Henry Ford, the auto magnate, was also a peace activist. Prior to the hostilities that marked the First World War, Mr. Ford chartered a ship on which he loaded several important American personages to go to the capitals of Europe to ask them to avoid the coming war. To the American press, this was known as the “Flivver Tour,” which was inspired by the Model T cars that Ford manufactured. The ship called at several ports but apparently it missed Berlin because that capital is not an ocean port. And so the First World War took place in spite of Mr. Ford’s best efforts.
Henry Ford gave the war his best shot but when it failed, Mr. Ford returned to manufacturing automobiles. Starting in 1908, Mr. Ford produced a series of automobiles which were called “Model Ts.” The automotive world was told that it could have the Model T in any color provided it was black. I will attest to that fact in that all the Model T cars I ever saw were painted black. But the Model Ts put the Americans a leg up when it came to getting from one place to another.
My automotive expert consultant is none other than Tom Scandlyn, my friend of a more than 50 years. Mr. Scandlyn and I had a technical conversation during which he specified that the Model Ts were made to move forward and into reverse by a series of three pedals located on the floor of the driving compartment. From all that I have been told, I believe that driving a Model T Ford was not the easiest thing to do in this world. It had a planetary gear system that moved the car forward in two different gears and one that provided a reverse gear. There was no foot accelerator in that the engine speed was controlled by a throttle beneath the steering wheeling. One of the three pedals could be used to brake the car.
Aside from driving the car, there was the matter of getting it started, which had to be accomplished by use of a crank until 1921 when electric starters were introduced. When cranking the car, it was important not to use the thumb, because a backfire in the engine would cause the crank to reverse itself, which might produce a fractured thumb or even a dislocated forearm. It was important for the emergency brake to be fully engaged during the cranking process; otherwise the engine might start and result in the cranker being run over by the car that he wished to drive.
The engine was a four-cylinder one which produced a modest amount of power and which was given to vibrations. My recollection is that when the engine of a Model T Ford was started, the car shook and vibrated a bit. Early in the manufacture of the Model T, it became known to the automotive world as the “flivver.” There are also cynics who refer to that car as a “Tin Lizzie.” No matter how you cut it, the flivver and/or the Tin Lizzie put America on wheels.
Mr. Scandlyn, the Model T consultant, actually drove one of these cars and has lived to tell the tale.
Ford produced the Model T until the mid 1920s, when it was succeeded by a car known as the “Model A.” In my experience working in filling stations around the St. Louis area, I have never known the owner of a Model A car to be disappointed. They were simple automobiles that were easy to drive and a joy to maintain.
If a young man had the means and was inclined to let his thoughts turn to love, he would buy a Model A coupe with what was known as a “rumble seat.” Those owners who did not think of love very much simply had a trunk in the rear of their coupes. But rumble seat owners were a bit different. The compartment in the rear of the car had a handle near the cab of the car which, when opened, would turn into a seat. Men who owned a Model A with a rumble seat were considered very sporty. As a matter of no great interest at all, my friend Jack Frier owned a Model A with a rumble seat which I was permitted to use on occasion, but I was unaccompanied by any female companions. But that does not detract from the fact that Model A’s with a rumble seat were the height of class.
In the fall of 1931, Mr. Ford introduced his 1932 model, which featured a V-8 engine. The engines were very powerful for that time, and the owners took great pains to show off their speed in racing away from stop signs. On the other hand, there was one drawback about the V-8 engines. For every ten or twelve gallons of gas, the engine would consume perhaps one quart of oil. I knew, as a filling station attendant, that any time a V-8 owner came to my service station, he would be a great candidate for a quart of oil. If he neglected to keep the crank case full, it was quite likely that the engine would “seize” and would have to be referred to a mechanic for an expensive repair.
It has probably been more than 70 years since the word flivver has entered my conscious mind. It came about as a result of a book by Ted Sorensen, the counsel to John F. Kennedy. Sorensen has written a wonderful book called “Counselor.” Obviously I cannot read any more, so I often buy books that are available in the spoken word. In this book, it is the author who reads his own words. Sorensen speaks in the tones of his native Nebraska, which according to the mid-Western ethics of speech, is unadorned by frills and fancy words. To a man who is accustomed to the mid-Western style of speaking, Sorensen’s unaccented words say to me “Hey Missouri boy, welcome home.”
The story about Henry Ford chartering the peace ship came from an early chapter in “Counselor.” When Sorensen used the word “flivver,” I said to myself that flivver is a word that has been too long away. As it turns out, Sorensen’s parents were peace activists too, which led to the story about Henry Ford chartering the ship to sail to European ports to talk them out of the First World War.
Now perhaps this is an admission against interest, as the lawyers say. But in spite of my admiration for Henry Ford’s contribution to peace, in my 66 years of driving automobiles, I never owned a Ford automobile of any kind. I started out on a 1931 Chevy, which I bought in 1938 and stayed with the General Motors line for most of the rest of my life. I owned Chevrolets, Pontiacs, Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and, finally, in 1986 I bought a Cadillac. The Cadillac was the smoothest riding car that I ever owned, but it had a love affair with the mechanics at the Cadillac dealership. That car, which was the top of the General Motors line, was undependable in almost every respect. Before long, the Chrysler Corporation offered a series of sporty cars which caused me to unload the Cadillac. And from that time until 2004, when I quit driving, I drove Chrysler cars. Judy, my wife, still drives a Chrysler car to this day.
Aside from the flivver or the Tin Lizzie, this country owes Henry Ford another enormous debt. In World War II, Henry Ford turned over his mammoth plant at Willow Run, Michigan, where he began to manufacture B-24 bombers. at the end of 1944, 650 B-24 bombers were rolling off the line every month. There were three shifts a day working at the Willow Run plant and Henry Ford threw down the bars and invited women to join the work force. My belief is that “Rosie the Riveter” was one of the women who worked at Ford’s plant in Willow Run.
Henry Ford was a genius at manufacturing automobiles and, then later, bombers. For all that, we owe him an enormous debt of gratitude but I am an ingrate in the fact that I never bought one of his cars. I never owned one of his airplanes either. But I am indebted to Ted Sorensen for his book, which contains the story about the peace ship which was called “The Flivver Tour.” When a man like Henry Ford does the best he can with the Flivver Tour and his efforts toward the peace movement, he must be exalted, not condemned.
The origins of “flivver” remains unknown. The Ford Motor Company says that it originated with an early airplane that they were experimenting with. Noah Webster says that “flivver” refers to a “small, cheap, usually old automobile.” I thought that flivver referred to the way the Model T vibrated when the engine was started. But in an case, we owe Henry Ford our thanks for putting America on wheels.
E. E. CARR
June 26, 2008
Essay 323
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Kevin’s commentary: Jeez, that’s a hell of a lot of oil. I guess people didn’t take as long of road trips back then; you’d have to keep a barrel of oil in your trunk.
Anyone curious about Pop’s current vehicular situation can here about it here.