"Rattling like a Ford"

Factual Questions
1

I’m reading The Royal Book of Oz, the first Oz book published after L. Frank Baum’s death, written by Ruth Plumly Thompson and published in 1921. In one scene, Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, and a knight in armor named Sir Hokus of Pokes are on a moving road. The three protagonists are described as thrown “flat upon their backs” as the road starts moving “at a terrifying speed”. The description mentions Sir Hokus “whose armor was rattling like a Ford”.

I’m curious about that last phrase. I assume the reference is to the Ford automobile, and in particular, the Model T, since I think in 1921 that was the only Ford car on the market, and that had been the case for over a decade. I wonder if Thompson used the Ford in the simile because the Model T had a specific reputation for rattling, or simply because all cars of that era rattled, but the Model T would be best known to her largely American readers. And how rattle-prone was it? I haven’t heard before that cars of that era were particularly known for rattling, but I haven’t really read a lot about such early cars.

2

Looking around I found this comparison between a Model T and an electric car of the same era. It’s not an exact comparison because the electric car was designed and built for rich folkks in cities, but this description of driving the Model T is a clue.

Contrast that with the Model T, which is louder than we expected and vibrates like the bed at an hourly-rate motel. The T has plenty of low-end torque, and you can get away quickly if you leave it in Low range and race the engine, but the rigmarole of shifting into high gear slows things down. Top speed largely depends on the condition of the car and the nerve of the driver: 40 mph is possible, but the Model T is a handful at even half that speed, thanks to fast-and-loose steering, excessive body lean even at a parking-lot pace (like the Detroit Electric, the T lacks shock absorbers and anti-roll bars), and freight-train-like stopping distances. Driving fast is not for the faint of heart nor the weak of bladder.

An article from Car and Driver talks about the T’s engine emitting “a lively rumble” which, combined with wind noise, makes the driver have to shout to be heard.

I suspect the Model T might not have been the most rickety car available in 1921, but, as you note,. the T was known to many people, and certainly appears to have been noisy enough to make the simile appropriate.

3

I got a ride in a “T” about 20-ish years ago. The thing I remembered before even getting in it, and as the owner opened the hood and showed me the engine at my request, I was amazed at how much the machine shook and shuddered at idle. It had a fast offbeat idle; the firing pulses were not evenly spaced. At each “beat” the car literally sprung up and down on its suspension and made a rattling sound like a coffee can with a few nuts and bolts inside being shaken.

As the engine speed increased it actually smooths out though in both sound and feel, with the exhaust note making the dull drone 4 cylinder engines make. Rolling along the gear noise dominates more than anything else, to my ear anyway. I definitely identify with the above comment of not testing the top speed. Though I never drove it, it seemed like 15 to 20 mph lend it a “OK, this is fast enough” feeling, and anything more would make any sensible person uneasy.

4

I had always heard the Tin Lizzy rattled because given the relative inexpensiveness of the build and using the assembly line, the tolerances of the body parts was fairly wide.

5

As an aside, it’s fascinating to me how electric & gasoline cars served different markets in the 1920s, with the gasoline being the car “of the people” and the electrics being “upmarket”. We seem to have come back full circle to that scenario today (though admittedly electrics are steadily getting cheaper and more common.)

6

Here is my Model T going down the road.

Hopefully this will upload correctly. Note that the video gets reversed/mirrored when my son flips the camera to the inside view.

7

I think whoever wrote that doesn’t have much experience driving a Model T.

This part is true. A Model T is a lot louder and vibrates a lot more than a modern car.

That’s a horrible way to get the thing going. This is what makes me think they don’t have any experience. This is how a newbie gets a Model T going.

It actually doesn’t, and I can tell from this that they are doing it wrong.

To get a Model T going, you release the hand brake (on the left side of the seat) to the halfway position to release the brake, but the half position prevents the Model T from shifting into high gear. Now release the brake pedal (the one all the way on the right) and push down on the left pedal to engage the low gear clutch, while adjusting the timing and throttle levers on the steering column (nothing is where you think it should be if you are used to a modern car).

Once you are moving, push the handbrake lever (on your left) all the way down. This is what the driver of that article did not do. Now you have to be careful though, because releasing the low gear clutch (the left pedal) will put the Model T into high gear, so if you want to stop you have to keep the left pedal pressed halfway down to keep it in “neutral”. At this point, pushing the left pedal makes the Model T go forward (in low gear) and pushing the right pedal makes it stop since that is the brake. Pushing and holding down the middle pedal gives you reverse.

If you have done this, then the “rigmarole” of shifting into high gear is simply to release the left pedal (somewhat slowly - it’s a clutch).

If you are a newbie who doesn’t know what he’s doing, you leave the handbrake in the middle position, then left pedal is forward and right pedal is stop, and you can let either pedal out without issue. But then to shift into high gear you have to push the handbrake lever all the way down first. Pushing the handbrake down while letting out the left pedal slowly and keeping the throttle and timing adjusted is a bit of a rigmarole. It’s a lot easier if you don’t have to fiddle with the handbrake while doing the gear change.

The problem for newbies is that if you have the handbrake all the way down, then you need to push the left pedal halfway in to get neutral. If you forget this and try to stop by releasing the left pedal and stomping on the right pedal, you’ve just engaged high gear while simultaneously stomping on the brake, which is going to make you come shuddering to a halt and stall the engine. Reverse is also a bit difficult for newbies since you have to keep the left pedal halfway down while using your right food to either press the right pedal to stop or the center pedal to engage the reverse clutch. It’s easier for newbies to keep the handbrake in the halfway position. Then they don’t have to worry about the left pedal so much. To go forward, press the left pedal. To reverse, press the center pedal. To stop, press the right pedal. But you can’t get into high gear without putting the handbrake all the way down.

Once you get used to driving around in low gear with the handbrake all the way down, then stopping is right pedal down (brake) and left pedal halfway (neutral). To start moving, just release the right pedal and push the left pedal in. Once you get going fast enough, to switch to high gear you just release the left pedal. You have to be conscious of the throttle and timing while doing this, but it’s fairly easy to do once you get used to it.

Meh. 20 mph is no biggie unless you are on a really crappy road. 30 mph isn’t that bad. 40 mph feels a bit squirrely though, I’ll give you that one.

This is one of the reasons it starts to feel uncomfortable once you get above 30 to 35 mph.

This is the other reason. It’s very top-heavy with a very high center of gravity, and like they said it lacks shock absorbers and anti-roll bars. A Model T has a fairly nice ride on a smooth road. On a bumpy road it will shake you back and forth quite a bit. Then you definitely will experience what “rattling like a Ford” feels like.

The brake on a Model T is a transmission brake, not a wheel brake. It literally tensions a clutch band in the transmission. Compared to a modern car, the Model T’s brake sucks. Calling it “freight-train-like stopping distances” though is a bit of an exaggeration. I drive my Model T through town quite a bit. It keeps up with 30 mph traffic just fine (though it doesn’t take much of a hill to slow it down) and I have to leave a bit more room between me and the car in front of me. But as long as I leave an extra car length or two in front of me it’s no biggie. I don’t have to panic at stop lights or anything like that.

I think that particular Model T needed a tune-up. :slight_smile:

They definitely don’t run anywhere near as smooth as a modern car, but it shouldn’t be that bad.