The Roaring Twenties The Automobile

●After World War I, a recession hit the U.S. but ended fairly quickly o Beginning of 1920s showed promise for economic growth

●1920s was a time of social and economic changes o “The Roaring Twenties”  The nation’s wealth doubled  Mass culture (same music, dances, etc.)

●Henry Ford ( ) o Worked as an engineer for Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit o Started the Ford Motor Company o First prototype for the automobile : quadricycle o First affordable automobile: Model T (“Tin Lizzie”)

Quadricycle Model T (1908) ●45 mph speed, miles per gallon of gas ●Began at $850 ($20,000) and was low as $250 ($6,000)

Henry Ford

●pioneered mass production (rapid manufacture of large numbers of identical products) o assembly lines: arrangement of workers and equipment in which work passes from operation to operation in line until the product is assembled

"Work is planned on the drawing board and the operations sub - divided so that each man and each machine do only one thing... the thing is to keep everything in motion and take the work to the man not the man to the work." -Henry Ford

o Cut down on time to produce an automobile, which allowed for costs to stay low.  Allowed for Model T to be affordable for average Americans ● More than 15,000,000 Model T cars produced since 1908 ● By 1927, 56% of Americans owned a car (In 1908, 0.4% owned a car) ●Ford increased wages and set 8-hour work day

Ford and the Model T

●Model A (1927) o “Baby Lincoln” o Improved version of the Model T o Shut down factories to update assembly lines  60,000 people lost their jobs o Easy drivability, great performance, low price

●December 1927: Model A unveiled o 25 million people stormed Ford showrooms in one week o 5 million produced

Car Prices ●Ford - 5 seat touring (convertible) $395 ●Buick - $1395 ●Chevrolet Superior - $860 ●Fiat - $1995 ●Oldsmobile - $1595 ●Rolls Royce - 7 seat sedan (enclosed) $12,900

Exit Ticket How might a more affordable automobile impact America?

Impact of the Automobile ●Created economic revolution o Growth in other car-related industries  Rubber  Steel  Glass  Gasoline  Wood  Insurance  Road-construction

o Road construction created thousands of new jobs  Roads had to be redesigned and rebuilt, new road rules and ways to help traffic were needed

●Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921: federal aid would be given to create an interstate highway network o By 1925, states had hundreds of highways organized into a numbered system (odds - North to South; evens - East to West)

Route 66

●Automobile accidents/deaths frequent in the 1920s o Road signs created  First three-color traffic light used o 1929: Jaywalking is illegal

●Led to service stations, diners, and motels o Mechanics were able to make a living fixing cars

Car Wash

Diners ●Drivers wanted cheap, relatively fast food to get back on the road

●Cafeterias and tea rooms thrived A brochure from the B/G Sandwich Shop chain boasts of “Food selected and prepared as in your American home; served by the sort of people you find at home, – high class ambitious young Americans who do not desire to submit to the European custom of depending upon the master’s gratuities.”

●Sense of freedom and prosperity o Sunday drives

●Used cars to travel for family vacations o Motels and motor camps o Amusement parks

●Shift in residential patterns o movement to suburbs (commuters)

Answer the four questions around the room in the space provided. Exit Ticket - Four Squares