I learned this fact on an old ass PC game of Jeopardy when I was a kid. Specifically the quote Ford said:
“You can get it in any color you want, as long as it’s black.”
“Any color the customer wants, as long as it’s black.”
Submitted 1 day ago by PugJesus@piefed.social to historymemes@piefed.social
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Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 day ago Zephorah@discuss.online 1 day ago
I learned it on the PC game Civilizations.
PugJesus@piefed.social 1 day ago
Explanation: As one of the time/cost-saving measures to produce a car cheap enough for ordinary American consumers, one of the restrictions implemented by industrialist Henry Ford was that the (soon-to-be-famous) Model T car would be produced only in black. By minimizing the variations needed to be produced, the assembly line could churn out completed products just a little bit faster, and thereby decrease the cost (or increase the profit margin) just a little bit more.
lime@feddit.nu 1 day ago
this is a factoid, even if it is straight from the horse’s mouth. ford wrote in his autobiography that he said this in 1909, but the model t was originally only available in grey, green, blue, and red. in 1912 they took away the choice of color and sold two-tone t’s painted dark blue with black fenders. they only started with the black in 1914, after five years of production.
arrow74@lemmy.zip 18 hours ago
So partially true? Seems like as the business grew eventually it was black only to further optimize production
Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s not the worst idea. In the modern world, people can paint or wrap their car afterward if it’s important to them. Also, if all cars came out white by default, it might slightly increase the albedo of parking lots.
stoy@lemmy.zip 21 hours ago
Albedo?
AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works 18 hours ago
How much heat/light is reflected by a surface. Asphalt absorbs a fuckton of heat (thus a low albedo) and releases it slowly at night which is why cities are so much warmer than less paved areas.