousand dollars, remember the seven
thousand dollars worth of parts three thousand cash that very
first year. They received ten thousand dollars in stock dividends,
which is, you know, the payoff to investors based on
(17:55):
the amount of money the company earns, etcetera. You know,
look that up if you want. But the Ford stock
eventually would pay out millions more to them over the
next what do you say, fifteen years? Then? Yeah, through
about nineteen fourteen, they collected three point eight million in
dividends and that's million. That's almost four million in nineteen fourteen, guys. Uh.
(18:17):
Then they got another almost two million, one point seven
million profits from the Ford contracts um at the same
time around let's see August nineteen fourteen. Uh, John Dodge
resigned as director and vice president of the Ford Motor
Company because you have been working with them, Um, but
they retained that stock, uh, that they've had since nineteen
(18:40):
oh three. Um. This is important because they were profiting
in two different ways. Right. They had the Ford stock,
which you know again paid out millions and millions right
in dividends, But the Dad's brothers actually profited a second
time by selling the parts, by selling for the parts.
So they're selling for the parts for the cars that
they manufacture, and they hold stock in the company and
(19:00):
they're also profiting on that. So this is a very
very shrewd move on the on the part of the
Dodger brothers. I mean, you're making money at both ends,
but they're still tied to an outsider and outside company,
an outside person, not ideal, that's right. But you know,
Henry Ford was working on his own project, right, and
his project was the River Rouge Plan. And the River
Rouge Plan is still around, it's still operational, and you know,
(19:23):
there's some fantastic photos of that from you know, back
in the time when Henry Ford was still running the place,
when it's brand new, and there's there's some some great
photos of it. Now, don't get me wrong, but back then,
some of the classic photos are really really cool. River
Rouge is a huge complex. So anyways, the this this
River Rouge complex is finally complete, and Ford realizes that,
(19:43):
you know, Dodges really I mean in a way, they're
no longer needed, right because they have that small machine
shop that they've been working out of, or relatively small anyways,
and um, he wants to lease out the Dodge machine
shop and still use it. But the Dodge brother don't
want to do that. They don't want to lease the
space to Henry Ford. They want to hang onto it.
(20:05):
So the Dodge brothers decide that they're going to create
their own product that will compete with the Henry Ford product.
Now this is this is remarkable. Right. So they're building
they're already building the Model T, right, and they're they're
they're making all these parts and just bread the whole
vehicle relates. So they know all the ins and outs
of this literally including the weaknesses. And that's key here
(20:27):
because they know the weaknesses of the Model T. And
what they do is they set out to build their
own car that fixes all those weaknesses. So it has
everything that the Model T has. But it's also you know,
um making changes that were necessary all along the way
that Henry Ford, you know, had been notified of. And
he said, no, I don't want to change it in
any way because remember all those stories we told you
(20:49):
about Henry Ford early on, you know, on our Henry
Ford podcast, that he was very resistant to change. If
something was working, he would never alter, he would never
update anything. Don't complicate things, don't Okay, Just for an example,
because I know that it might sound like I'm beating
up Henry Ford and calling him crazy, he tore a
car apart with his bare hands, and just want to
(21:09):
point that out. And that was because they had decided
to change his vehicle and he didn't. He didn't like
the idea that they had done that without him. So
so the Dodge brothers got off kind of easy if
you think about it, because he just said no. I guess, yeah,
he did just say no. But you know he was fuming.
You know, he was angry, very angry. He had a temper,
and um, so they wait. So the Dodge car, which
(21:30):
they're going to build in their own factory, would include
all the improvements that they had talked to Henry Ford about,
but Henry didn't want to make those changes. Remember, so
you know, Henry's got this, Uh, I guess at this
point an inferior product. Really, do you want to look
at it that way? Really? Well, they wanted to sell
it almost to a different market. Yeah, and you know,
I hate to say an inferior product because we're talking
(21:51):
about the Model Team. Yeah, it's an icon. Really, it's
hard to say that about it. But remember the Dodge
brothers were building it, and now they're improving on it
with their own designs. So again they're they're taking it,
they're taking it a step up. I think, you know,
if we were if we were to call the Model
T there's a horrible comparison. But if we were to
call the Model T the equivalent of fast food, the
(22:13):
idea being that it's easy to replicate and it's easy
to expand, and it's everywhere like McDonald's, then what the
Dodge brothers were trying to do is build something that's
a little bit more like to sit down restaurant. Okay,
I see what you're saying. So they improved upon the
design and they're they're gonna make just slightly more of
it's more of an upscale version, right right. It's so
this is also that it does not directly compete, because
(22:36):
that would be bad for their business. Well, it does
directly compete though, because it goes into the same market,
and people know that the Dodge Brothers have been building
that Model T, and that, you know, these guys who
were known for their quality, known for the machine work,
known for their their expertise in this area, are now
building their own product. I think that a lot of
people are swayed by that to say, why not go
(22:56):
right to the source. These guys are the ones that
are responsible for equality behind the Model T. I'm gonna
go and I'm gonna go try out their product and
see what that's like, well, that's true because they were
competing that they already had such a great reputation, but
the vehicle that they were creating was going to be
more expensive than the model T. Yeah, but that's what
I'm saying. You're right, You're right, not by much, like
(23:19):
a hundred dollars more, which which okay, a hundred dollars
more in I've done the calculation, So just one hundred
dollars more in nineteen fourteen is the equivalent to about
two thousand, three d and thirty dollars more, which is
really that's not a whole lot, I guess. I mean, yes,
you're right, it's kind of it's it's an upsell. It's
(23:40):
not a lot. I mean, it's still competition, but you
know again, it isn't upsell. So you're you're saying, I've
got a product that's similar, it's it costs more. Are
you willing to take a risk on this? And most people,
in fact say, you know what, because it's the Dodge Brothers,
I am Scott. Before anyone even saw the new vehicle,
thirteen thousand d Owlers asked to become Dodge agent teen thousand.
(24:02):
Now that we're talking about the Dodge Model thirty that
was the very first Dodge that they produced. It was
a four cylinder again kind of an upscale version of
the Model T I guess if you will, um, and
it had a couple of unique features that other vehicles
at the time didn't have. Now, some of these they
did something they didn't, but it did have an all
sealed body, and that was unusual because most people are
(24:25):
still using wood at the time, right, a lot of
wood panels. It had a twelve volt electrical system, which
again most were using six volt at the time. It
had a thirty five horse power four cylinder engine. As
I mentioned that, again, thirty five horse power doesn't sound
like a whole lot, but you got to remember that
the Model T had just twenty horse power at the time,
so this is a significant up cell from that, I guess, um.
(24:47):
And the other thing is that it had a sliding
gear transmission, which you know the you know, the Model
T um that used the older planetary gear design all
the way through the end of the Model T production,
which was in nine So in nineteen fourteen, Dadgett already
advanced to the point where they're using this sliding gear transmission.
And again Henry Ford held onto that, you know, that
(25:09):
planetary gear design for another thirteen years beyond that. I mean,
he just did not he resisted change. He did not
want to change. Well, I can see where he's coming
from though, because why I fix it if it ain't broke.
That's true. And you know what, and he did very
very well for himself, I mean extremely well for himself.
And we're not trying to disparage the model t in
(25:31):
any way or nor Henry Ford. It's just that, you know,
this is part of his character and it shows in
everything that he does. And he uh, he's still around
when all this other stuff is happening, most of it.
And uh, let's go ahead and talk about the huge
expansion that they experience upon Yeah, so nineteen fourteen, Uh,
(25:55):
they don't actually end up making that many cars. Uh,
they make a smaller number of cars for that first year.
But just to jump ahead a little bit, by April
nineteen fifteen, their workforce increased to seven thousand people scott
and by the end of that year their firm produced
over forty five thousand cars at their ham Tramm plan.
(26:16):
That is incredible. So in ham Trammic they're building forty
five thousand cars in nineteen fifteen, and they've got seven
thousand employees cranking away and this probably twenty four hours
a day, if I had to guess, Yeah, unbelievable because
they started in that little bicycle shop with what seven
or twelve employees? Twelve employees. Here they are and this
isn't that much longer. This is nineteen fifteen. When did
they start the bicycle shop. That was in eighteen nineties, Yeah,
(26:40):
eighteen or nineteen o one, I guess when they first
had their machine shop, so so nineteen o one. So
fourteen years later they're up to seven thousand employees. That's incredible,
which doesn't usually happen in any business. It is amazing,
all right, So, Ben, I think we're at a point
here where I'm gonna have to say we're gonna have
to cut for the day. Um, But that's by no
means the end of this story, because we're gonna pick
(27:01):
up with nineteen sixteen, and there's a major twist in
the whole thing here, in the whole story that happens
in nineteen and it makes a big impact on the
entire rest of the story. So I think this is
a solid point to stop at here if you'll mind,
Oh yeah, absolutely, let's go ahead and make this a
two parter. Guys, thanks for listening to the Origin of
the Dodge story. Please stay tuned for the sequel, The
(27:26):
Dodging Ing. Now I'm kidding. Uh, we're just gonna call
it number two or part two. That's probably a safer
all right, and we're gonna go ahead and get to
work on that. Find us on Facebook, you can drop
us a line on Twitter. You can send us an
email directly. We are our stuff at how stuff work
dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
(27:49):
this is how stuff works dot com. Let us know
what you think. Send an email to podcast at how
stuff works dot com. Four
CarStuff News
Hosts And Creators
Scott Benjamin
Ben Bowlin
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