Na m e : ___ _
Directions:Date:Read about early automobiles. Then summarize the events in order on the map.The first automobile race was held in
1895 in Chicago. There were six cars in
the race, powered by gasoline or
electricity. A gasoline-powered model
won by going 54 miles in an amazing 7
1/2 hours.
Though Henry Ford had built a gasoline-
powered buggy three years before back in
Michigan, he was unable to attend the
race for lack of funds. Still, Ford believed
the future was in cars. He began work on
a factory that would produce cars fast
and cheap. People thought his ideas
about assembly-line production were
crazy.
It took Henry Ford eight years to build the
now-famous Model T. (Ford labeled his
models after the alphabet to show
progress. Nineteen other models—A
through S—preceded the T.)
In 1908, when Henry Ford started
production on the Model T, he aspired to
rolling off the assembly line a car a
minute. Six years later, the millionth
Model T came off the assembly line one
minute after the previous one.
Fifteen million Model T’s had been built
before it was taken out of production in- The Model T was the first affordable
automobile Although very successful,
people were starting to demand fancier
models. It was at this time, also, that other
automobile companies were coming out
with speedier, better-looking cars.