Commentaries
1.(Ransom) Eli Olds — (Рэнсом) Эли Олдс (1864-1950), американский конструктор-бизнесмен, изготовил несколько трехколесных паровых повозок, наладил в Америке производство дешевых автомобилей «Олдсмобиль».
Low Price, Mass Market
Model ‘N’ was also produced in 1906 and represented Ford's first attempt to enter the mass market. Its price was as low as $600, which was the direct competition with the single-cylinder cars of other manufacturers (the ‘N’ was a four-cylinder). It was well accepted by the public but was not a commercial success. Ford had not yet introduced those productive techniques which were to allow him to reduce manufacturing costs so considerably, as he did with the later model ‘T’. The 'N' exhibited certain typical characteristics which later were to give the name 'spider' to the ‘T’— large wheels set well apart, small coachwork and a high ground clearance.
The 'R' and 'S' followed in 1907 and the beginning of 1908 and represented Ford's ranging on to his target of the ideal popular car he wished to produce. In general they were both similar to the 'N' and the same commercial policy of low price was followed with growing success. Certain technical details were improved, particularly those regarding front and rear suspension. At last we come to 1908, the year that introduced one of the most famous cars ever, the Ford model ‘T’, the 'Lizzie' for millions of Americans — the tin Lizzie, as it was called by rivals in its early days, until its great commercial success made such criticism ridiculous. Its official birthday was 1st October, 1908. That date represented the culmination of months and months of hard work by everyone in the organisation. This time the 'boss' had decided that not only would the new model be technically perfect but that it would be the product of a manufacturing and commercial organisation completely geared to mass production and volume sales.
Thus, before the birth of that historic vehicle (over 15,000,000 were made in all) there were frantic efforts to study new materials and rational works layout to reduce production times. Ford saw that he had the finest assembly lines possible, and did much to ensure the closest collaboration with suppliers and subcontractors. Ford's preferred policy was to buy them out in order to avoid unpleasant surprises from possible underhand manoeuvre by one of his competitors. There were many people in those days wanting to make war on Ford, because he represented a great challenge even at that early stage.
Another Giant
The second big American motor company, General Motors—for long the largest and most powerful commercial organisation in the world -was founded in 1908, the result of the patient, tenacious work of another outstanding individual, William Crapo Durant. He, like Ford, had begun in the early years of the 20th century but the aims and methods of the two men were quite different. Ford was in essence a technician, with clear, precise commercial ideas stemming from a real passion for the motor car. Durant was a business man who, like others of the time, had seen the future possibilities of the car and who had decided to reach the highest levels of the boom whose advent he foresaw so clearly.
In the early 1900s Billy Durant, grandson of a Governor of Michigan, was already a millionaire, having founded a successful handcart factory with his partner, Josiah Dallas Dart, an exdealer in trinkets. These two decided to convert their factory in Flint to motor car production, Durant being particularly keen to do so. Their problem was to find a fairly well-known make, preferably in financial difficulties, which their assistance could turn into a financial success. Buick fitted the bill.
David Dunbar Buick was an ex-tinsmith, also from Michigan, who, having amassed a substantial fortune from his patents on the application of enamel to cast iron, decided to build motor cars. His prototype for a light car created interest; it had a well-balanced engine, a pleasing appearance, and certain good technical details, notably pushrod-operated overhead valves. The financial aspects of the company, however, were not equally good. The Buick Manufacturing Company, in fact, became the Buick Motor Car Company after only one year, when it accepted a contribution of new capital from the Briscoe brothers. The association with the Briscoes did not last long. When they saw the way the company's finances were going they withdrew, and Buick, in spite of his ingenious ideas and the success of the few vehicles built, found himself on the brink of bankruptcy. It was in this way that Durant, in November, 1904, was able to get his hands on the Buick business. He immediately increased the company's capital from $75,000 to $300,000, and later to $500,000. He transferred the works to Flint, not to his own factory but to that of the Flint Wagon Works, another company with which he had recently become associated.
The impulse that Durant gave to the Buick business is shown by the production figures; they passed from 28 machines, in 1904, through 626 in 1905, to 2,300 in 1906.