The Flivver King: A Story of Ford-America

Ford makes adjustments to his horseless carriage until he feels confident enough to take it out during the day. Once on the street, his car frightens horses, who “turn, regardless of shafts or wagon-tongues, and bolt for the open spaces” (10). The drivers of horse-drawn wagons become so upset that Ford goes to the mayor to seek a permit to drive his car and obtains the first driver’s license in the United States.

It is summer, and the neighborhood children rush to watch Ford’s horseless carriage as soon as they hear it start. Occasionally, the car stops, and the boys help to push it home. For Abner, this experience “was something he would talk about all the rest of his life” (11).

Ford improves his vehicle through trial and error: since the gas engine tends to melt itself, Ford designs a water-jacket to keep it cool; he also invents a pump to circulate the water and a fan for cooling it.

Ford’s contraption becomes a popular spectacle, heckled by cyclists, occasionally targeted by thieves, and treated more or less politely by the newspapers, who respect Ford because he appears serious and proper and is often accompanied by his wife. However, the city’s businessmen do not regard the car as a viable investment, even though Ford sells the first model for two hundred dollars and builds a quieter, faster second model.