Model A

How many million people saw the first appearance of the new Ford car last week, it is impossible to estimate. In Detroit Henry Ford, his son Edsel and grandsons Henry II and Benson examined the public display before the great Convention Hall's doors were opened to let 100,000 people in. Manhattan crowds were greater. Police were obliged to regulate the queues in other "key cities," notably Kansas City, Cincinnati, Norfolk, Omaha, Boston, St. Louis, Richmond, Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Atlanta. In England the railroads ran excursion trains to the London exhibition. Englishmen paid one shilling & sixpence (36c) to look at the models. They ordered 64,000 cars. In Manhattan a rascal took advantage of the local gullibility. He passed through the showroom throngs with an "order book" in his hand, promising delivery in three weeks upon a deposit of $25. When detectives approached him he ran away with many a $25 stuffed in his coat pockets. The week marked a milestone for public excitement.

It marked a milestone for the automobile industry. The U. S. has about 20,000,000 motor vehicles operating. Half of them are old Fords, the Model T, which the Ford Motor Co. ceased making six months ago. It has made 15,000,000 of them since 1908. It continues to make parts for Model T, a business worth $10,000,000 yearly to the company

The appearance of the new Ford released accumulated orders for 1,000,000 cars, the Department of Commerce estimated last week. The Ford company received orders for more than 400,000, a great fraction of them before buyers had seen the new cars.

There exist about 8,500 Ford dealers. Their profit on each Ford they sell is 20%. (Dealers in other cars get 24% profit.) For six months Ford dealers have been clearing their show rooms of Model T Fords and parts. A fortnight ago all were bare. Last week most continued bare, for the Ford Motor Co. had prepared only about 550 new cars for exhibition. However its production will approximate 1,000 cars a week by January. (The company operates only five days a week.) The aim is 8,000 cars a week. Dealers will deliver very few cars to buyers before late January. They need cars for display.

Advertising. More than 2,000 daily newspapers on five successive days printed full-page advertisements announcing the new car. It was the biggest, most expensive advertising campaign crowded into so few days since Francis Wayland Ayer pioneered in commercial advertising, more than 50 years ago. Local dealers "tied up" with the Ford national campaign. Their advertisements appeared opposite these of Ford, giving the effect of a "double-page spread." The Ford costs, advertising exports calculated, were between $1,000,000 and $1,666,000 for the week.

Prices. Comparative prices of the new and the old Fords: New Old

Roadster $335 $360

Phaeton 395 380

Coupe 495 485

Sports coupe 550

Tudor sedan 495 495

Fordor sedan 570 545

Truck chassis 460 375

Truck chassis with cab 545 460

Truck chassis with cab and express

body 600 515

Truck chassis with cab and stake body 610 525 Truck chassis with cab and platform

body 595 525

Specifications of the new Ford coupe and of 4-cylinder coupes made by other manufacturers appear in the table below. The other new models are the sport coupe, roadster, Fordor sedan, Tudor sedan, phaeton and truck. The passenger car lines suggest those of the Lincoln, which the Ford company also makes.

The Ford carries as standard equipment a starter, five steel-spoke wheels, windshield wiper, speedometer, gasoline gauge, ammeter, dash light, mirror, rear & stop light, oil gauge, ignition lock, complete tool set. The gasoline tank is in front of the dash board. Gear shift is standard.

The semi-elliptic transverse springs are the only parts exactly the same as in the old Ford. Otherwise not a single part of the old can be used in the new.

Caroms. The industrial ball that the Ford company set rolling last week caromed beneficially to other industries. Stock quotations rose on the exchange for Timken Roller Bearing, Stewart-Warner, Gabriel Snubber, Goodrich Tire, Goodyear Tire, Wabash Railroad (which carries much Ford freight), Midland Steel Products (chassis frames). The Ford Motor Car Co. of Canada has the selling rights for the entire British Commonwealth of Nations, except Great Britain & Ireland. It is the only Ford company in which investors other than the Fords share. Its stocks rose 75 points, to $710 a share. Timken Roller Bearing Co. received an order to supply twelve bearings for the new car. Although the Ford company makes all the plate glass for its cars, it ordered windshields from the Triplex Safety Glass Co. Triplex safety glass is a transparent sandwich of sheet celluloid material between two sheets of glass. It cannot shatter. If struck it merely cracks. Firestone Tire & Rubber and Champion Spark Plug also sell vast orders to the Ford company. The Budd and the Briggs body companies also have contracts. By Christmas the Ford plants at Highland Park, Fordson and River Rouge, Mich., will be employing 109,000 men, whose daily payroll will approximate $900, 000.