By the numbers:
253 pages, and about 40 more of notes that are also worth perusing, and bibliography
26 photos and or images. These are in the middle of the book, as is usual in hardcover non fiction books
1st impression, this is the most researched book I've ever come across. Its also one of the easier ones to read because the author is good at making the story flow.
To say that this book is about the most famous Americans in the past 100 years is probably accurate. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison are probably the most pivotal men in the modern industrial era. Lighting and transportation... if these two men didn't pioneer and provide the path the rest of us followed on, in those categories, tell me who did more?
My complaints, are few, but here it is, once again a non car nut who wrote a book about Ford ascribes the modern assembly line method to Henry Ford, when it was the Curved Dash Oldsmobile that created the assembly line method.
However, this author is specific in pointing out that Edison was working from where others had invented, and he worked out how to make better light bulbs, useful ones, and make them commercially available.
Also, it just happens that I am one of the very few people to have been born in L'Anse, and raised in Sidnaw, and those are two of Ford's visits on the 1923 trip the Vagabonds took, so, I'm personally aware of a few things that I was looking for in the book that aren't there, and it's a bit annoying, as I was hoping that this book would mention a few things about Sidnaw, Camp 1, and where things were. But the author is mostly relying on newspaper reports for the trip's facts.
You probably remember my posts about the Vagabonds, I just recently posted some photos about their trip to Sidnaw and L'Anse. I very much recommend you look at them while reading the book for they are better than what's in the book https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=vagabonds and will help you with a mental image of what's going on when you read about the men, and where they were
So, back to the review.
Not only has this author done a herculean task of reading newspapers, books, notes from Ford, Edison, and Firestone, but he also makes SENSE of it, and doesn't just regurgitate the stats, facts, and dates. THAT is a very nice way to write this, and it makes it a pleasure to learn from while reading.
Harvey Firestone. Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Edward Kingsford 1923
The personalities of the men on the trips, and even their wives, comes through, and what made them that way, what was going on at the time in not only their lives, but their businesses, and the world at large, and how it affected them, puts so much of the information in context! It's so damn helpful in understanding why these titans of manufacturing were on trips with each other, what caused them to select each other, and not more, and who had what role and why in those decisions, and also... why they stopped going on these trips. That's a really smart way to wrap up this book, and the author uses such insights to fill in the reader on some thing essential to the story, but something I've never come across before in a book about car related things. Motivations.
Something I hadn't expected, is that the author keeps bringing the story into context, which is important for understanding the motivation of Edison, Firestone, Ford, and Burroughs.
The complex personality of Henry Ford is probably the dominant and most explored, and that is remarkable, in that he was already so jaded to people asking him for charity, and taking steps to avoid those confrontations - as his farm work upbringing was simply work = results, and he often shunned helping people. However, I was surprised at how many times he gave away cars, and tractors! Also, it's mentioned in passing that he kept a large supply of pocket watches, and gave them to kids that had caught his attention.
Not only that, he was ready willing and able to do farmwork, mechanics work, and improvise on the fly to keep cars on the road and on schedule. Try and find a corporate CEO today that can do anything in his company maunfacturing.
SO, I'm impressed all the way around with this book, and simply out of time to go through all the things I learned from it, as I usually do with book reviews. I will get back to that after Comic Con which starts in 12 hours.
I was also impressed that the author realized that to select 9 years to focus on, didn't preclude doing some history on the men in the story, and he brought up that Henry Ford started by driving a race car to a world speed record, and that Thomas Edison started with riding trains and selling newspapers to the riders.
Things I learned:
Henry Ford was generous to his friends, as he knew them well enough to know they weren't after his money, and he often showed how little he cared how much money he lost due to his generosity. Burroughs mentioned that his family farm near Roxbury NY was near bankruptcy, as his family couldn't afford the mortgages, so Ford paid it off.
Thomas Edison was given a new car annually... not a cheap Model T either.
When Edison's New Jersey lab and factory burned down, Ford handed him a check for $750,000 and mentioned in passing to let him know if Edison needed more.
The 1915 Panama American Expo that was held in San Diego was competing with a similar World expo in San Fran. Ford, Edison and Firestone went to San Fran first, then San Diego
The dinner that was held in their honor? Slightly crazy amount of telegraphers felt they had to cover it... it was food for pete's sake, and 400 newspaper reporters were present. That's how much of a celebrity Henry Ford and Thomas Edison were, and they were such incredible celebs due to the miracles that they'd performed for the people... no Kardashian, no Hollywood A lister, no country president has ever invented the light bulb, city electricity, set a worlds land speed record, mass produced the Model T so cheaply that it kick started the American automotive industry, invented the record player, perfected the motion picture, etc etc. So, do you see just how unbelievably famous the Vagabonds were?
Thomas Edison was the guest of honor at the San Francisco expo, and just a reminder, Edison had been a telegraph operator and newspaperman... so, the menu was printed in Morse code. The speeches were tapped out on telegraphs. After the dinner and the speeches, everyone went outside to see that all the lights in town were on in honor of the inventor of the modern mass produced light bulb, and flashing lights on the downtown building roofs were spelling out a Morse code message for Edison.
A quote from Ford "If I ever wanted to kill opposition by unfair means I would endow the opposition with experts. No one ever considers himself to be an expert if he really knows his job"
Ford didn't invent the 5 dollar workday, that was the brainchild of his general manager James Couzens. Ford simply took credit for it, as he realized early, the power of publicity. Turnover was 300% annually, and with people either training or being replaced, the assembly line process was affected dramatically, and the 5 dollar wage was a remedy method, nothing more, to get productivity up. Ford was paying $2.34 on average, and balked at the idea of $5... he was only willing to entertain $3 a day, but Couzens got his way based on the chronic absenteeism and training costs, plus, it pissed off all of Fords competitors, and was such incredible good publicity from all newspapers, that aggravating the competition was just bonus.
Couzens was the only man in the company allowed to disagree with Henry Ford, he'd been with Ford since the inception, and earned all the respect he was given, the hard way.
The end of their working relationship was when WW1 put Ford's philosophy anti war philsophy into every interview, and Couzens realized what a publicity nightmare was happening and tried to get Ford to be circumspect. Well, Ford had last word over everything his company did of course, including the Ford Times which had been Couzens' baby, and when it ran two articles Couzens had ruled out, which Henry had put back in? Couzens had enough with Fords personal politics being in the business publication. Couzens quit, went on to be Detroit's mayor, and Michigan's senator
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