WEBVTT Kind: captions; Language: en

00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:29.001
[...]

00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:44.000
The old road was not only a road,
it was a way of life, slow and often rough.

00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:54.000
If you lived way out in the

00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:59.001
country, 15 or 20 miles away from the
railroad station, you had to get up before

00:00:59.001 --> 00:01:01.001
dawn to catch the 930 train.

00:01:03.001 --> 00:01:07.001
You harnessed up the reliable horse,
and for the next two hours the carriage went

00:01:07.001 --> 00:01:12.000
creaking down the old familiar road
while the countryside moved slowly past.

00:01:14.001 --> 00:01:19.001
If you were leaving the farm for good to
go to the city, you had mixed feelings

00:01:19.001 --> 00:01:22.000
on that long ride to the station.

00:01:22.001 --> 00:01:26.001
It's not easy to pull up routes
and start a new kind of life.

00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:35.000
You saw the faces of old friends as
you passed their house waving goodbye,

00:01:35.001 --> 00:01:37.000
and you felt sad at leaving them.

00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:43.001
But you saw too how old and tired they looked,
worn out by hard

00:01:43.001 --> 00:01:45.000
work, locked on the land.

00:01:46.001 --> 00:01:51.000
A woman looked 50 before she
was 35 with all she had to do.

00:01:52.001 --> 00:01:55.000
In a way, you were glad you were leaving.

00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:01.000
You passed the old schoolhouse where you'd
gone as a kid, and you remembered the

00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:04.001
long miles you'd walked morning
after morning to get there.

00:02:06.001 --> 00:02:10.000
That final run to get inside
before the bells stopped clanging.

00:02:15.001 --> 00:02:22.000
Or perhaps you passed the doctor's buggy
drawn up in front of someone's house,

00:02:22.001 --> 00:02:26.000
and you'd remember the terrible night
your mother lay upstairs in the bedroom,

00:02:26.001 --> 00:02:29.001
sick, and the long hours of
waiting for the doctor to come.

00:02:30.001 --> 00:02:34.001
The roads were bad that night.
When he finally arrived, there was

00:02:34.001 --> 00:02:36.000
nothing he could do anymore.

00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:40.001
After that,
you never saw the doctor's buggy without

00:02:40.001 --> 00:02:42.001
wondering if he'd gotten there in time.

00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:49.001
You passed the church too,
but you knew you were not leaving God behind.

00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:53.000
He would be with you in the
uncertain days that lay ahead.

00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.000
Still, there were good times to remember
as well as bad, and by the time you

00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:01.001
reached the station,
you wondered if you were making a mistake.

00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:07.001
Some people might call you a darn fool to
leave a fine farm and go running off of

00:03:07.001 --> 00:03:12.000
the city where it was noisy and dirty,
full of pickpockets and swindlers

00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.000
and women who painted their faces.

00:03:21.001 --> 00:03:25.000
But there were things you wanted to do
that couldn't get done on the farm.

00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:30.001
If you were interested in machinery,
for instance, or wanted to tinker with

00:03:30.001 --> 00:03:34.000
engines that ran on gasoline,
the country was no place for you.

00:03:35.001 --> 00:03:38.001
You had to go where other men
were doing this kind of thing.

00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:43.001
The train was late, of course.
You could have slept another half hour.

00:03:48.001 --> 00:03:54.000
You stood and looked down the empty tracks,
waiting.

00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:01.001
Somewhere out there beyond the horizon
lay the city where your destiny waited.

00:04:15.001 --> 00:04:19.001
The people who lived in the city stayed
in the city. They walked the hard

00:04:19.001 --> 00:04:21.000
pavements till their feet ate.

00:04:22.001 --> 00:04:27.001
If a person were well-heeled, he took a cab.

00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:32.000
If a nickel was all he could afford, he took a

00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:34.000
streetcar and got there an hour later.

00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:39.000
The fastest thing in town was the fire engine.

00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:06.000
In the good old summertime,
the streets got hot as buns.

00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:09.000
Vegetables and peanuts were the [...]

00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:12.000
People wilted under the blazing sun,
and the kids were hard-boiled.

00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:19.001
Everybody taunted and swelted and longed
to get away from the cranking thunder of

00:05:19.001 --> 00:05:23.000
the elevated trains and the clatter
of wagon wheels on cobblestones.

00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:28.001
Part of town lay the ballpark.

00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:36.001
And if you went for a long boat ride
down the bay, you finally arrived at an

00:05:36.001 --> 00:05:38.001
amusement park where there were rollercoasters.

00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:49.000
Shoot the chutes, camels to ride, and

00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:52.000
a real beach where a kid could
get to swim in the ocean.

00:05:54.001 --> 00:05:59.000
But it took the better part of a day to
get there than back, so you settled for

00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:01.001
the nearest fire hydrant on your block.

00:06:07.001 --> 00:06:09.001
Bicycles for all the rage.

00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:16.000
On Sunday afternoons, you could pedal out
past the city limits and see real trees

00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:18.000
and grass and hear a bird sing.

00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:26.001
That was fun. As long as your legs held out,
you could go wherever you wanted,

00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:29.000
right up to the end of the road, that is.

00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:35.000
A few miles out of town,
the paving ended, and from then

00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:37.000
on, bicycling was no pleasure.

00:06:47.001 --> 00:06:52.000
A lot of people accepted the end
of the road and turned back.

00:06:54.001 --> 00:06:57.001
But the bicycle wheels had a greater destiny.

00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:06.000
In Detroit, a man named Henry Ford,
who had left the farm and come to the city to

00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:09.001
tinker with machinery,
was making what he called a quadracycle.

00:07:10.001 --> 00:07:16.000
It looked like a buggy, only it had no
shafts for a horse to be harnessed to.

00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:21.000
The horsepower was going to come from
a gasoline engine he'd made himself.

00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:28.001
He did everything himself, working nights
and holding down a daytime job with the

00:07:28.001 --> 00:07:30.000
Detroit Illuminating Company.

00:07:32.001 --> 00:07:39.000
It took a long while

00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:43.001
to make this machine, but Henry Ford
stuck to it, and finally it was ready.

00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:52.000
One momentous night,
he pushed it out for its first trial run.

00:08:23.001 --> 00:08:28.001
Up and down the dark,
empty streets ran the little quadracycle.

00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:32.001
Past the sleeping houses,
ghost-like and unreal, with it

00:08:32.001 --> 00:08:34.000
the shape of things to come.

00:08:35.001 --> 00:08:39.000
If anybody had waked up and looked
out the window, he probably

00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:40.001
would have thought he was still dreaming.

00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:43.001
That night, history was made of [...]

00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:47.001
The streets were never the same again.

00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:59.000
It didn't happen overnight.
The going was rough for

00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:01.000
those early cars on the American road.

00:09:03.001 --> 00:09:09.000
We should pause to remember and admire
not only the adventurous men who kept on

00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:14.001
making automobiles, but the reckless few
who had courage enough to drive them.

00:09:18.001 --> 00:09:22.001
Some people thought that
the sail wagon had a more

00:09:22.001 --> 00:09:24.001
promising future than the automobile.

00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:31.000
Built like an ice boat on wheels,
it could hit over 50 miles an hour

00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:32.001
if the wheels stayed on.

00:09:33.001 --> 00:09:36.001
Of course, it took a land-going
sailor to operate it, and on a public

00:09:36.001 --> 00:09:38.000
road it really stopped traffic.

00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:55.000
While people were still letting the wind
blow them in various directions, men

00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:59.000
like Henry Ford were putting their
faith in the gasoline engine.

00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.000
He built a big one,
and put it in a racing car called the 999.

00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:10.000
It was a huge, heavy monster,
and it spent a lot of time on the [...]

00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:12.001
It spent most of its time in
the shop getting tuned up.

00:10:15.001 --> 00:10:20.000
Nobody at the time probably realized it,
but the 999 had a prophetic look.

00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:25.000
This was no horseless carriage.
It was long and low and

00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:27.000
powerful, built for speed.

00:10:28.001 --> 00:10:33.001
In a crude but unmistakable way,
it forecast the shape of cars to come.

00:10:35.001 --> 00:10:41.001
On October 25, 1902,
Barney Oldfield set a world record in the 999.

00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:46.000
He drove it a mile a minute,
and this phrase ushered in a new era.

00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:56.001
Cars now became a more and more frequent sight,
particularly in cities.

00:10:57.001 --> 00:11:01.000
By 1903,
there were more than a thousand automobile

00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:03.000
manufacturers in the United States.

00:11:03.001 --> 00:11:07.000
And in that year,
the Ford Motor Company was founded.

00:11:08.001 --> 00:11:11.000
The first payroll didn't take much bookkeeping.

00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:21.001
The first car of the new little

00:11:21.001 --> 00:11:23.001
company was called the Model A.

00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:27.001
It had a two-cylinder, eight-horsepower engine,
and it could go 30 miles an hour.

00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:34.000
It sold for $850,
a lot of money in those days, and its owners

00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:36.000
were chiefly in the upper brackets.

00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:46.000
It was smart and fashionably designed
with a door in the rear like a pony cart.

00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:54.001
And it cranked from the side,
a good safety measure designed to prevent the

00:11:54.001 --> 00:11:58.001
cranker from being knocked flat and run
over by other [...] that prematurely.

00:12:00.001 --> 00:12:04.001
Everybody admired it but only the more
daring could be persuaded to ride

00:12:04.001 --> 00:12:06.000
in any kind of a motor car.

00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:24.000
The farmer was a forgotten
man during this early period.

00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:31.000
He saw occasional cars go by on the rough
roads, but these strange mechanical

00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:33.001
contraptions seemed out
of place in the country.

00:12:34.001 --> 00:12:36.001
They were for city people, not for him.

00:12:38.001 --> 00:12:42.000
He kept on grooming his old
reliable horse and waited.

00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:46.001
And suddenly one day it appeared.

00:12:48.001 --> 00:12:50.001
It was called the Model T.

00:12:51.001 --> 00:12:56.000
It had a four cylinder, 20 horsepower engine,
and a planetary gear that

00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:57.001
defied the laws of science.

00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:02.001
Maybe it didn't look classy,
but it could take a beating on rough country

00:13:02.001 --> 00:13:04.001
roads and still get you there.

00:13:07.001 --> 00:13:12.000
It was a farmer's car, built by a farmer.

00:13:13.001 --> 00:13:16.001
There was only one thing wrong with it.

00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:18.001
It cost $850.

00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:25.000
Millions of citizens looked at
the Model T in lickset shops.

00:13:25.001 --> 00:13:30.000
There it was, the car of their dreams,
but they couldn't afford it.

00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:36.001
Back in Detroit, Henry Ford wondered how
he could bring the price of the Model T

00:13:36.001 --> 00:13:38.001
down to where everybody could buy it.

00:13:39.001 --> 00:13:42.001
He figured that the more cars he made and sold,
the

00:13:42.001 --> 00:13:44.000
cheaper he could sell each one.

00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:46.001
And he went to work on this idea.

00:13:49.001 --> 00:13:54.001
In those days, each car was built from
the frame up on stationary wooden horses.

00:13:56.001 --> 00:13:59.001
There was a different crew for each car,
and the same crew

00:13:59.001 --> 00:14:01.001
stayed on the car until it was finished.

00:14:02.001 --> 00:14:06.000
That meant duplication of effort
and a lot of time wasted.

00:14:09.001 --> 00:14:12.001
So they tried moving the men from car to car.

00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:18.000
Each man had a special job to do,
and as soon as he finished it, he moved on to

00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:20.000
the next car and did the same thing there.

00:14:21.001 --> 00:14:26.001
That was better, but it still took 12 and
a half hours to assemble each Model T.

00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:33.000
Henry Ford watched it for a while,
and he had an inspiration.

00:14:34.001 --> 00:14:40.000
Instead of moving the men past the cars,
why not move the cars past the men?

00:14:43.001 --> 00:14:49.000
Though on one hot August morning they tried
it that way, a husky young fellow put

00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:53.000
a rope over his shoulder and Henry Ford called,
let's go.

00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:07.000
And at that very moment, as the workmen
began to fasten the parts onto the slowly

00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:12.000
moving car, the assembly line was born,
a technique that was to revolutionize

00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:14.001
mass production all over the world.

00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:27.001
Once they found that the idea would work,
they began to improve it, refine it.

00:15:28.001 --> 00:15:33.000
They rolled a chassis down a single line
of track, pushing it from crew to crew.

00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:38.001
And the more expert they became at this
new method, the faster the cars came off

00:15:38.001 --> 00:15:42.001
the assembly line,
and the price of the Model T began to drop.

00:15:51.001 --> 00:15:56.001
They tried the same idea in all the
various parts of the car, and created what

00:15:56.001 --> 00:15:58.000
were called sub-assemblies.

00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:03.001
Each man on the line became a specialist.
He did one thing, and he did it

00:16:03.001 --> 00:16:06.001
perfectly,
and passed the work along to the next man.

00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.001
Minute by minute, production was
winning the battle against wasted

00:16:11.001 --> 00:16:13.001
time and wasted effort.

00:16:15.001 --> 00:16:19.000
Parts were fed to the workmen by
gravity slides, so they wouldn't have

00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:20.001
to stop and wait for new parts.

00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:28.001
Then they put the parts on moving
conveyor belts, and this was a great step

00:16:28.001 --> 00:16:32.000
forward, because now they could regulate
the flow of work and keep it moving

00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:33.001
at a constant rate of speed.

00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:43.001
And the conveyor belts grew longer and
more complex as they moved the work from

00:16:43.001 --> 00:16:45.001
place to place in the huge shops.

00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:52.001
They became fantastic masterpieces of
planning and engineering, but the battle

00:16:52.001 --> 00:16:56.001
against wasted time and
wasted effort was being won.

00:17:10.001 --> 00:17:14.000
The cars began coming off the
assembly line at the rate of

00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:15.001
one every forty seconds.

00:17:16.001 --> 00:17:21.000
And what Henry Ford had foreseen happened.
Mass production and the assembly line

00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:24.001
drove the price of the Model T
down from eight hundred and fifty

00:17:24.001 --> 00:17:26.000
to three hundred dollars.

00:17:27.001 --> 00:17:30.000
Now everybody could have one.

00:17:36.001 --> 00:17:37.001
[...]