The Automobile

Innovative Industry.

New Year's Day 1910 saw the opening of Henry Ford's Highland Park factory, where innovations in the manufacturing process would help to make the Ford Motor Company's revolutionary Model T, introduced in 1908, the car of the decade. In 1910 458,500 motor vehicles were registered in the United States, and motor vehicle manufacturing was rapidly growing into one of the nation's major industries. Ancillary industries produced innovative technologies in rubber, glass, and petroleum refining. The decade witnessed important improvements in automotive engineering, as the all-steel automobile body was introduced and the front-mounted engine that drove the rear axle by means of a turning shaft (rather than by chain as in some early cars) became the industry standard. Perhaps the most important innovation of the early 1910s was Kettering's development in 1911 of the electric starter, which meant that engines no longer...

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