The Ford Motor Company (usually called Ford; sometimes called FoMoCo), (NYSE: F) is an American multinational corporation that manufactures automobiles and is the third largest automaker in the world. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, United States (where the company is currently headquartered), and incorporated in 1903. In its twentieth century heyday, Ford, along with General Motors and Chrysler, were known as Detroit's "Big Three" automakers, companies that dominated the American auto market. Toyota surpassed Ford in revenue starting in 2004. Ford remains one of the world's ten largest corporations by revenue.
Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars, and large-scale management of an industrial workforce, especially elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by the moving assembly lines. Henry Ford's combination of highly efficient factories, highly paid workers, and low prices revolutionized manufacturing and came to be known around the world as Fordism by 1914.
Ford was launched from a converted wagon factory in 1903, with $28,000 cash from twelve investors. During its early years, the company produced just a few cars a day at its factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit. Groups of two or three men worked on each car from components made to order by other companies.
In 1908, the Ford company released the Ford Model T. The first Model Ts were built at the Piquette Manufacturing Plant. The company moved production to the much larger Highland Park Plant to keep up with the demand for the Model T, and by 1913 had developed all of the basic techniques of the assembly line and mass production. Ford introduced the world's first moving assembly line that year, which reduced chassis assembly time from 12½ hours in October to 2 hours, 40 minutes. However these innovations were not popular and turnover of workers was very high. Turnover meant delays and extra costs of training, and use of slow workers. In January 1914 solved the problem by doubling pay to $5 a day, cutting shifts from nine hours to an eight hour day, and instituting hiring practices that identified the best workers. Productivity soared and employee turnover plunged, as the cost per vehicle plummeted. Ford cut prices again and again and invented the system of franchised dealers who were loyal to his brand name.
By the end of 1913, Ford was producing 50% of all cars in the United States, and by 1918 half of all cars in the country were Model T's. Henry Ford is reported to have said that "any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." This was because black paint was quickest to dry; earlier models had been available in a variety of colors.
In 1919, Edsel Ford succeeded his father as president of the company, although Henry Ford still kept a hand in management. Although prices were kept low through highly efficient engineering, the company used an old-fashioned personalized management system, and neglected consumer demand for upscale vehicles. It steadily lost market share to GM and Chrysler, as these and other domestic and foreign competitors began offering fresher automobiles, with more innovative features and luxury options. GM had a range of models from relatively cheap to luxury, tapping all price points in the spectrum, while less wealthy people purchased used Model T's. The competitors also opened up new markets by extending credit for purchases, so consumers could buy these expensive automobiles with monthly payments. Ford initially resisted that approach, insisting that such debts would ultimately hurt the consumer and the general economy. Ford eventually joined in the credit markets in December 1927, when Ford unveiled the redesigned Model A, and retired the Model T after producing 15 million of them.
In 1925, Ford expanded its reach into the luxury auto market through its acquisition of the Lincoln Motor Company, and the Mercury division was established in the 1930s to serve the mid-price auto market.
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A carburetor (also spelled carburettor or carburetter) is a device used by a gasoline internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the Venturi tube in the main metering circuit, though various other components are also used to provide extra fuel or air in specific circumstances.
Since the 1990s, carburetors have been largely replaced by fuel injection for cars and trucks, but carburetors are still used by some small engines (e.g. lawnmowers, generators, and concrete mixers) and motorcycles. In addition, they are still widely used on piston engine driven aircraft. Diesel engines have always used fuel injection instead of carburetors, as the compression-based combustion of diesel requires the greater precision and pressure of fuel-injection.
Etymology
The name "carburetor" is derived from the verb carburet, which means "to combine with carbon", or, in particular, "to enrich a gas by combining it with carbon or hydrocarbons". Thus a carburetor mixes intake air with hydrocarbon-based fuel, such as petrol or AutoGas (LPG).
The name is spelled "carburetor" in American English and "carburettor" in British English. Colloquial abbreviations include carb in the UK and North America or Carby in Australia.
In 1826, American engineer Samuel Morey received a patent for a "gas or vapor engine", which ran on turpentine mixed with air. The design did not reach production. In 1875 German engineer Siegfried Marcus produced a car powered by the first petrol engine (which also debuted the first magneto ignition system). Karl Benz introduced his single-cylinder four-stroke powered Benz Patent-Motorwagen in 1885.
All three of these engines used surface carburetors, which operated by moving air across the top of a vessel containing the fuel.
The first float-fed carburetor design, which used an atomizer nozzle, was introduced by German engineers Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler in their 1885 Grandfather Clock engine. The Butler Petrol Cycle car—built in England in 1888—also used a float-fed carburetor.
The first carburetor for a stationary engine was patented in 1893 by Hungarian engineers János Csonka and Donát Bánki.
The first four-barrel carburetors were the Carter Carburetor WCFB and the identical Rochester 4GC, introduced in various General Motors models for 1952. Oldsmobile referred the new carburetor as the "Quadri-Jet" (original spelling) while Buick called it the "Airpower".
In the United States, carburetors were the common method of fuel delivery for most US-made gasoline (petrol) engines until the late 1980s, when fuel injection became the preferred method. One of the last motorsport users of carburetors was NASCAR, which switched to electronic fuel injection after the 2011 Sprint Cup series.
In Europe, carburetors were largely replaced by fuel injection in the late 1980s, although fuel injection had been increasingly used in luxury cars and sports cars since the 1970s. EEC legislation required all vehicles sold and produced in member countries to have a catalytic converter after December 1992. This legislation had been in the pipeline for some time, with many cars becoming available with catalytic converters or fuel injection from around 1990.
