I did a terrific and world class welding apprenticeship at the Rouge, starting in July 1973. I did two years of production time on the press floor at the Dearborn Stamping Plant before moving over to the Engine Plant to begin my apprenticeship there. My first journeyman was Herb G Wells (no kidding) who hired in in 1934. No kidding. I was twenty three. He had lots of stories to tell me, and had 39 years by the time he picked me up, and was real good factory maintenance/construction welder. We worked up high and down below in the steam tunnel’s that lace the Rouge. After 8 months I was moved over to the B Building, Dearborn Assembly, for 5 months. Then 4 months at Rail car and locomotive repair. Then 8 months at Dearborn Stamping, followed by e few months in the Glass Plant and the Tooland Die Plant. Then 11 months at the Dearborn Ford Steel Division in the J9 shops. Joe Tatti and Bob Geddes as Superintendents there and both welders. BOF, new Hot Mill, Cold Mill, Bar Mills, Picklers, Specialty Foundry. Then returned to the Dearborn Engine Plant to graduate In 1978. Life and a long career at The Rouge, most of my time there, meant enduring multiple layoffs. And getting bounced around into the various Plants and Departments. It was quite a ride and there was nothing like it anywhere. From ore ships coming up in the slip, glass coming out of that one, rubber coming out of that one, Engines, frames, body panels, castings, iron, steel, specialty steels, ingots, tires, more castings, forged parts and finished product rolling off the lines at the Assembly Plant non stop, around the clock. Fifty thousand men and women employed there daily. Most plants were in the neighborhood of 3 million square feet. Some like Glass, Tool and Die, and Spec Foundry smaller,. Quite a place for a country boy from SE Louisiana. Quite a remarkable place! I was very fortunate! And Ford a super employer!
Jon Bel Thanks for the story Jon. I grew up in Michigan (Oscoda). some of those plants were HUGE !!! You could be driving down the highway at 50 mph for a few minutes and realize that you still haven't passed this building yet. Another 2 - 3 minutes at 50 mph and you STILL haven't passed it yet! Amazing. Raw dirt and coal in one end, cars out the other. Back then those were lifetime high paying careers straight out of school if you could get in.
What I find remarkable is that River Rouge was not just a factory, it was a complete one-stop industry. They shipped in coal and generated their own electricity. They shipped in iron ore and smelted their own steel. This is unheard of today. In the modern global economy everything is pieced up and specialized. They don't even make a whole car in one place, there is an engine plant, a tire plant, an assembly plant for finished vehicles, and so on, scattered all over the world. I like the idea of being able to do everything in one spot.
Henry Ford wanted complete autonomy in everything he did, it's the main reason the square headed Robertson screw was never adopted by the USA, ford wanted to purchase the patent for it from Canadian inventor P.L.Robertson who refused which is why the inferior Phillips brand was adopted instead....
@@danhard8440 everyone feels like they should be paid $100 because all the landlords demand that salary, with their rent, because there are no new houses.
Makes you wonder how much we have lost. Could we even come close to ever being this productive and ingenious ever again? These people were a different breed than we are now. Excellent movie.
Oh come on. River Rouge is still going strong along with a lot of other manufacturing plants! The iron ore ships are still going too. Get out and see the USA!
The real heros of America are the architects and construction workers building these places. Its amazing we never fully compensate the men on the ground doing the construction. Look at the miracle of any building and wrap your head around the skill needed to piece it together. Its more precise than surgery. If youve ever constructed anything you appreciate a craftsman.
In 1938 robotic welding was used, although crude, it was used to spot weld the top and sides together. By maintaining the material stream, exceptional quality was maintained, that’s why so many old Fords survived to this day. That’s what made Henry Ford a genius ! I hope that I live long enough to see every one of those in Congress run out of Washington in disgrace for giving away our once powerful manufacturing base to foreign nations.
I work for a high tech fortune 100 company as an electrical eng. I have to say....we currently have nothing that even comes close to this level of ingenuity and high speed intelligence! The processes in this video are astounding...there is so much in this vid it is hard to believe....how can we have gone backwards.? We can’t do anything right now....especially in the auto sector..
@@scottrayhons2537 Cars used to rust out very quickly - in a few years! People often got new cars ever 2 or 3 years. Cars of today last much longer - and definitely don't need after-market rust proofing!
Bigger doesn't always mean better. Having huge manufacturing facilities designed to run at full tilt is capital intensive and a lot of fixed costs cannot be eliminated when demand for the product is low. What is really impressive is how Toyota used its limited resources.
We are so fortunate being from this time. I started my pipefitting apprenticeship in Dayton Ohio in 1968, local 162. The apprenticeship was 5 years, skills I learned I will never forget, the people I worked with I will never forget. Its sad we have trouble finding kids who want to do this kind of work, Its hard, you can ear lots of money and learn a skill you can take anywhere. Thanks for your story John Bel.
Simply amazing! I'm more impressed with the amount of thought that went into setting up the plant and producing the equipment that allowed the cars to be built.The organizing of all the workers is impressive also.
I was thinking the same thing as you about the plant...as well as how sad it is that our country was ruined by a few Greedy Politicians ...We used to be the Standard of the World...now? Not...
@@Bangkok-ik1fp Several hundred tool makers all over the East and Midwest of America. Just in my town, Kenosha, Wisconsin, there were 5 or 6 small foundries and tool makers of every type. One huge brass plant, American Motors, boiler makers and a wire rope factory. And about 120 taverns.
What a great video!!! They developed the electricity, the raw materials, the glass, all of the castings, forgings, stamped steel parts, generators, starter motors, all machining operations, even lunch wagons and fields to grow crops on... Everything in & near that 1,100 acre plant complex... Incredible... It makes a lot of sense why the government assigned this company, and several other companies to build several military vehicles and equipment during the war... It was a model of teamwork, efficiency and ingenuity...
My father started work there in 1928 retired 1967 My brother started work there in 1966 retired 2008 I started work there in 1976 retired 2008 Working in transportation, I was lucky enough to see all areas of the Rouge.
I will only buy Ford Mo. vehicles. My brothers who have shamed the family by purchasing Japanese cars are not even allowed to park in front of or near my father's, grandfather's and my home.
be open minded my friend Japanese Automobile Manufacturers have good quality products Long lasting engines, Advanced Technologies, electronics. But yes I still do Enjoy an Old Ford as well.
Tony Marinelli while I'll never allow an import to be in my driveway or garage...niether will I allow another ford...unless it's pre 1980. Fords have been junk for nearly 40 years.
My grandfather worked there from 1927 and retired in 1970. Worked mostly in the B building. He had many fond memories of working there especially during the war years. Hugh "Jimmy" Fullmer.
Thanks A/V Geeks! This was my playground when I was a kid (about 1950-'56). We were at the age of learning about electrical circuits and would 'patrol' the switch-yard between Miller Rd and Wyoming for discarded 'dry cells'. I later went to work at "The Largest Glass Plant (under one roof)" built by Ford and retired 33.0 years later. (cont.)
It is easy to see how people can become bitter at the loss of industry in North America - when you were raised seeing things like this, doing and building this and then it all goes away over your lifetime, when you are told time and again that we are building success for everyone but the dream slowly evaporates... Detroit in the 1930's may not have been perfect for everyone, but man, it sure looks like they were trying.
I’ve been in metal manufacturing for over 30 years. Incredible video.The individuals that could think this big are all but gone unfortunately. Where the heck would you find men like this nowadays?
I'm a retired manufacturing engineer who spent 30yrs programming and processing nc/cnc machines. I'm blown away at Ford's dedication to the V8 engine quality. Almost every journal on the crankshaft is checked with a simple but reliable go/no-go gage. The guy made 1 mistake by saying the inspection gage blocks were good for measuring to 2 millionth's of an inch. I think not.
@@jimsperlakis5634 On the Ford V8 go-no go gauge. I think the narrator misread the numbers. If he said 2 thousandths of an inch accuracy, I'd be OK with that.
".......could think this big are gone unfortunately" "All but" is a fully useless bit of grammar that doesnt mean what it says, and that shouldve died 100 years ago when these cars werent even envisioned yet and people were still buying Model Ts
It makes me long for the days I worked at ALCOA charging the furnaces with pig, and aluminum scrap. Tapping those furnaces to fill the ladles to pour and direct chill cast ingot, and aluminum plate. We took a lot of pride in our work!
One of the reasons the United States was so successful at manufacturing after WW II was that almost all heavy factories but ours had been destroyed in the war. We enjoyed a few years on top of the world before competition eventually returned. The "glory days" period in the 1950's was not a normal state of affairs, rather it was a one-time event in our history.
This is one insane factory! They had the full process, made all the parts to their specs and outsourced very little, those were real engineers running those companies, not MBA's
Well, to be fair, these things were junk. It was exceedingly rare for a car of this vintage to get 100k miles. They rusted out pretty quickly. They needed endless maintenance. Serious stuff like valve jobs.
@@tarstarkusz and they could do those jobs quickly, and for very reasonable prices. I'm fixing to drive an old flathead daily, with no worries. The only thing new cars do better is crash and safety. Cost? Nope. Style? Debatable. Power? Yes, and fuel efficient too. Don't care. What do I do for a living? Restore old cars...😏
@@jockomcneal4108 There are things I really like about old cars. The styling was awesome. I loved the chrome bumpers. Even my first couple of cars in the late 80s were old 70s models with big old chrome bumpers. Today they all look alike and have the same drab shape. The 1960 Fury is a thing of beauty, as is the Frazer and the 48 Aerosedan by Chevy. As to price, it's hard to say because you would have to do so much adjusting. For example, cars last a lot longer than they did, especially before the war and in the early post war period. So you would have to adjust everything to cost per year of useful life. Also, inflation has been heavily hidden and so it is very difficult to make the price adjustment. Really, gold and silver are the best way to measure it and even with them there are a lot of confounding variables. I'm not entirely sure about safety. We have too many confounding variables. Drinking and driving is much more rare. Roads and barriers along the roadside have been heavily studied and optimized to slow the car down without flipping it or harming the passengers inside. Falling eye cue (I know) in the US since 1997 is also confounding any research. But I would argue on the side of they have gotten at least marginally safer. Cars needed a lot more maintenance back then. Oil changes were every 3k miles. Every other year for a cooling flush. Yearly choke adjustment, which must be done cold, which for most people means leaving it at the shop the night before. Bias ply tires weren't as good. There were a lot of lube points on the chassis. Clutch replacement, though not really a maintenance item. Could last the life of the car if you are good with a stick.
The skill and teamwork these men have is awesome. I'm 29 and I have a lot of respect for that generation. Thank you and I'm sorry some of you feel like we young guns don't know jack and are PC but I do know hard work also. Wish I could go back in time and have a beer with some of these guys.
I am 66 and met some of those old timers In working class bars near Wayne State university campus in Detroit. We could drink at 18 back then and had a few shots and beers with those guys some of the really old bars didn't have bar stools you stood at the bar like in the old wild west.
Had a 1956 Ford F-100. It was originally my great uncles. It was passed through the family and now I wish I had it. Had an old straight 6 223 and a suicide 3 on the tree. What a fun old truck it was.
My grandfather was a foreman building the plant then went to work in it. When HF wanted to build another building gramps would go back to construction he built every building on the entire site.
Mr. Neal P. Fry was Employed in The Ford Motor Company's Rouge Complex for 34 Years, 3 Months, 2 Weeks and 4 and a Half Days. I Earned 1 Heart Attack, 3 Heat Strokes, 3rd Degree Burns on both my Hands and About 50 Stitches Always Wearing Ford Motor Company's Safety Equipment. I, Neal P. Fry also "Earned" my Pension and Social Security Benefits from my Employer, Ford Motor Company and The UAW Local 600, Where I was Twice Elected: Sergeant At Arms. Sincerely Truthful and Honest, Neal P. Fry
I was a fuel and utilities engineer for the steel div. in 1955-1958. Fantastic operation. It is a shame that there is no longer steel made there, it all comes from China now. I worked in the electrical department doing design, construction and maintenance for the mills and furnaces. Loved that job, learned a lot, had a fantastic boss (Russ Smoot).
We called you guys Utility Analysts at U.S. Steel's Homestead Works. I was an Instrument Repairman apprentice in 1978 in the Power and Fuel department. My father was a bricklayer there. It was a four year trade that I never got the chance to finish. I was laid off in October 1981 with 3 years 6 months of time. They stopped producing steel a year later. I learned enough to make a career of the trade, 26 years in field service and 13 years in two coal-fired power plants, Elrama and Cheswick. Looking back, it seems that I spent my life keeping obsolete equipment running. Hagan Ring Balance, Bailey LeDoux bells, Foxboro Model 40s, Honeywell's Class 15, Leeds and Northrop Micromax, Model G and H.
I remember we had Speedomax controllers (I think that was the name) it was a servo amplifier which controlled the fuel/air ratio for the soaking pits. Shockly had invented the transistor so we had L&N make a servo amp out of them. It would outlast the old tube types 10/1 because of the intense heat on the control platform above the soaking pit. Did they still have the Askania regulators when you worked there?
If someone, anyone, anywhere, hasn't seen this, then they ought to definitely see this amazing old documentary about Henry Ford's Rouge River Plant! I looked it up just now and it is still in full operation and available to be toured the year round!
I took the tour quite a few years ago, it was awesome! You get to walk above final assembly on a catwalk, there are volunteers to answer questions. The whole place smelled like new car! I plan to go back again when my travels take me to Detroit. The Henry Ford Museum is also well worth a long visit.
Truly amazing, Henry Ford was nothing short of an absolute genius. Like him or not, he was undeniably one of the most innovative and brilliant people to have ever lived on this earth
What a great guy? Before unions could not go bathroom during your shift no p.p.e. and if you get hurt replaced . Shut plants down for month's at time when his inventory piled up !
@@metal2444 Those unions would have really helped out all the millions of unemployed and starving people during the great depression huh? Bathroom breaks don't have much relevance if you and your entire family are living on the streets with nothing to eat. Henry Ford helped to prevent countless numbers of people from suffering through that very same fate of hell, misery and death
@@nickjenaway3099 Ford created the Unions .The American worker got sick of his Draconian system on the factory floor. Non Union 1970 . Hey Nick when they roll you into operating room for open heart surgery, Crack your chest open, that operating room everything in it WAS BUILT BY CARD CARRYING UNION CRAFTSMAN ALL ACROSS AMERICA.
I´m very impressed by all of the high end technology they had back then. F.e. those (stroboscopic?) equipment for balancing the crankshafts and mass production forging to name a few.
All of the male members of my family worked at The Rouge Plant until they retired. I paid my way through 6 years of college by working in the Hot Strip Mill in the summers. At one time there were four of us working at the Hot Strip Mill. Thanks to the UAW-CIO we were treated well and paid well.
Industry, particularly unionized industry provided a solid living for so many.. Here in the Pittsburgh area it was steel. Generations working in the same plants was quite common. 18 year old kids driving new GTO's in the 60s,70s. . I retired from the same railroad that serviced the mills that my father and great grandfather retired from.. One generation skipped, my grandfather was killed in one of the mills. My son works on the same railroad I did although it's a mere shadow of what it once was. I once had the privilege of driving to work with my son.. I told him that we were so lucky to do so,something future generations will never enjoy.
Awesome video. Love how the workers have no masks, gloves, when working with the molten steel, milling machines, and when breaking off molds. It is amazing how huge the the place is. It was definitely a modern marvel of its time.
Very cool film. I'm a Ford guy and enjoyed watching it. The finished cars are 1938 models. Both of my grandfathers worked for the Detroit Toledo & Ironton Railroad which was owned by Henry Ford. It transported raw materials to the plant and finished autos out.
Henry used to own everything that went into his cars, except for maybe the tires. He owned the iron ore mines that the metal was made from. He owned soy bean fields for the plastics, he owned all the raw materials it took to produce the car. It's amazing that everything it took to build that car was done in that plant. Nowdays bits and pieces are made all over the place and shipped to the assembly plant on a constant delivery scheduled on an as needed basis. I guess Henry would roll over in his grave, it seems like a pretty inefficent way to build compared to this video. It requires a lot of shipping from far flung smaller factorys that aren't owned by Ford. .
Sourcing all (or most) of it himself, Ford was able to keep operating and material costs down so the average person could afford to buy a new car. Now, a base F-150 is $30,000. Ain't that about a b!tch?
Take a trip to the Henry Ford Museum sometime. Go through the entire thing. Plan on at least a long weekend lol. Your jaw will drop if you like this stuff.
@@Bob-vc6ug the museum is amazing. I was also lucky enough to tour Henry’s house and his son edsels house. Trip of a lifetime for me. I worked at a Ford dealership for 20 years as a mechanic
It's so nice to see how this world was at one time, to bad it's in the shape it is today, Thanks to Mr Ford for those very Good-Old-Days, wish I could have been part of all this.
+Ken Bird By today's standards, those cars are horrible, not to mention death traps. The cars America and the world build today are better because of innovation.
+Mike Pomatto American Big 3 still make garbage.......it's why the Japanese/Koreans dominate the passenger car market........and most of those Units are assembled in the USA with well-compensated non-union Labor. As a novelty, I have 1974 Coupe Deville....fine cloudy ride and just huge in every way......I'll admit the build quality (just as today on Big 3 garbage) is a joke. Imagine when Korea Town/Japanese really decide to take-down the Big 3s Light-truck Market-share and have it all to itself? Big 3 truck sales......it's the only real source of consistent income/profits in North America and to support (keep afloat) its many other global operations that don't always make money.
+D McNamara I disagree , I have a Australian Ford Falcon my 3rd runs on an Australian LPG system absolutely brilliant car , designed by the same local guys that designed the Ford Ranger another brilliant car and really socking it to Toyota , just last night I drove a friend to her wedding reception in her top of the range Hyundai , my Ford is 6 cylinder hers four so Mine has the advantage in smoothness , there is no way anybody could say that it is superior in any way , my Ford is so slick I wonder what do you get in these 200 thousand dollar cars if my Ford is this smooth and powerful , the prime reason the Yanks fell behind was the Unions bleeding them dry and a non cooperative environment , bankruptcy brought them to their senses , like Jaguar they now have to live down their past , but if Hyundai can overcome its cheap shoddy image of ten years ago anything is possible , I now see the Ford Mustang is the best selling sports car in the world , Ford are finally doing the Toyota thing now with World cars only took them 50 years to copy what was happening right in front of their face , if you Yanks were amazed at how dumb your Unions and management were so was the rest of the world , the British were even worse the entire industrial base was wiped out and all those car brands gone forever except the ones saved by foreign buyouts .
Nothing in the Constitution says an American/Canadian is required to buy Big3 North American assembled garbage. Name a Big 3 passenger-car/crossover nameplate that is assembled or sold in North America...........it's origins are foreign..........re-skinned/rebadged Foreign Platform under Royalty-License Agreement.
Awesome, the end where they were stamping the metal for the bodies was awesome and putting the cars together, love it and would love to have the machine that stamped the body parts
just amazing, never knew they generated their own electricity. even for such old equipment without computer control that equipment was so efficient it turned out that much production. war production was just so incredible, cars, planes, etc i am just so amazed. thank you very much for posting this type of movie so we can see what came before.
I know this is from 2 years ago lol, but Ive lived in the area my whole life. Henry Ford had power plants at nearly every one of his factories. He didnt want to have to depend on another company for power. Around here, all of the original factories are on rivers so they could make their own power. Even the original Ford mansion has its own powerhouse and is located along the rouge in Dearborn, further up river.
The original film was created by FoMoCo's in house film unit. This is only one of HUNDREDS of films covering Ford production. The film unit also covered related companies such as the Lima locomotive plant in Lima, Ohio. If all these films could be brought together (now owned by many parties) you would have a college course on film.
I was working for Hurst Performance. They needed some shifter thread repair on the line. At the time, Mustangs & Cougars were being made there. I was such a wide eye guy to be there. What amazed me was all the new parts on the factory floor. I wanted to pick them up and take them home. They simply had a person pick up the floor with a machine and throw it all away. The waste !
NO it's not slated to be demolished - the F150 is made there and it is also home to Severstal North America Steel. Believe nothing that you read and half of what you see - I WORK HERE
Jim Marcum Dude, put down the crack pipe, my dad used to buy US/Canadian built (company cars) every 18 months/2 years.(pops got a car allowance for all the companies he worked for). With that said.......all the GM/Ford cars were crap.........build quality/workmanship was garbage.......no pride by the workers/Unions that assembled them.................those company cars were garbage compared to our "own" family cars.............and yes, they were all foreign built. Pops bought USA company built cars............because the company he worked for was US owned and did not want any trouble...........Politics-Wise . I enjoyed finding their many weaknesses and destroying them.............meaning they were always in the shop getting engines/transmission replaced/repaired. None of our Family foreign cars...........I was able to destroy like our company cars..............and trust me(as a Teenager) I tried.
ataraxian12 I love my 1988 F-150 with 5.0l eng. I paid $100 for it 5yrs ago,from a desperado.. Only had to change out timing chain and water pump,and the usual brakes and such.
@@dmcnamara9859 It depends which time period of American cars . Chrysler had the best auto transmissions in the 60's.. The torque flight could stand up to a Hemi.. They replaced it with crap.. Bad engineering..G.M. had a 400 Turbo that you could pour sand into it and it would keep running.. They replaced it with their metric transmission, same story, piece of crap. The GM 350 V8 derived from the solid small block 265-283 V8 worked fine until they put in cheap cams in 1978.. This and other screw ups can be attributed to engineering and management not labor.
Cliff: Hanging a door crooked had nothing to do with management. Half glue treatment for the Fairmont was not the fault of Ford Management. Insane amounts of orange-peel had nothing to do with Management. Crooked pin-striping....both paint and tape had nothing to do with Management. After all, the 1970s/1980s,The Big 4 (AMC-Jeep included) gave Labor the responsibility for "Quality is Job 1" . I'll agree the 727 and Turbo 400 are some robust Transmissions....I have the 400 in my 74 Coupe Deville....shifts are so crisp....but again, part of the novelty of the Coupe Deville is its laughable build quality,missing a weld here and there,seam sealer hit and miss, orange-peel,thin paint in some areas,etc. I spent days aligning all the panels to get it looking right shortly after buying it nearly 3 years ago.
My hats off to those who planned, designed and constructed the giant machines and equipment of this vast plant through sheer hard work and dedication making America great.
Most rewarding tour I have taken in my life was through this complex back in 1962. Lead directly to my becoming a tool maker, better working conditions then casting and stamping operations, lol! I am curious when the overall plant photo was taken as there is no smoke on coming from the main stacks. The smoke is one of the few things I do not miss from the pre 70's.
Ford cars were relatively simple but the plants were very high tech for that time. That's how Ford could make so many lower cost good quality cars that average woring people coould afford to buy brand new.
Actually, I find it surprisingly objective seeing as I have toured many of these plants/buildings personally. I was privileged to attend the 25th Anniversary of the opening of The Dearborn Glass Plant (and still have some souveniers today). My schoolmates would often accompany me on a visit to the Rotunda (no longer in existence) where The Factory Tours originated; usually the Assembly plant, the Steel Foundry or one of the other processing facilities.
fantastic doc. my dad worked in Dunlop's in Cork next to the Ford plant ( the first built outside America) until 1975. bad work practices closed both those huge ( by Irish standards) plants and the city was hit badly. only shells of both buildings left now occupied by small business units. I remember seeing the moulds for the tyres being shipped to China in huge wooden crates. everything changes given enough time I guess :-(
should I mention how one of Henry Ford's attributes was poor quality control as they thought anything could just be repaired later under warranty. All due respect to Henry, but some of his work ethics weren't future-proof and the big 3 had to learn how to make cars from foreign companies, just as almost every car company today learned from Henry's original process.
@@@theodorbutters141 If you knew anything about metrology or gauging or manufacturing QA you would know Ford was a pioneer in these areas. Do not conflate Henry Ford the 2nd and the 1980s with the Original Ford Motor Co of the Original Henry Ford the 1st.
if by bad attributes you mean his disdain for the money changers, one should be reminded the only time jesus used violence was to whip them out of the temple. Ford just said mean things
@@theodorbutters141 The Ford motor company had very good quality control in the 1930s as you can plainly see all the gauging and measurement activities it this Rouge video. The Japanese visited the Rouge plant and learned alot from Ford including Just in Time production. At Rouge raw iron ore would become a finished car within 40 hours which was unheard of at the time.
Screw the car. The machine tools and processes boggles my mind. These plant and mechanical engineers were greater than any automotive engineers design in its self. From power to a sedan on one site. Amazing.
That's a fast moving line. Reminds me of my 15 years of factory work. Bodies are destroyed and souls crushed in this maddening environment. I marvel at it but don't miss it.
thank you for this video very interesting to see how the River rouge plant operated especially found it enjoyable how the foundry department worked Molding Engine blocks, crankshafts heat treating etc.
I believe it went from Iron ore to a finished Model A car in about 40 hours. Ford also built WW2 bomber planes at the Willow Run plant at about one plane per minute.
I seem to recall hearing that in the days of the Model T, Ford specified how parts from vendors had to be crated, because the crates would be stripped down for use in making the cars. How true is that? No idea. It's been decades since I heard it. I was also told that Kingsford Charcoal was started as a byproduct of Ford automobile production. No idea how true any of that is, either.
@@Loulovesspeed Yes and the Japanese came to study the Rouge to learn how to make cars efficiently however the US forgot the lesson. Even the Rouge plant is no longer really self contained most of the parts come from outside the plant now to build F150s.
I went on a tour there as a kid. It was very interesting, seeing the operations from an elevated catwalk. There are tours for the Dearborn plant now, took my kids. I couldn't take anyone to my 6 GM plants, of 32 years there, they prohibit the public except for Saturn Homecoming 1996-2000. I worked during those tours, welcoming owners.
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Very fascinating documentary, especially the degree to which automation played a major part in manufacturing even in c. 1937. Also interesting was the one piece casting of the block for the V8 engine, an innovation in V8 production. From raw materials to finished product all under one roof.
Thank you. One of the most interesting videos on YT. Unique in that it shows when cars were actually made of metal. Also when the American worker had to seriously work, took pride in his skill and the resulting product he handled before being sent out the factory door.The contribution of mechanical,electrical and metallurgical engineers who design the production machinery and assembly line tool and dies is obvious at almost every camera shot. Imagine the reaction,if you had got these men and their families together on the shop floor and told them.."someday cars will be made of cheap junk,fiber and plastic,they won't even have a bumper. Products bought in this great nation will be made by communist countries that hate the U.S and will labor day and night to undermine its values, the word "enemy" will become synonymous with "politician" and American workers will lose their jobs due to greed at corporate levels and plant relocation abroad." I will venture to say they would have beat the living hell out you on the spot.
I agree with you. I'm 67 and no longer recognize the city, state, or country that I grew up in. People openly advocate what my ancestors fled Europe as the path forward.
The Analog World.. This isn't just an assembly plant, they made every bit of it from literally the ground up. See 15:05 "With one foot on the land, and one in industry." Thanks for posting this A/V Geeks
I was in elementary school in Lake Orion. Dad took 75 into the city to DANA where he sold axles. We ended up in Fort Wayne. I knew about the factories but NOT how massive.
Unbelievable how many people once worked there. I think it has been proven it wasn't a very efficient way to make cars, but you have to admire the massive operation!
It is compiled of various periods; the Ore ship, the Henry Ford II is from the late 40s or early 50s; the engine block castings are flathead in design, late 20s through about 1953.
In 1964 went on a tour of the line where the first year Mustangs were being built. Outside there were it seemed like acres of them. They were so popular, the tour guide said they were a month behind on orders!
I'm amazed by all those machines and the men working them. That was America back in it's hay day. I wish it was like that now, guess I feel kinda cheated.
River Rouge is a town that is 2 miles south of the Ford Rouge Complex. The Ford Rouge Complex was never called the River Rouge Plant. The complex is currently comprised of the Ford Dearborn Engine Plant, the Tool and Die Plant, Dearborn Stamping Plant, Dearborn Truck Plant and the Dearborn Diversified Products Plant. Co-located in the complex is the AK Steel Operations, which was formerly owned by Ford Motor Company.
Very well done documentary with excellent narration by Lowell Thomas. There seem to be many automated processes and great effeciencies for 1938 with only 28 hours from the unloading of iron ore from a lake freighter to a finished car rolling off the assembly line. The mass produced one piece casting of the V8 engine block is perhaps the first that I know of as V8 engine blocks from other companies were commonly cast in sections due to the complexity of a one piece V8 casting and then bolted together. Even though Ford had many suppliers many aspects of production were still under the Ford umbrella. Ford's Rouge plant had to have been one of the largest generators of wealth for all segments of society in the Detroit area. It's too bad that American manufacturing is no longer protected by tariffs from unfair competition as it used to be from about 1800 to 1950.
My father moonlighted as an on call surgeon at the glass factory during the night shift several times a week for years and the worked at the VA Hospital during the day. Never saw my father much, as a doctor he worked his ass off during the 1960’s. He died at age 68 in 1990 from cancer.
@@sociologynut8033 you did not understand my words. My father was a surgeon at the glass plant and was on site to sew up deep bleeding cuts sustained by a glass worker on the job. A bad flesh wound injury had little chance of surviving a trip to the ER back then.
Ford Manufacturing was about 10 -20 years ahead of the competition back then. The Ford cars were fairly simple but the factories were complex and very "state of the art" at the time. Your will always see a lot of testing and gauging fixtures in old Ford factory videos used to hold close tolerances you can not build a lot of cars quickly without good metrology. That is how Henry Ford could make those cars for about $600 to $800. Look at the old pre ww2 Chevrolet plant videos and see those cars required more hand work to build.
The early Ford subcontractors were the Dodge brothers who were board members at Ford but left to start their own company. Henry was so mad about it he built the Rouge to make almost everything himself.
@@raoulcruz4404 Henry' s friend Harvey Firestone made them back then. And their friend Thomas Edison made... They used to go on camping trips together.
Three years after your comment.. But friend, there are a ton of computers in this film. They are of the mechanical type though, not electronic. They are analogue, not digital.
My first Ford was a 1952. Great little flathead engine. Quality has been hot and cold since then. My buddy George's dad told him if he didn't drop out and got his high school diploma, he would buy him any car he wanted. He chose my all time favorite, the 1964 Thunderbolt.
The Rouge plant is the reason Detroit became the industrial center of America. Ford actually wanted to build it in Alabama but the state did not give him the support he wanted. If they had, Alabama would have become a much different state.
Some of this is still available but might require a fee and maybe even a reservation, but its well worth the trouble. I encourage everyone to make the trip (check online for times, etc) and see the sites that show exactly how a vehicle is built in a plant where the raw material comes in one end and a complete vehicle rolls out the other; there's even a world-class Test Track behind those serpentine, high brick walls (we could see over them from our schoolbus windows).
Even in Australia ,schoolchildren were shown through Ford factories on excursions .Such a shame today's kids wont experience the awe,size ,excitement and general buzz of a city of workers whether on the tools or in a 600 person canteen at lunch..It made you want to work there.
Back in the 80s I worked at the Ford plant in Geelong, Australia. Great job, great products. Car industry in Australia all ended in 2017. Australia is now little more than a quarry and a farm for China. Oh well. Nothing lasts forever.
Many of my family worked there. Men, materials and machines made Detroit a industrial power house. The river rouge plant today is an empty relic of the storied past.
![Ford: Technique for Tomorrow, Cleveland, Brook Park [1954]](/img/n.gif)
I did a terrific and world class welding apprenticeship at the Rouge, starting in July 1973. I did two years of production time on the press floor at the Dearborn Stamping Plant before moving over to the Engine Plant to begin my apprenticeship there. My first journeyman was Herb G Wells (no kidding) who hired in in 1934. No kidding. I was twenty three. He had lots of stories to tell me, and had 39 years by the time he picked me up, and was real good factory maintenance/construction welder. We worked up high and down below in the steam tunnel’s that lace the Rouge. After 8 months I was moved over to the B Building, Dearborn Assembly, for 5 months. Then 4 months at Rail car and locomotive repair. Then 8 months at Dearborn Stamping, followed by e few months in the Glass Plant and the Tooland Die Plant. Then 11 months at the Dearborn Ford Steel Division in the J9 shops. Joe Tatti and Bob Geddes as Superintendents there and both welders. BOF, new Hot Mill, Cold Mill, Bar Mills, Picklers, Specialty Foundry. Then returned to the Dearborn Engine Plant to graduate In 1978. Life and a long career at The Rouge, most of my time there, meant enduring multiple layoffs. And getting bounced around into the various Plants and Departments. It was quite a ride and there was nothing like it anywhere. From ore ships coming up in the slip, glass coming out of that one, rubber coming out of that one, Engines, frames, body panels, castings, iron, steel, specialty steels, ingots, tires, more castings, forged parts and finished product rolling off the lines at the Assembly Plant non stop, around the clock. Fifty thousand men and women employed there daily. Most plants were in the neighborhood of 3 million square feet. Some like Glass, Tool and Die, and Spec Foundry smaller,. Quite a place for a country boy from SE Louisiana. Quite a remarkable place! I was very fortunate! And Ford a super employer!
That's awesome.
Thanks for sharing; awesome!
Skilled Americans like you are now a thing of lore.
Jon Bel Thanks for the story Jon. I grew up in Michigan (Oscoda). some of those plants were HUGE !!! You could be driving down the highway at 50 mph for a few minutes and realize that you still haven't passed this building yet. Another 2 - 3 minutes at 50 mph and you STILL haven't passed it yet! Amazing. Raw dirt and coal in one end, cars out the other. Back then those were lifetime high paying careers straight out of school if you could get in.
Back when working there actually meant something. These days it's all temp agency workers where nobody really cares what's going on.
What I find remarkable is that River Rouge was not just a factory, it was a complete one-stop industry. They shipped in coal and generated their own electricity. They shipped in iron ore and smelted their own steel. This is unheard of today. In the modern global economy everything is pieced up and specialized. They don't even make a whole car in one place, there is an engine plant, a tire plant, an assembly plant for finished vehicles, and so on, scattered all over the world. I like the idea of being able to do everything in one spot.
Henry Ford wanted complete autonomy in everything he did, it's the main reason the square headed Robertson screw was never adopted by the USA, ford wanted to purchase the patent for it from Canadian inventor P.L.Robertson who refused which is why the inferior Phillips brand was adopted instead....
you can't now days because everyone feels like they should get payed 100 bucks a hour to flip burgers
Ford even had a fleet of ships to bring in the raw materials from company owned or operated mines.
Also to accommodate the automobile was not as complicated as today and easily built back then.
@@danhard8440 everyone feels like they should be paid $100 because all the landlords demand that salary, with their rent, because there are no new houses.
Makes you wonder how much we have lost. Could we even come close to ever being this productive and ingenious ever again? These people were a different breed than we are now. Excellent movie.
yep this blackpilled me for sure
ahh yes lets go back to the days when meth pills were accepted amongst all of the major military powers
@@pimpmykek3213 Yes!
Oh come on. River Rouge is still going strong along with a lot of other manufacturing plants! The iron ore ships are still going too. Get out and see the USA!
@@pimpmykek3213 uhmmm yeah? That sounds fucking awesome, nerd.
The real heros of America are the architects and construction workers building these places. Its amazing we never fully compensate the men on the ground doing the construction. Look at the miracle of any building and wrap your head around the skill needed to piece it together. Its more precise than surgery. If youve ever constructed anything you appreciate a craftsman.
In 1938 robotic welding was used, although crude, it was used to spot weld the top and sides together. By maintaining the material stream, exceptional quality was maintained, that’s why so many old Fords survived to this day. That’s what made Henry Ford a genius !
I hope that I live long enough to see every one of those in Congress run out of Washington in disgrace for giving away our once powerful manufacturing base to foreign nations.
I work for a high tech fortune 100 company as an electrical eng. I have to say....we currently have nothing that even comes close to this level of ingenuity and high speed intelligence! The processes in this video are astounding...there is so much in this vid it is hard to believe....how can we have gone backwards.? We can’t do anything right now....especially in the auto sector..
Have you ever watched movie called Idiocracy?
Tesla
Only thing we're good at is making junk anymore. Rusty junk!
@@scottrayhons2537 Cars used to rust out very quickly - in a few years! People often got new cars ever 2 or 3 years. Cars of today last much longer - and definitely don't need after-market rust proofing!
Bigger doesn't always mean better. Having huge manufacturing facilities designed to run at full tilt is capital intensive and a lot of fixed costs cannot be eliminated when demand for the product is low. What is really impressive is how Toyota used its limited resources.
We are so fortunate being from this time. I started my pipefitting apprenticeship in Dayton Ohio in 1968, local 162. The apprenticeship was 5 years, skills I learned I will never forget, the people I worked with I will never forget. Its sad we have trouble finding kids who want to do this kind of work, Its hard, you can ear lots of money and learn a skill you can take anywhere. Thanks for your story John Bel.
Went there on field trips in school, incredible !
Absolutely astonishing. How to even begin to design such precision and engineer a final product from start to finished vehicle is incredible!
Simply amazing! I'm more impressed with the amount of thought that went into setting up the plant and producing the equipment that allowed the cars to be built.The organizing of all the workers is impressive also.
I was thinking the same thing as you about the plant...as well as how sad it is that our country was ruined by a few Greedy Politicians ...We used to be the Standard of the World...now? Not...
@@Bangkok-ik1fp Several hundred tool makers all over the East and Midwest of America. Just in my town, Kenosha, Wisconsin, there were 5 or 6 small foundries and tool makers of every type. One huge brass plant, American Motors, boiler makers and a wire rope factory. And about 120 taverns.
Yeah me to, that wisdom comes from God Almighty so people can work.
The way the U.S.A. WAS. People supporting people's future. Greed and the lust for imports, we loose.
@@lpattenaude1716 I agree,men couldn't have been able to that gigantic manufacturing without the know how of the Lord.😀
it's great to hear people re tell there work carreers. with joy! thank you!
Absolutely amazing.Me went about their jobs & the machine were amazing. Precision work.This was America..
This was a country that worshipped God
What a great video!!! They developed the electricity, the raw materials, the glass, all of the castings, forgings, stamped steel parts, generators, starter motors, all machining operations, even lunch wagons and fields to grow crops on... Everything in & near that 1,100 acre plant complex... Incredible... It makes a lot of sense why the government assigned this company, and several other companies to build several military vehicles and equipment during the war... It was a model of teamwork, efficiency and ingenuity...
My father started work there in 1928 retired 1967
My brother started work there in 1966 retired 2008
I started work there in 1976 retired 2008
Working in transportation, I was lucky enough to see all areas of the Rouge.
I will only buy Ford Mo. vehicles. My brothers who have shamed the family by purchasing Japanese cars are not even allowed to park in front of or near my father's, grandfather's and my home.
be open minded my friend Japanese Automobile Manufacturers have good quality products Long lasting engines, Advanced Technologies, electronics. But yes I still do Enjoy an Old Ford as well.
Tony Marinelli while I'll never allow an import to be in my driveway or garage...niether will I allow another ford...unless it's pre 1980. Fords have been junk for nearly 40 years.
My grandfather worked there from 1927 and retired in 1970. Worked mostly in the B building. He had many fond memories of working there especially during the war years. Hugh "Jimmy" Fullmer.
@@ROTAXD why didn't the have to get bailed out? Why has my 02 Saleen mustang with 125k on it have and has had no issues. ?
Thanks A/V Geeks! This was my playground when I was a kid (about 1950-'56). We were at the age of learning about electrical circuits and would 'patrol' the switch-yard between Miller Rd and Wyoming for discarded 'dry cells'.
I later went to work at "The Largest Glass Plant (under one roof)" built by Ford and retired 33.0 years later.
(cont.)
It is easy to see how people can become bitter at the loss of industry in North America - when you were raised seeing things like this, doing and building this and then it all goes away over your lifetime, when you are told time and again that we are building success for everyone but the dream slowly evaporates...
Detroit in the 1930's may not have been perfect for everyone, but man, it sure looks like they were trying.
What is bittering is that we did it to ourselves by permitting corrupt leadership and communism.
I’ve been in metal manufacturing for over 30 years. Incredible video.The individuals that could think this big are all but gone unfortunately. Where the heck would you find men like this nowadays?
I'm a retired manufacturing engineer who spent 30yrs programming and processing nc/cnc machines. I'm blown away at Ford's dedication to the V8 engine quality. Almost every journal on the crankshaft is checked with a simple but reliable go/no-go gage. The guy made 1 mistake by saying the inspection gage blocks were good for measuring to 2 millionth's of an inch. I think not.
@@jimsperlakis5634 On the Ford V8 go-no go gauge. I think the narrator misread the numbers. If he said 2 thousandths of an inch accuracy, I'd be OK with that.
Africa
".......could think this big are gone unfortunately"
"All but" is a fully useless bit of grammar that doesnt mean what it says, and that shouldve died 100 years ago when these cars werent even envisioned yet and people were still buying Model Ts
It makes me long for the days I worked at ALCOA charging the furnaces with pig, and aluminum scrap. Tapping those furnaces to fill the ladles to pour and direct chill cast ingot, and aluminum plate. We took a lot of pride in our work!
One of the reasons the United States was so successful at manufacturing after WW II was that almost all heavy factories but ours had been destroyed in the war. We enjoyed a few years on top of the world before competition eventually returned. The "glory days" period in the 1950's was not a normal state of affairs, rather it was a one-time event in our history.
Right now it looks like it we may get a second shot lolll
This is one insane factory! They had the full process, made all the parts to their specs and outsourced very little, those were real engineers running those companies, not MBA's
Well, to be fair, these things were junk. It was exceedingly rare for a car of this vintage to get 100k miles. They rusted out pretty quickly. They needed endless maintenance. Serious stuff like valve jobs.
@@tarstarkusz and they could do those jobs quickly, and for very reasonable prices. I'm fixing to drive an old flathead daily, with no worries. The only thing new cars do better is crash and safety. Cost? Nope. Style? Debatable. Power? Yes, and fuel efficient too. Don't care. What do I do for a living? Restore old cars...😏
@@jockomcneal4108 There are things I really like about old cars. The styling was awesome. I loved the chrome bumpers. Even my first couple of cars in the late 80s were old 70s models with big old chrome bumpers. Today they all look alike and have the same drab shape. The 1960 Fury is a thing of beauty, as is the Frazer and the 48 Aerosedan by Chevy.
As to price, it's hard to say because you would have to do so much adjusting. For example, cars last a lot longer than they did, especially before the war and in the early post war period. So you would have to adjust everything to cost per year of useful life.
Also, inflation has been heavily hidden and so it is very difficult to make the price adjustment. Really, gold and silver are the best way to measure it and even with them there are a lot of confounding variables.
I'm not entirely sure about safety. We have too many confounding variables. Drinking and driving is much more rare. Roads and barriers along the roadside have been heavily studied and optimized to slow the car down without flipping it or harming the passengers inside. Falling eye cue (I know) in the US since 1997 is also confounding any research. But I would argue on the side of they have gotten at least marginally safer.
Cars needed a lot more maintenance back then. Oil changes were every 3k miles. Every other year for a cooling flush. Yearly choke adjustment, which must be done cold, which for most people means leaving it at the shop the night before. Bias ply tires weren't as good. There were a lot of lube points on the chassis. Clutch replacement, though not really a maintenance item. Could last the life of the car if you are good with a stick.
don't forget they did it all using their brains
no calculator no computer just rulers and abacus and a brain
The skill and teamwork these men have is awesome. I'm 29 and I have a lot of respect for that generation. Thank you and I'm sorry some of you feel like we young guns don't know jack and are PC but I do know hard work also. Wish I could go back in time and have a beer with some of these guys.
I am 66 and met some of those old timers In working class bars near Wayne State university campus in Detroit. We could drink at 18 back then and had a few shots and beers with those guys some of the really old bars didn't have bar stools you stood at the bar like in the old wild west.
What brand of beer?
@@pkoch70 Iron City, Duquesne, Stoney's, and Tube City Beer.
Had a 1956 Ford F-100. It was originally my great uncles. It was passed through the family and now I wish I had it. Had an old straight 6 223 and a suicide 3 on the tree. What a fun old truck it was.
My grandfather was a foreman building the plant then went to work in it. When HF wanted to build another building gramps would go back to construction he built every building on the entire site.
This reminds me of a power plant that you visited. The additional videos by Ford were very interesting. Another nice video from you guys! Keep it up!
Mr. Neal P. Fry was Employed in The
Ford Motor Company's Rouge Complex for 34 Years, 3 Months, 2 Weeks and 4 and a Half Days. I Earned
1 Heart Attack, 3 Heat Strokes, 3rd Degree Burns on both my Hands and
About 50 Stitches Always Wearing Ford Motor Company's Safety Equipment.
I, Neal P. Fry also "Earned" my Pension and Social Security Benefits from my Employer, Ford Motor Company and The UAW Local 600,
Where I was Twice Elected:
Sergeant At Arms.
Sincerely Truthful and Honest,
Neal P. Fry
I was a fuel and utilities engineer for the steel div. in 1955-1958. Fantastic operation. It is a shame that there is no longer steel made there, it all comes from China now. I worked in the electrical department doing design, construction and maintenance for the mills and furnaces. Loved that job, learned a lot, had a fantastic boss (Russ Smoot).
We called you guys Utility Analysts at U.S. Steel's Homestead Works. I was an Instrument Repairman apprentice in 1978 in the Power and Fuel department. My father was a bricklayer there.
It was a four year trade that I never got the chance to finish. I was laid off in October 1981 with 3 years 6 months of time. They stopped producing steel a year later.
I learned enough to make a career of the trade, 26 years in field service and 13 years in two coal-fired power plants, Elrama and Cheswick.
Looking back, it seems that I spent my life keeping obsolete equipment running. Hagan Ring Balance, Bailey LeDoux bells, Foxboro Model 40s, Honeywell's Class 15, Leeds and Northrop Micromax, Model G and H.
I remember we had Speedomax controllers (I think that was the name) it was a servo amplifier which controlled the fuel/air ratio for the soaking pits. Shockly had invented the transistor so we had L&N make a servo amp out of them. It would outlast the old tube types 10/1 because of the intense heat on the control platform above the soaking pit. Did they still have the Askania regulators when you worked there?
If someone, anyone, anywhere, hasn't seen this, then they ought to definitely see this amazing old documentary about Henry Ford's Rouge River Plant! I looked it up just now and it is still in full operation and available to be toured the year round!
I took the tour quite a few years ago, it was awesome! You get to walk above final assembly on a catwalk, there are volunteers to answer questions. The whole place smelled like new car! I plan to go back again when my travels take me to Detroit. The Henry Ford Museum is also well worth a long visit.
Truly amazing, Henry Ford was nothing short of an absolute genius. Like him or not, he was undeniably one of the most innovative and brilliant people to have ever lived on this earth
What a great guy? Before unions could not go bathroom during your shift no p.p.e. and if you get hurt replaced . Shut plants down for month's at time when his inventory piled up !
When I was told I could not got to bath room I just pee in my pants and heat of hot factory dried me off.
Circa 1970. Non union.
@@metal2444 Those unions would have really helped out all the millions of unemployed and starving people during the great depression huh? Bathroom breaks don't have much relevance if you and your entire family are living on the streets with nothing to eat. Henry Ford helped to prevent countless numbers of people from suffering through that very same fate of hell, misery and death
@@nickjenaway3099 Ford created the Unions .The American worker got sick of his Draconian system on the factory floor. Non Union 1970 . Hey Nick when they roll you into operating room for open heart surgery, Crack your chest open, that operating room everything in it WAS BUILT BY CARD CARRYING UNION CRAFTSMAN ALL ACROSS AMERICA.
@@metal2444 I
Wow what a fantastic piece of history!
Thank you for uploading.
I´m very impressed by all of the high end technology they had back then. F.e. those (stroboscopic?) equipment for balancing the crankshafts and mass production forging to name a few.
Ford Was Top of the line in manufacturing plant technology far ahead of GM and others of that era.
It's mind boggling to think how this was accomplished with technology of the day.
Still live in the area and work in the auto industry. Thanks for posting this video.
My Great grandfather worked for Henry Ford from 1916 to 1953 .
Henry Ford really believed in his vision.
He's quoted as saying. "Both, if you think you can or think you can't you're correct."
All of the male members of my family worked at The Rouge Plant until they retired. I paid my way through 6 years of college by working in the Hot Strip Mill in the summers. At one time there were four of us working at the Hot Strip Mill. Thanks to the UAW-CIO we were treated well and paid well.
Industry, particularly unionized industry provided a solid living for so many.. Here in the Pittsburgh area it was steel. Generations working in the same plants was quite common. 18 year old kids driving new GTO's in the 60s,70s. . I retired from the same railroad that serviced the mills that my father and great grandfather retired from.. One generation skipped, my grandfather was killed in one of the mills. My son works on the same railroad I did although it's a mere shadow of what it once was. I once had the privilege of driving to work with my son.. I told him that we were so lucky to do so,something future generations will never enjoy.
This is a testimony to America at work
Awesome video. Love how the workers have no masks, gloves, when working with the molten steel, milling machines, and when breaking off molds. It is amazing how huge the the place is. It was definitely a modern marvel of its time.
they died young
What an incredible time to be alive!
Very cool film. I'm a Ford guy and enjoyed watching it. The finished cars are 1938 models. Both of my grandfathers worked for the Detroit Toledo & Ironton Railroad which was owned by Henry Ford. It transported raw materials to the plant and finished autos out.
Me too. It's in my blood. My dad was secretary-treasurer of the DT&I from 1962 until he retired in 1975.
Yep '38 Deluxes / In my teens I had a '39 Standard Coupe which had the same front but the sleeker body style.
Drove around and through the Rouge. That alone took nearly an hour to do. This place is Impressive.
Best company in the world. Its amazing.
So many people.
Engines hand built
Awesome ! Thanks Geeks for the upload...My first car was a 1950 Ford with the flathead V-8,I was 14yrs old !
Henry used to own everything that went into his cars, except for maybe the tires. He owned the iron ore mines that the metal was made from. He owned soy bean fields for the plastics, he owned all the raw materials it took to produce the car. It's amazing that everything it took to build that car was done in that plant. Nowdays bits and pieces are made all over the place and shipped to the assembly plant on a constant delivery scheduled on an as needed basis. I guess Henry would roll over in his grave, it seems like a pretty inefficent way to build compared to this video. It requires a lot of shipping from far flung smaller factorys that aren't owned by Ford. .
+505197 He even owned the forests where the trees were grown for the wood parts, and the ships that hauled the ore and logs in.
I think he owned Firestone tires too.👍🇺🇸
Oh and the rubber plantation , Kingsford charcoal from wood scraps too
Sourcing all (or most) of it himself, Ford was able to keep operating and material costs down so the average person could afford to buy a new car. Now, a base F-150 is $30,000. Ain't that about a b!tch?
It's more efficient to carry as little inventory as possible. Do some reading on what's called the "Toyota Production System".
Amazing stuff!.. Definitely super hard working folk's that earned that paycheck. Thanks for sharing this with us all!. 🙏🙏
Ford's history is so fascinating! I love reading about it and watching these vidoes!
Take a trip to the Henry Ford Museum sometime. Go through the entire thing. Plan on at least a long weekend lol. Your jaw will drop if you like this stuff.
@@Bob-vc6ug the museum is amazing. I was also lucky enough to tour Henry’s house and his son edsels house. Trip of a lifetime for me. I worked at a Ford dealership for 20 years as a mechanic
It's so nice to see how this world was at one time, to bad it's in the shape it is today, Thanks to Mr Ford for those very Good-Old-Days, wish I could have been part of all this.
A fine example of what we once could do in this country.
+Ken Bird By today's standards, those cars are horrible, not to mention death traps. The cars America and the world build today are better because of innovation.
+Mike Pomatto
American Big 3 still make garbage.......it's why the Japanese/Koreans dominate the passenger car market........and most of those Units are assembled in the USA with well-compensated non-union Labor.
As a novelty, I have 1974 Coupe Deville....fine cloudy ride and just huge in every way......I'll admit the build quality (just as today on Big 3 garbage) is a joke.
Imagine when Korea Town/Japanese really decide to take-down the Big 3s Light-truck Market-share and have it all to itself?
Big 3 truck sales......it's the only real source of consistent income/profits in North America and to support (keep afloat) its many other global operations that don't always make money.
+D McNamara I disagree , I have a Australian Ford Falcon my 3rd runs on an Australian LPG system absolutely brilliant car , designed by the same local guys that designed the Ford Ranger another brilliant car and really socking it to Toyota , just last night I drove a friend to her wedding reception in her top of the range Hyundai , my Ford is 6 cylinder hers four so Mine has the advantage in smoothness , there is no way anybody could say that it is superior in any way , my Ford is so slick I wonder what do you get in these 200 thousand dollar cars if my Ford is this smooth and powerful , the prime reason the Yanks fell behind was the Unions bleeding them dry and a non cooperative environment , bankruptcy brought them to their senses , like Jaguar they now have to live down their past , but if Hyundai can overcome its cheap shoddy image of ten years ago anything is possible , I now see the Ford Mustang is the best selling sports car in the world , Ford are finally doing the Toyota thing now with World cars only took them 50 years to copy what was happening right in front of their face , if you Yanks were amazed at how dumb your Unions and management were so was the rest of the world , the British were even worse the entire industrial base was wiped out and all those car brands gone forever except the ones saved by foreign buyouts .
D McNamara some Patriot you are that's not true at all
Nothing in the Constitution says an American/Canadian is required to buy Big3 North American assembled garbage. Name a Big 3 passenger-car/crossover nameplate that is assembled or sold in North America...........it's origins are foreign..........re-skinned/rebadged Foreign Platform under Royalty-License Agreement.
Awesome, the end where they were stamping the metal for the bodies was awesome and putting the cars together, love it and would love to have the machine that stamped the body parts
What's just as amazing are the machines that do the work.
Went on the real tours of the Rouge back the late sixties, sure was hot on those cat walks high above those furnaces! Was alot of fun for a young kid.
Yep. Went o one of those tours in our 6th grade glass in-around 1960-ish. Was like hell down there, and hot on those catwalks too.
just amazing, never knew they generated their own electricity. even for such old equipment without computer control that equipment was so efficient it turned out that much production. war production was just so incredible, cars, planes, etc i am just so amazed. thank you very much for posting this type of movie so we can see what came before.
I know this is from 2 years ago lol, but Ive lived in the area my whole life. Henry Ford had power plants at nearly every one of his factories. He didnt want to have to depend on another company for power. Around here, all of the original factories are on rivers so they could make their own power. Even the original Ford mansion has its own powerhouse and is located along the rouge in Dearborn, further up river.
The original film was created by FoMoCo's in house film unit. This is only one of HUNDREDS of films covering Ford production. The film unit also covered related companies such as the Lima locomotive plant in Lima, Ohio.
If all these films could be brought together (now owned by many parties) you would have a college course on film.
and ya know how Kingsford charcoal briquettes began? Ford's son making them from the discarded wooden crates that auto parts came in.
These were true Americans supporting Americans.
I was working for Hurst Performance. They needed some shifter thread repair on the line. At the time, Mustangs & Cougars were being made there. I was such a wide eye guy to be there. What amazed me was all the new parts on the factory floor. I wanted to pick them up and take them home. They simply had a person pick up the floor with a machine and throw it all away. The waste !
NO it's not slated to be demolished - the F150 is made there and it is also home to Severstal North America Steel. Believe nothing that you read and half of what you see - I WORK HERE
Jim Marcum Dude, put down the crack pipe, my dad used to buy US/Canadian built (company cars) every 18 months/2 years.(pops got a car allowance for all the companies he worked for).
With that said.......all the GM/Ford cars were crap.........build quality/workmanship was garbage.......no pride by the workers/Unions that assembled them.................those company cars were garbage compared to our "own" family cars.............and yes, they were all foreign built.
Pops bought USA company built cars............because the company he worked for was US owned and did not want any trouble...........Politics-Wise .
I enjoyed finding their many weaknesses and destroying them.............meaning they were always in the shop getting engines/transmission replaced/repaired.
None of our Family foreign cars...........I was able to destroy like our company cars..............and trust me(as a Teenager) I tried.
ataraxian12 I love my 1988 F-150 with 5.0l eng. I paid $100 for it 5yrs ago,from a desperado.. Only had to change out timing chain and water pump,and the usual brakes and such.
@@dmcnamara9859 It depends which time period of American cars . Chrysler had the best auto transmissions in the 60's.. The torque flight could stand up to a Hemi.. They replaced it with crap.. Bad engineering..G.M. had a 400 Turbo that you could pour sand into it and it would keep running.. They replaced it with their metric transmission, same story, piece of crap. The GM 350 V8 derived from the solid small block 265-283 V8 worked fine until they put in cheap cams in 1978.. This and other screw ups can be attributed to engineering and management not labor.
Cliff:
Hanging a door crooked had nothing to do with management. Half glue treatment for the Fairmont was not the fault of Ford Management. Insane amounts of orange-peel had nothing to do with Management. Crooked pin-striping....both paint and tape had nothing to do with Management. After all, the 1970s/1980s,The Big 4 (AMC-Jeep included) gave Labor the responsibility for "Quality is Job 1" .
I'll agree the 727 and Turbo 400 are some robust Transmissions....I have the 400 in my 74 Coupe Deville....shifts are so crisp....but again, part of the novelty of the Coupe Deville is its laughable build quality,missing a weld here and there,seam sealer hit and miss, orange-peel,thin paint in some areas,etc. I spent days aligning all the panels to get it looking right shortly after buying it nearly 3 years ago.
I know some of these comments are stupid 😂
My hats off to those who planned, designed and constructed the giant machines and equipment of this vast plant through sheer hard work and dedication making America great.
For the timeframe, the machines making these cars are at least as impressive as the cars themselves, if not moreso.
More so Ford factories are way more impressive than its cars were.
Most rewarding tour I have taken in my life was through this complex back in 1962. Lead directly to my becoming a tool maker, better working conditions then casting and stamping operations, lol!
I am curious when the overall plant photo was taken as there is no smoke on coming from the main stacks. The smoke is one of the few things I do not miss from the pre 70's.
More so I'd say.
More so for sure.
Ford cars were relatively simple but the plants were very high tech for that time. That's how Ford could make so many lower cost good quality cars that average woring people coould afford to buy brand new.
"The Earth provides the raw materials". Can't get much "greener" than that!
Actually, I find it surprisingly objective seeing as I have toured many of these plants/buildings personally. I was privileged to attend the 25th Anniversary of the opening of The Dearborn Glass Plant (and still have some souveniers today).
My schoolmates would often accompany me on a visit to the Rotunda (no longer in existence) where The Factory Tours originated; usually the Assembly plant, the Steel Foundry or one of the other processing facilities.
fantastic doc. my dad worked in Dunlop's in Cork next to the Ford plant ( the first built outside America) until 1975. bad work practices closed both those huge ( by Irish standards) plants and the city was hit badly. only shells of both buildings left now occupied by small business units. I remember seeing the moulds for the tyres being shipped to China in huge wooden crates. everything changes given enough time I guess :-(
I love this kind of stuff... its neat looking back when the flathead ford V8 was modern!
Henry Ford had his good and bad attributes, but the man was an industrial revolution genius.
should I mention how one of Henry Ford's attributes was poor quality control as they thought anything could just be repaired later under warranty. All due respect to Henry, but some of his work ethics weren't future-proof and the big 3 had to learn how to make cars from foreign companies, just as almost every car company today learned from Henry's original process.
@@@theodorbutters141 If you knew anything about metrology or gauging or manufacturing QA you would know Ford was a pioneer in these areas. Do not conflate Henry Ford the 2nd and the 1980s with the Original Ford Motor Co of the Original Henry Ford the 1st.
if by bad attributes you mean his disdain for the money changers, one should be reminded the only time jesus used violence was to whip them out of the temple. Ford just said mean things
@@theodorbutters141 The Ford motor company had very good quality control in the 1930s as you can plainly see all the gauging and measurement activities it this Rouge video. The Japanese visited the Rouge plant and learned alot from Ford including Just in Time production. At Rouge raw iron ore would become a finished car within 40 hours which was unheard of at the time.
Best man and company in the world along with Ronald Reagan and trump
Perhaps the most interesting video i'v ever watched.very incredible.
Screw the car. The machine tools and processes boggles my mind. These plant and mechanical engineers were greater than any automotive engineers design in its self. From power to a sedan on one site. Amazing.
That's a fast moving line. Reminds me of my 15 years of factory work. Bodies are destroyed and souls crushed in this maddening environment. I marvel at it but don't miss it.
thank you for this video very interesting to see how the River rouge plant operated especially found it enjoyable how the foundry department worked Molding Engine blocks, crankshafts heat treating etc.
The River Rouge Plant was a fine example of fully-integrated manufacturing. Ore went in one end; finished autos went out the opposite end,
I believe it went from Iron ore to a finished Model A car in about 40 hours. Ford also built WW2 bomber planes at the Willow Run plant at about one plane per minute.
There is a similar film to this where it explains that the plant was so large the construction had to take into account the curvature of the Earth.
I seem to recall hearing that in the days of the Model T, Ford specified how parts from vendors had to be crated, because the crates would be stripped down for use in making the cars. How true is that? No idea. It's been decades since I heard it. I was also told that Kingsford Charcoal was started as a byproduct of Ford automobile production. No idea how true any of that is, either.
@@Loulovesspeed Yes and the Japanese came to study the Rouge to learn how to make cars efficiently however the US forgot the lesson. Even the Rouge plant is no longer really self contained most of the parts come from outside the plant now to build F150s.
@@xaenon That is absolutely true,, the wood from the shipping crates became flooring in model T's I grew up in Dearborn.
I went on a tour there as a kid. It was very interesting, seeing the operations from an elevated catwalk. There are tours for the Dearborn plant now, took my kids. I couldn't take anyone to my 6 GM plants, of 32 years there, they prohibit the public except for Saturn Homecoming 1996-2000. I worked during those tours, welcoming owners.
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Very fascinating documentary, especially the degree to which automation played a major part in manufacturing even in c. 1937. Also interesting was the one piece casting of the block for the V8 engine, an innovation in V8 production. From raw materials to finished product all under one roof.
I like to watch how they make the sand castings . Fascinating !
Thank you. One of the most interesting videos on YT. Unique in that it shows when cars were actually made of metal. Also when the American worker had to seriously work, took pride in his skill and the resulting product he handled before being sent out the factory door.The contribution of mechanical,electrical and metallurgical engineers who design the production machinery and assembly line tool and dies is obvious at almost every camera shot. Imagine the reaction,if you had got these men and their families together on the shop floor and told them.."someday cars will be made of cheap junk,fiber and plastic,they won't even have a bumper. Products bought in this great nation will be made by communist countries that hate the U.S and will labor day and night to undermine its values, the word "enemy" will become synonymous with "politician" and American workers will lose their jobs due to greed at corporate levels and plant relocation abroad." I will venture to say they would have beat the living hell out you on the spot.
Welcome to America 2021.
I agree with you. I'm 67 and no longer recognize the city, state, or country that I grew up in. People openly advocate what my ancestors fled Europe as the path forward.
Awesome video, that's what you call a one stop shop.
Amazing video! Thank you for getting this on youtube.
Awesome video...thank you for making this available
The Analog World.. This isn't just an assembly plant, they made every bit of it from literally the ground up. See 15:05 "With one foot on the land, and one in industry." Thanks for posting this A/V Geeks
I was in elementary school in Lake Orion. Dad took 75 into the city to DANA where he sold axles. We ended up in Fort Wayne. I knew about the factories but NOT how massive.
Unbelievable how many people once worked there. I think it has been proven it wasn't a very efficient way to make cars, but you have to admire the massive operation!
It is compiled of various periods; the Ore ship, the Henry Ford II is from the late 40s or early 50s; the engine block castings are flathead in design, late 20s through about 1953.
In 1964 went on a tour of the line where the first year Mustangs were being built. Outside there were it seemed like acres of them. They were so popular, the tour guide said they were a month behind on orders!
had a 66 and wish I never sold it
I'm amazed by all those machines and the men working them. That was America back in it's hay day. I wish it was like that now, guess I feel kinda cheated.
And all of this was accomplished with absolutely no computers! Amazing!
River Rouge is a town that is 2 miles south of the Ford Rouge Complex. The Ford Rouge Complex was never called the River Rouge Plant. The complex is currently comprised of the Ford Dearborn Engine Plant, the Tool and Die Plant, Dearborn Stamping Plant, Dearborn Truck Plant and the Dearborn Diversified Products Plant. Co-located in the complex is the AK Steel Operations, which was formerly owned by Ford Motor Company.
Locals called it "The Rouge" The plant is located on the Rouge River however.
Very well done documentary with excellent narration by
Lowell Thomas. There seem to be many automated processes and great effeciencies for 1938 with only 28 hours from the unloading of iron ore from a lake freighter to a finished car rolling off the assembly line. The mass produced one piece casting of the V8 engine block is perhaps the first that I know of as V8 engine blocks from other companies were commonly cast in sections due to the complexity of a one piece V8 casting and then bolted together.
Even though Ford had many suppliers many aspects of production were still under the Ford umbrella.
Ford's Rouge plant had to have been one of the largest generators of wealth for all segments of society in the Detroit area.
It's too bad that American manufacturing is no longer protected by tariffs from unfair competition as it used to be from about 1800 to 1950.
And, “vertical integration.“
Detroit had the highest per capita income in that era of any metro area.
22:45 Sound testing a flathead V-8. A job I'd never get tired of.
It’s crazy that they could grow a garden at work!
My father moonlighted as an on call surgeon at the glass factory during the night shift several times a week for years and the worked at the VA Hospital during the day. Never saw my father much, as a doctor he worked his ass off during the 1960’s. He died at age 68 in 1990 from cancer.
What a man!!! A surgeon AND a production worker? That's Superman!
@@sociologynut8033 you did not understand my words. My father was a surgeon at the glass plant and was on site to sew up deep bleeding cuts sustained by a glass worker on the job. A bad flesh wound injury had little chance of surviving a trip to the ER back then.
Amazing. Everything manufactured in house. No (or very few) subcontractors. Looks like a very modern foundry in it's day.
Ford Manufacturing was about 10 -20 years ahead of the competition back then. The Ford cars were fairly simple but the factories were complex and very "state of the art" at the time. Your will always see a lot of testing and gauging fixtures in old Ford factory videos used to hold close tolerances you can not build a lot of cars quickly without good metrology. That is how Henry Ford could
make those cars for about $600 to $800. Look at the old pre ww2 Chevrolet plant videos and see those cars required more hand work to build.
A similar film to this one stated that the only component Ford did not make was the tires.
The early Ford subcontractors were the Dodge brothers who were board members at Ford but left to start their own company. Henry was so mad about it he built the Rouge to make almost everything himself.
@@robc8468 1925 Model T roadsters cost $250, NEW.
@@raoulcruz4404 Henry' s friend Harvey Firestone made them back then. And their friend Thomas Edison made...
They used to go on camping trips together.
I worked at Rouge the entire time I was at Ford. Worked almost every plant there at one time or another.
Amazing stuff! and not a computer in sight!
AMEN!
Three years after your comment.. But friend, there are a ton of computers in this film. They are of the mechanical type though, not electronic. They are analogue, not digital.
@@erikdevries9208 digital too.
I like the guy that just walks up to the engine on the dyno and puts his ear up to the rocker cover.
Ford always made its own glass. First, laminated safety glass, then thermally-tempered glass.
With so many terrible things going on in the world, we can forget that it is a glorious thing to be a human.
You need to read " the machine that changed the world" to truly understand the magnitude of what ford did
It’s truly amazing that Henry could have done so much in his lifetime. It’s all I can do to go to work and take care of the house
My first Ford was a 1952. Great little flathead engine. Quality has been hot and cold since then. My buddy George's dad told him if he didn't drop out and got his high school diploma, he would buy him any car he wanted. He chose my all time favorite, the 1964 Thunderbolt.
The Rouge plant is the reason Detroit became the industrial center of America. Ford actually wanted to build it in Alabama but the state did not give him the support he wanted. If they had, Alabama would have become a much different state.
Some of this is still available but might require a fee and maybe even a reservation, but its well worth the trouble. I encourage everyone to make the trip (check online for times, etc) and see the sites that show exactly how a vehicle is built in a plant where the raw material comes in one end and a complete vehicle rolls out the other; there's even a world-class Test Track behind those serpentine, high brick walls (we could see over them from our schoolbus windows).
back in the 60's in my high school some students were making much more than teachers on the night shift
Can you imagine 80,000 employees ? The size of this place for the times is mind blowing !
Most interesting, thanks for uploading this.
'42 Ford i
Even in Australia ,schoolchildren were shown through Ford factories on excursions .Such a shame today's kids wont experience the awe,size ,excitement and general buzz of a city of workers
whether on the tools or in a 600 person canteen at lunch..It made you want to work there.
Back in the 80s I worked at the Ford plant in Geelong, Australia. Great job, great products.
Car industry in Australia all ended in 2017. Australia is now little more than a quarry and a farm for China.
Oh well. Nothing lasts forever.
Many of my family worked there. Men, materials and machines made Detroit a industrial power house. The river rouge plant today is an empty relic of the storied past.