In 1912 Henry Ford And Edison Came Together To Conceive A Low-Priced Electric Car
Back
in 1896, Henry Ford attended the convention of the Association of
Edison Illuminating Companies, held at the Oriental Hotel on Manhattan
Beach in Brooklyn, New York.
This is where he met his boyhood hero, Thomas Edison. Henry Ford
worked as an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company from 1891 to
1899 but he never had the chance to met him in person until 1896. Later
they became good friends.
They camped together, and they even owned houses immediately adjacent to each other.
In 1896 when Henry Ford for the first time drove his Quadricycle on
the streets of Detroit, he worked for Edison at Detroit Edison
Illuminating Company. A few months later, when they finally met, Edison
encouraged Ford to pursue his plans for a gasoline automobile. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford in his first car, the Ford Quadricycle
Later Edison and Ford decided to put their minds together to conceive
a low-priced electric car. In fact, Edison held a number of patents
related to the electric vehicle, including Electric Generator or Motor
(1884), a Means for Propelling Electric Cars (1891), a Reversible
Galvanic Battery (1900), an Electrode for Batteries (1901), an Alkaline
Battery (1904), and an Electrical System for Automobiles (1912).
At that time Ford founded his eponymous automobile company. The only
problem that they were facing was to invent the longest lasting battery
in the world. As we mention it before Edison had already invented the
alkaline storage battery in 1901 and he spent many years perfecting it
before placing it in the 1912 Edison electric car. Thomas Edison and an electric car in 1913
The downside of the Edison battery was the cost, which led to the
dominance of the inferior lead acid battery still in common use today
and eventually to the development of several other nickel battery
chemistries. Nonetheless, the Edison battery became Thomas Edison’s
most profitable invention, gaining wide adoption in mining lamps and
railway signaling.
Edison managed to build three cars, one of which he drove from
Scotland to London, charging it up along the way. The inventor had said
that electricity was the future since “all the oil would be pumped out
of the ground.” His electric car with two 15-volt batteries and a
30-volt electric motor could reach speeds of 25 miles per hour, which is
impressive for the time. Henry Ford with Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone
In early 1914 Henry Ford started working on a low-priced electric car. On January 11, 1914, issue of the New York Times, Ford confirmed that he was working on electric car: “Within a year, I hope, we shall begin the manufacture of an
electric automobile. I don’t like to talk about things which are a year
ahead, but I am willing to tell you something of my plans. The fact is that Mr. Edison and I have been working for some
years on an electric automobile which would be cheap and practicable.
Cars have been built for experimental purposes, and we are satisfied now
that the way is clear to success. The problem so far has been to build a
storage battery of light weight which would operate for long distances
without recharging. Mr. Edison has been experimenting with such a
battery for some time.” From Left to Right: Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone. Photo Credit
The Edison-Ford car would cost between $500 and $750, and it would
range somewhere between 50 miles and 100 miles on a charge. But it
wasn’t easy to design and construct the car and in an interview with Automobile Topics in May 1914 Edison said: “Mr. Henry Ford is making plans for the tools, special machinery,
factory buildings and equipment for the production of this new
electric. There is so much special work to be done that no date can be
fixed now as to when the new electric can be put on the market. But Mr.
Ford is working steadily on the details, and he knows his business so it
will not be long.” 1912 Detroit Electric advertisement.
It’s believed that the oil cartels got to Ford and Edison and caused
them to abandon the project. Edison’s workshops in West Orange was
destroyed by fire in December 1914 and the project fell apart.
We wonder what the pair would have thought about the electric cars of today?!
