Hi folks -- Leland wrote this paper for my HST 344 "The Automobile and American Life" class. Excellent work!
Henry
Ford and the Plastic Car
“Considerable interest has been
aroused [in Detroit] about reports of experiments conducted by the Ford Motor
Company with plastic materials for automobile bodies” reads a New York Times
article in 1940 (Callahan). What an exciting time at Ford with this potential major
change in its manufacturing process. With these new cars, any color could be
chosen for the body, the plastics would be see-through, and safety would be
higher than ever before, or so proclaimed the media. The predictions of the new
car on the market would turn out to be empty promises, and the project would
eventually be scrapped post-WW2. Why is this car made of soybeans, hemp, and
other crops so important then? Henry Ford with his “plastic car,” while
ultimately failing, provides key insights to the past, present, and future of the
automobile industry, as well as its use of agricultural products in production.
Henry Ford’s ties with
agriculture begins with his birth to a relatively prosperous farmer named
William Ford in Dearborn Michigan in 1863. His childhood was filled with both
farm life duties as well as mechanical devices such as watches and steam
engines (“Soybean Car”, 2016). From this childhood sprouted the lifelong
familiarity with and love for agriculture which Ford would later incorporate
into his automobile empire. Furthermore, his ingenuity and innovation with
mechanical devices and tools would couple perfectly with his market foresight
in helping him pave the way for his Model T. James Flink, automobile historian,
captures the historical magnitude of Ford’s impact in using the opening of
Ford’s Highland Park plant in 1910 as a stage marker in defining America’s
automobile consciousness. With its opening, Flink argues, America’s attitudinal
and institutional adjustments to the automobile came to full fruition (1972, p.
452). There was no going back; the automobile would be here to stay. The
question was, how would it evolve? Ford’s creative mind would not stop with
just his singular innovative success, though, and he would later aspire to
invent a car made from agricultural products – a plastic car.
The widespread use of
automobiles, as begun in the 1910s by Ford, was both harmful and beneficial to
farmers. While allowing them the freedom to bring their own goods to market, it
also ultimately killed the small family farm through the need for expensive
machinery and fertilizers to compete with large agriculture (Flink, 1972, pp.
456, 457, & 466). By the 1930s, however, Ford’s production of the
automobile was still friendly to agriculture, and Ford had plenty of
investments in the industry. In 1931, Ford bought over 3000 acres of Michigan
farm land, for the use of the crops as raw materials. This land usage was
increased in 1932 when Ford was planting a variety of crops in over 12,000
acres of purchased land (Shurtleff, 2011, p. 27). This seems to mark the
beginning of Ford’s investments into agriculture for relatively heavy use in
automobile production. In 1933, the production of the Ford Eight, for example,
used phenolic molded parts in ignition systems, horn buttons, hand throttle
parts, and other parts of the car (Shurtleff, 2011, p. 33). In 1935, “from the
fields, Ford [would] use 69 million lb of cotton, 500,000 bushels of corn, 2.4
million lb of linseed oil, [and] 2.5 million gallons of molasses from sugar
cane” (Shurtleff, 2011, p. 47). These materials were used for a variety of
applications, but most prominent among them was plastic molding, as would be
necessary for creating plastic panels. It was then no paradigm shift for Ford when
he wanted to utilize these same materials, but on a larger scale, for a
plastic-body automobile in the early 1940s. Innovative, yes, but on the whole
not outlandish or fundamentally unviable.
Leading up to the 1940s were a few years of growth for
the plastics industry. “Somewhere between 1935 and 1940 the infant U.S.
plastics industry turned a key corner. During those 5 years production nearly
doubled, and the number of plastics increased from 5 to 10.” (Shurtleff, 2011,
p. 105). Good news for Ford and his use of plastics in automobiles; however,
with the coming of the early 40s also came World War 2. This was a bit of a
blessing in disguise for the plastic car, in that the scarcity of metal forged
another motivation for using plastics in place of metal in automobiles. “The
latest step is timely,” William Callahan mentions about Ford’s foray into
plastics in his 1941 New York Times article, “since there has been some
question as to whether or not demands for steel for defense purposes and to
fill foreign war orders would not deplete the supply and cause a curtailment in
steel for automobiles” (Callahan, 1940). However, this motivational boost for
plastics would turn out to be sour, for on February 22, 1942, the production of
automobiles ceased as the American industry focused its attention on total war
against the axis powers (Heitmann, 2009, p. 119). No more automobiles meant no
more plastics research for automobiles either, as attention was turned to the
production of war-time machinery and weaponry. As it would later prove, the
plastic car project would not be picked up again after the war, and so Ford
would die in 1947 without his project ever reaching production.
What was this plastic car of
Ford’s, foretold to be “lighter, safer, and less expensive,” and which, in
production of 1,000,000 cars, would consume 170,000 tons of agricultural
products? (“Plastic Ford Lighter,” 1941; “The Plastic Car,” 1941). The design
was structured on a patented tubular steel chassis, which would serve as the base
for the plastic molded body (Ford, 1942). The plastic panels, as demonstrated
by Ford famously bouncing an axe off of them, would be comprised of refined
farm products. The fiber panel tested by Ford, in fact, “[weighed] about
one-half the steel panel, of the same pattern. It [was] composed of 70 per cent
fiber and 30 per cent soy resin binder. The fibrous element [was] compounded of
50 per cent southern flash pine fiber; 30 per cent field cereal straw; 10 per
cent cotton; and 10 per cent hemp.” (Shurtleff, 2011, p. 107). A car built of
such a material would be durable indeed, and would incorporate the agricultural
products promised.
Ford’s vision of a production
model plastic car fell short, however, leaving historians and enthusiasts
wondering why more “soybean” cars were not built. According the Ford Museum,
the reasons were mainly the aforementioned outbreak of World War 2 and its
suspension of auto production, as well as post-war recovery efforts leading to
the project falling through the cracks. But, is there more to the story? Was
the plastic car actually viable, or just an engineering nightmare? Was Henry
Ford nearing the end of his era, leaving his enthusiasm for agriculture
unpassed to his successors? New York Times author and SAE member Herbert Chase gave
insight to the former, as he was skeptical of the feasibility of plastics even
in March 1941. He claimed “there is little experience with really large
moldings and what there is leads to serious doubts. . . We know how to make
steel bodies which are low in cost and quite satisfactory for our purpose. . .
Why shift to something so problematical as a plastic body, especially as it is
likely to cost more?” Indeed, without a metal shortage post-WW2, the economics
of using plastic no longer worked out for Ford. Additionally, the economics of
raw materials would hardly be the only obstacle, as public acceptance,
conversion of manufacturing equipment, and a plethora of testing and design details
would need to be worked out as well. Taken together, the capital costs, lack of
interest besides Ford, and manufacturing issues with a brand new material took
down the plastic car. In the end, there were no real savings to be gotten from
using plastic for the automobile.
Does the plastic car have a
foreseeable future in the auto industry today? It might have a shot with
advancing technology; however, the same issues apply today as in the 40s, with
manufacturing capital costs, public acceptance, and working out design and
material details. Additionally, the cars would need to meet today’s higher
standards for safety. For example, while durable, stiff plastic panels are
unsafe for crashes, as crumple zones are necessary to reduce the impact force
on passengers. These factors reveal an underlying answer: the plastic car will
not be seen in the world of today. All hope for agricultural use in the auto
industry is not lost, though. Bioplastics and biofuels are edging their way
into industry, with innovations in polyethylene production as an example. One
company, Braskem, has found a way to produce “green polyethylene” – sourced
from sugarcane – that could serve as an alternative to petroleum-based
polyethylene. “The major
application [of polyethylene] will be in the automotive industry, where the
bioplastic will be used in injection and blow molding” (Phillips, 2008). Although
not exactly a complete plastic car, the use of agriculture-based plastics is a
step toward Ford’s vision for agricultural use for manufacturing. “And though
the technology is still new and the number of plants small, some companies are
also using catalysts or microwaves to convert the polymers into gasoline or
diesel,” giving another application, in recycling, for green plastics (Phillips,
2008). Although as Ford once stated “There's enough alcohol in one
year's yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to
cultivate the fields for one hundred years,” using food crops as a fuel source
may not be the best use of the nutrition with world hunger rampant (El-Mansi,
2011, p. 226). Instead of using
food crops for fuel, using sugarcane as a source (as with Braskem), and even
recycling the plastics for fuel would provide strength in diversifying fuel
sources for power-hungry Americans. With these emerging technologies, perhaps
Ford’s relationship attempts with agriculture and the auto industry may end in
marriage after all.
The Henry Ford plastic car may
not have been a success, but it certainly serves as a historical example of how
scarcity and constraints are amazing drivers of innovation. As American
automobile manufacturers drudged their feet throughout the second half of the
20th century with regard to innovation, Henry Ford stood up to the emerging
status quo of laziness with his plastics research. And as an important driver,
the expected shortage of metal due to WW2 pushed him to explore new possibilities.
Imagine the results from what the automobile industry could have done with the everyday
car given the right constraints and encouragement. Perhaps today’s emissions
and safety issues would be somewhat alleviated. No matter the perspective, Henry
Ford should be lauded for his efforts in researching and improving the
automobile, as he has provided key insights into the past, present, and future
of the automobile industry, and its potential marriage to agriculture, despite
his cars’ failure due to WW2, capital costs, and public apprehension.
References
Callahan, W.O. (1940, December 15). To Make Car of Plastic. The New York Times.
Chase,
H. (1941, March 30). Plastic Car Is Studied: Molded Body Panels Under Intensive
Research By Henry Ford. The New York
Times.
El-Mansi,
E.M.T., Bryce, C.F.A., Dahhou, B., Sanchez, S., Demain, A.L., and Allman, A.R.
(2011). Fermentation microbiology and biotechnology
(3rd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
F.L.S.
(1941, February 2). Plastic Car in Making: Colorful, Paintless Body May Replace
Steel for Defense. The New York Times.
Flink,
J.J. (1972). Three Stages of American Automobile Consciousness. American Quarterly, 24: 4, 451-473.
Ford,
H. and G.E.T. (1942). U.S. Patent Number 2269452.
Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Heitmann,
J.A. (2009). The Automobile and American
Life. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
Phillips,
A.L. (2008, March-April). American Scientist,
96: 2, 109.
“Plastic
Ford Lighter.” (1941, February 2). The
New York Times.
Shurtleff,
W., and Aoyagi, A. (2011). Henry Ford and
his Researchers – History of Their Work with Soybeans, Soyfoods and Chemurgy
(1928-2011): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook. Lafayette,
CA: Soyinfo Center.
“The
Plastic Car.” (1941, August 17). The New
York Times.