And often rough. If you lived way out in the country, 15 or 20 miles from the railroad station, you had to get up before dawn to catch the 9 30 train. For the next two hours, the carriage went creaking down the old, familiar road while the countryside moved slowly past. If you were leaving the farm for good, to go to the city, you had mixed feelings on that long ride to the station. It is not easy to pull up roots and start a new life. Use saw the faces of old friends as you passed their houses, waving goodbye, and you felt sad leaving them. But you felt to, how old and tired they looked, locked on the land. A woman looked 50 before she was 35. In a way, you were glad you were leaving. You past the old schoolhouse and you remembered the long miles you walk morning after morning to get there. That final run to get inside before the bell stopped clinging. Clanging. Or perhaps you past the doctors buggy and you remembered the terrible night your mother laid upstairs sick and the weight for the doctored come. When he finally arrived, there was nothing he could do anymore. After that, you never saw his buggy without wondering whether he got there on time. You past the church, too. But you knew you were not leaving got behind, he would be with you in the days behind ahead. Still, there were good times to remember as well as bad, and by the time you reached the station you wondered if you are making a mistake. Some people might call you a fool to run off to the city. Full of pickpockets and women who painted their faces. But they were things you want to do that you cannot do on a farm. If you are interested in machinery or wanted to tinker with injuries that ran on gasoline, the country was no place for you. The train was late, you could have slept another halfhour. You look down the empty tracks, waiting. Somewhere out there beyond the horizon lay the city where your destiny waited. The people who lived in the city state in the city. They walked the hard pavements. If a person were well healed, wellheeled, he took a cab. If a nickel was all that he could afford, he took a street car and got there one hour later. The fastest thing in town was the fire engine. In the good old summertime, the streets were hot. Vegetables and people will did under the blazing sun. Wilted under the blazing sun. The kids were hardboiled. Everybody sweltered together on the cobblestones. Uptown lay the ballpark. And if you went for a long boat ride down the bay, you finally arrived at an Amusement Park , where there were roller coasters. Shoot the chutes, camels to ride , and a real beach where the kids could swim in the ocean. But it took the better part of a day to get there and back, so you settle for the nearest fire hydrant on your block. Bicycles were all the rage. On sunday afternoons, you could pedal past the city limits and see real trees and grass and hear a bird sing. That was fun. As long as your legs held out, you could go wherever you want ed. Right up to the end of the road. A few miles out of town, the pavement ended, and from then on, bicycling was no pleasure. A lot of people accepted the end of the road and turned back. But the bicycle wheels had a greater destiny. In detroit, a man named henry ford, who had left the farm to come to the city to tinker with machinery was making what was called a quad recycle. The horsepower would come from a gasoline engine he made himself. He did everything himself, working nights and holding down a daytime job at the detroit illuminating company. It took a long while to make this machine, but henry ford stuck to it and it finally was ready. One moment this night, he pushed it out for its first trial run. Up and down the dark and empty streets he ran, past the dark houses was the shape of things to come. If anybody was to look out the window, he probably wouldve thought he was still dreaming. That night, history was made and the streets were never the same again. It did not happen overnight. The going was rough for those early cars on the american road. We should pause to remember and admire not only the adventurous man who kept on making automobiles but the reckless few who had courage enough to drive them. Some people thought that the sale wagon had a more promising future than the automobile. It could hit almost 50 Miles Per Hour if the wheels stayed on. On a public road, it really stopped traffic. While people were saluting the wind blow them in various directions, men like henry ford were putting their faith in the gasoline engine. He built a big one and put it in a racing car called the 999. It would be huge, was a heavy monster and spent most of its time in the shop getting tuned up. Nobody at the time probably realized it, that the 999 had a prophetic look. This was no horseless carriage, it was long, low and powerful and built for speed. In a crude but unmistakable way, it forecast the shape of cars to come. On october 25, 1902, a world record was set in the 999 and ushered in a new era. He drove it a mile a minute. Cars now became more and more frequent site. Particularly in the cities. Were more than 1000 automobile manufacturers in the united states. In that year, the Ford Motor Company was founded. The first payroll didnt do much bookkeeping. The first car of the new company was called the model a, it could go 30 Miles Per Hour. It had a two cylinder eight horsepower engine. It sold for 850, a lot of money in those days, and it sold chiefly to those in the upper bracket. It was smart and fashionably designed with a door in the rear like a pony car. It cranked from the side, a good safety measure to prevent the crank or person cranking from being run over if they slipped. Everybody admired it. Only the more daring could be inspired to ride in any kind of a motorcar. The farmer was a forgotten man during this early period. He saw occasional cars go by on the rough road, but these strange mechanical contraptions seemed out of place in the country. They were for city people. Not for him. He kept on a grooming his old reliable horse. Waited. And suddenly, one day, it appeared. It was called the model t. It had a fourcylinder, 20 horsepower engine. And years that defied the lawrence the laws of science. Maybe it did not look fancy, but he could take a beating on country roads and still get to you there. It was a farmers car, built by a farmer. There was only one thing wrong with it. 850. T millions of citizens looked at the model t and licked their chops. The car of their dreams, but they couldnt afford it. Back in detroit, henry ford wondered how we could bring the price of the model t down so that everybody could buy it. He figured the more cars he made and sold, the cheaper he could sell each one. He went to work on this idea. In those days, each car was built from the frame up on stationary wooden horses. There was a different crew for each car, and the same crew stayed on the car until it was finished. That meant duplication of effort and a lot of time wasted. So they tried moving the men from car to car. Each man had a special job to do and as soon as he finished it, he moved to the next car and did the same thing there. It was better, but it still took 12. 5 hours to assemble each model t. Henry ford watched it for a while and had an inspiration. Instead of moving the men asked past the cars, why not move the cars passed the men . Past the men . On one hot, august morning they tried it that way. A husky young fellow put a rope over his shoulder and henry ford called, lets go. At that very moment as the workman again to fasten parts onto the car, the Assembly Line was born, at technique that would revolutionize mass production all of the world all over the world. Once they found that the idea would work, they began to improve it, refine it. They would roll the chassis on the track, pushing it from crew to crew. The more experts they became at this new method, the faster the cars came off the Assembly Line and prices began to drop. They tried the same idea on all the various parts of the car and created what was called subassembly. One man did one thing and did it perfectly and then passed it on to the next man. Minute by minute, production was winning the battle against wasted time and effort. Parts were fed to workman by gravity slides, so they would not have to stop and wait. Then they put the parts on moving conveyor belts. This was a great step forward because now they could regulate the flow of work and keep it moving at a constant rate of speed. And the conveyor belts grew longer and more complex as they moved to work from place to place in the shop. They became fantastic masterpieces of planning and engineering. The battle against wasted time and effort was being one won. The cars began coming off the Assembly Line at the rate of one every 40 seconds. What henry ford have foreseen happened. Mass production and the Assembly Line drove the price down from 850 to 300. Now everybody could have one. What a wonderful feeling it was to own your own car. The sunday afternoon drive became a national pastime. Off you went to visit your uncle with the car jolting you out of your seat every time it hit a bump. Mother would keep saying, poppa, dont drive so fast. And when you suddenly met another car coming the other way on those narrow roads, that was a thrill. Its still your hair right up on end. At first, just being able to drive a car was enough. Pretty soon the novelty wore off and people began to get angry at the bad roads. So they started to make the roads better. In every state across the nation, machines and men went to work. The mud gave way to smooth ribbons of pavement wide enough for two cars to pass each other. The roads became longer and pushed out in every direction. Down every road ran a model t, panting and quivering, always wanting to go farther. Now an interesting thing began to happen. People from the cities began writing out into the country and people from the farms begin going into the city and a whole section of the population began getting acquainted with each other for the first time. No roadmaps in those days. If you got lost, a kindly native would give you directions so complicated you cannot find your way home with a compass. Everything was down the road a piece. If you got lost, just stay lost. Everywhere you look, you saw the model t, it became part of the american scenery. It took the housewife to market. It brought the doctor to his patients in time to save their lives. It saved time and speeded up business. Filling stations sprang up by the thousand and a whole new industry in gas and oil was created. Not only did it saved time, it gave the average citizen a wonderful new way to spend the time he saved. Now for the first time, americans were able to travel inexpensively across their own country in their own cars and see the grandeur of their inheritance. They could visit the Great National parks, which had been created for the people, and which so few people have ever had an opportunity to see. Now the whole family could get away from the noise and heat of the city. People could go camping over the weekend and get back to work monday morning with three new to energy renewed energy. They can go to the mountains, or if they preferred the beach, it would carry them to the seas at. Edge. There were many new images in the peoples minds now, things they had seen along the american road. Wonderful things they would never have been able to see at all without the motor car. There was a new look in peoples faces, a look of discovery and wonderment and pleasure. A new world had been opened up for them. The nation took the model t. People make jokes about it but loved it. They said it could go everywhere except inside. Hollywood comedians had a field day with it. The model t was more than an motor car, it was a symbol of the industrial revolution. R mass production and the Assembly Line was now able to bring the price down on many products and put them into reach. Mass production created new jobs and higher wages. Under this powerful stimulus, the nations economy expanded enormously. Was about the man who chiefly responsible for all of this . What was he like . I let us take a look at the family album. Here is at his home. Walking with his wife through the garden. Laughing with a friend at a cartoon of himself. On the ice covered pond with his grandchildren. Here is back on the land, tinkering with one of the old steam engines. He was always wondering how we could take the burden of work from a farmer and put it on a machine. Maybe it was at times like this that the idea of a tractor came to him. A tractor was the realization of one of his oldest dreams. Here he is in his office having a conference. The man who startled the industrial world. This is a family scene, starting out on a transcontinental trip in getting a big sendoff. A drive like that was a big a drive like this was quite an adventure in those days. He liked to dance country dances. A grandchild, henry ford the second. Showing his grandchild a baby bird. With mrs. Edsel ford watching. Still the farmer, teaching his secondildren, henry the and benson ford to love the soil. On anniversaries and other occasions, he would get out the old quadracycle and drive it with his wife, clara. What memories it must have brought back. Sometimes he liked to go camping with his old friends. John burroughs and naturalist. The bearded man is john burroughs, a naturalist. He still knew how to swing and ax. Had his own ideas about cooking, too. A vigorous man with vigorous mind and a healthy appetite. He used to say, you can take the boy out of the country but you cannot take the country out of the boy. Whatever he did, henry ford kept a rugged simplicity. A quality that nothing could alter or soft and soften. Burroughs had always looked down his beard at the model t, but called it a noisy device that startled the birds. But finally even he overcame his prejudices. The man behind the legend. These are men whose ideas changed our way of life and made it at her. Better. Father and son. Sidebyside, reviewing the past, planning the future together. How quickly it all happens. Years, henry25 ford he personified the american credo of individualism and freedom of enterprise. He will long be remembered. American road became better, the cars that drove along it began to change. They became larger, heavier. The highway had become an extension of the streets. Luxurygathered to demand and transportation. Balloon tires and shock absorbers took the roughness out of driving. Interiors, some even had a crystal vase to hold a single, elegant flower. Saw the trend and began making the lincoln. One of the finest and most luxurious cars in the world. Alongside of such grandeur, the old model t began to look more and more like a country cousin. The times had changed since the time that chain since the car the change the world was no longer needed. Henry ford decided to stop producing it. Millionth the 15 model t came out of the plant and the Assembly Line closed down forever on the worlds most famous car. Sliveren on the old began to disappear from the roads. The old cars were to turned in, they were taken back to the plant. There, they were scrapped. The steel was salvaged for use in the new model. Once in a while, the car would throw in a last effort to save itself. The model t died hard. Although the model t began to fade from the american scene, the impetus and new direction it gave to our way of life did not stop there. It gathered momentum that carried us through the gate 20s gay 20s. Even the grim depression of the 30s could not stop the powerful forces that had been set in motion. The Lessons Learned from the Assembly Line and matt duction had mass production have helped us to win the long and terrible war. Us to win the long and terrible war. Nothing has been able to stop us. We have caps on working. Today, this is how the american road looks. The whole nation has become swift and mobile. Flowing over a Great Network of highways, more than 3 million miles long. Constantly moving. The american road has lifted itself high above the muddy ruts of 50 years ago. The road has bridged the gulf between city and country. Ofir weight their ways life have mingled. Both have taken the burden equally. Machines take the burden of work from the back of the farmer. No longer do the women on the farms grow old before their time. The people of the cities have been able to move out into quiet communities, full of sun and fresh air, that seem almost like living in the country. The old Country Schoolhouse has vanished. The energy of the children is no longer wasted in walking miles to get there. The worker of today no longer has to live close to the plant that employs it. His home is in pleasant surroundings and he drives to work. Road,car on the american every new building that towers against the sky is a sign of our progress towards a better way of life. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about the american road is the freedom that it gives. You only have to get in your car and start driving to feel it. The american road. Vistas openicent before us as we travel along it. We have come a long way since the quadra cycle and the model t. In three short years our whole way of life has changed. We have a compost, but the achievements to come will dwarf our own. The american road stretches ahead of us, all towards a new horizon. We are all traveling along that road. All moving forward towards an even better tomorrow. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] you are watching American History tv. To join the conversation, like us on facebook. Next from the International Spy museum, the andy of slaves and slave International War spy, James Lafayette. He infiltrated british camps. Jamestown, yorktown curator, catherine gruner, described how gained thed atria trust of Benedict Arnold and british general cornwallis and how the american the information that he gathered inped the american cause 1781. The Smithsonian Associates and International Spy museum cohosted this 80 minute event. Good to see all of you here. I am a historian and curator. Some of you i know, some of you i am meeting for the first time. I would like to welcome all of you to the spy museum and spy seminar, where we focus on the spies of the american revolution. The first two weeks centered on wellknown personalities. You have the , which has an entire tv show dedicated to it now, and ben franklin is of course ben franklin. Next week, we will look at the most infamous spy in u. S. History, Benedict Arnold. The relative obscurity of James Lafayette is what will make this morning so interesting. He is someone we should know more about
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