Page:America's Highways 1776–1976.djvu/61

 vehicle—the famous Model T. At the same time, he tooled up to mass-produce components for this one vehicle and designed a moving assembly line on which to put the components together into cars.

An early American automobile built around 1898. By thus redesigning the vehicle and standardizing the production process, Ford was able to increase production from 1,599 units in 1905 to 8,729 units in 1906 and 14,887 units in 1907, at the same time reducing prices. These lower prices, in turn, opened the door to a huge mass market. As sales increased, Ford was able to realize further economies of scale in manufacturing, and still further reductions in cost, until by 1917 he was selling cars for less than $600 apiece. A 1907 Columbia built by the Electric Vehicle Co. in Hartford, Conn. However, this is not an electric car. The auto manufacturers of that period numbered in the thousands, but often a manufacturer built no more than a dozen or so cars.

As Ford's competitors adopted his methods in a rush to catch up with him, the automotive industry turned out an ever-increasing flood of vehicles at lower 55