June 16, 1903: Ford comes to life

On this day in 1903, Ford Motor Company was incorporated.

Henry Ford founded the car company when he was 40yrs old. It was launched with $28,000 from twelve investors, most notably John and Horace Doge who would go on to found the Dodge Brothers Motor Vehicle Company (ironic?). The company is based in Dearborn, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit). Ford is one of the few companies to survive the Great Depression

In 1904 Ford went international with the founding of Ford Canada. It was not until 1911 however until the company began to rapidly expand overseas with the opening of assembly plants in England and France. Plants in Denmark (1923), Germany (1925), and Austria (1925) soon followed.

During its early years, Ford produced a range of vehicles designated chronologically, from the Model A in 1903 to the Model K and Model S of 1907 until the Model T in 1908. The Model T was introduced on October 1, 1908. The car had several new features, one being a steering wheel on the left (yes, it used to be on the right like the British), which every other car company soon copied and is still the standard today. Other features were an entirely enclosed engine and transmission and had its four cylinders cast in a solid block.

Before the Model T, models were produced at a rate of only a few cars a day at a rented factory in Detroit, Michigan with two to three men working on each car from parts ordered from other companies. The Model Ts were built at the Piquette Road Manufacturing Plant, the first company-owned factory. In the first year of production, in 1909, 18,000 Model Ts were built. As demand grew, the company moved to larger Highland Park Plant in 1911. In the first year of operation production grew to about 70,000 Model Ts.

Before the assembly line was put into use, Model Ts had been available in a variety of colors (i.e. red, blue, and green), but not black. Now, paint took too long to dry and clogged up the production lines, only black dried quickly enough. Henry Ford is reported to have said, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." It was not until 1926 when Durco laquer was invented that colors would reappear on the Model T.

In 1913 Ford introduced the world’s first moving assembly line. It reduced assembly of the frame from 12½ hrs to 2hrs 40min and boosted annual output to about 200,000 cars.

Ford started having a problem of high turnover of workers which meant delays and extra costs of training and slow workers. The problem was solved in January of 1914 with a pay increase to $5 a day, nearly doubling the workers income. Ford also cut shifts from nine hours to eight hours a day and a 5 day work week. Believe it or not, this move was actually very profitable for the company. Greater expendable income allowed Ford workers to be able to actually afford the cars they were building and with more free time they were able to enjoy it. The higher price also stopped the constant turnover of employees and attracted the best mechanics, reducing training costs. With lower employee turnover and higher productivity the cost per vehicle plummeted, allowing even more Americans the ability to afford a car. By the end of 1919, Ford was producing 50 percent of all cars

Ford is still coming out with new innovations to the car industry. Adapting to consumer demands for low gas mileage Ford has hybrid options on many of its cars. In 2005 the company released the first hybrid SUV (sport utility vehicle), the Ford Escape Hybrid (the Escape is an amazing car! I absolutely love mine!).

Ford is now a multinational corporation and the world’s third largest automaker, behind Toyota and GMC. Ford controls several lines of cars, not just the one that bears its name. Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury and Volvo are all part of the Ford family. As largest family-controlled company in the world, Ford Motor Company has been in continuous family control for over 100 years.

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June 15, 1219: A really really really old flag

On this day in 1219, according to legend, the flag of Denmark fell from the sky during battle, leading the way to victory. The Danish flag is commonly referred to as Dannebrog, meaning “the Danish cloth” in Old Danish. It is the oldest national flag that is still in use today.

According to legend, the Danish flag fell from heaven during the Battle of Lyndanisse as a divine sign from God of his support for King Valdmar II’s crusade against the pagan Estonians. With the flag in hand, the battle was won. However, a legend is a lend.

The earliest source that indisputably links the red flag with a white cross to a Danish King, and to the realm itself, is found in a Dutch armorial, the Gelre Armorial written between 1340 and 1370 (it's pictured). The book displays some 1,700 coats-of-arms from all over Europe. On page 55 verso we find the Danish coat-of-arms with a banner, displaying the white cross on red. The text to the left of the coat of arms says "die coninc van denmarke" (The King of Denmark). This is the earliest known undisputed color rendering of Dannebrog.

The flag was not unique to Denmark. It was also used in several other small states, including Switzerland and Savoy. The design was that of the war flag of the Holy Roman Empire, as well, its red field symbolizing battle and its white cross suggesting the holy cause for which the battle was being fought.

The flag was first associated exclusively with the state and military. It was not until the middle of the 19^th century that the common people started to make used of it. The first time it was considered belonging to the citizenry as well as the government was when the Danes rallied under the flag during the struggle for a constitution in the 1850s.

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