110 Years ago today

[dafischer]

The Model T Ford made it's debut.




Damn thing was responsible for our automotive addictions.

[vash]

i was -58 years old

but i was ready to drive.

[GH85Carrera]

For sure it put lots of buggy whip makers, harness and saddle makers out of business.

And it improved the pollution of the streets in big cities by untold orders of magnitude.

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/cities-paved-dung-urban-design-great-horse-manure-crisis-1894/




Try to imagine the smell of dead horses, and tons of manure (literal TONS) in the streets.

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

For sure it put lots of buggy whip makers, harness and saddle makers out of business.

And it improved the pollution of the streets in big cities by untold orders of magnitude.

I'm sure the PARF'ers of the time were posting (via telegraph)

• gasoline cars don't have the range of horse
• what if you end up in some Iplace that doesn't have gasoline?
• It takes too long to fill up a gasoline car
• you're not really reducing pollution, you're re-locating it
• Henry Ford is a scam artist sucking on the government teat
• gasoline cars are too expensive
• who wants to be running around with a tank full of explosive liquid?

Try to imagine the smell of dead horses, and tons of manure

I take it you haven't been to PARF lately

[legion]

Sorry, Thom, but early cars were instantly superior to horses.

-They could go further without rest.
-They stayed where you left them.
-They did not require massive amounts of food and water
-They did not produce manure.
-Their fuel was cheap and widely available.
-They always went where you steered them.
-They didn't chase after girl horses.

They didn't require decades of development and subsidies to get to the point of arguable parity in a limited set of cases either. They were superior from day one, got more so over time, and the price fell as well.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by widebody911

I'm sure the PARF'ers of the time were posting (via telegraph)


Snip





I take it you haven't been to PARF lately

I do not have a smell-a-vision card, just video.

[legion]

Although, I imagine that New York City smelled better when it just smelled like horse manure.

[dafischer]

Yeah, without the stench of DiBlasio and Cuomo.

[svandamme]

And it took another 56 years before Fords became sentient and started their attempts at killing off humans..

[john70t]

(^lol)

The Model T was affordable to the common layman, simple and easy to work on, could do some serious off-roading when needed, and got 25mpg.
Today we still strive to fill those shoes.