Everybody knows that Henry Ford put the world on wheels with its Model T. But one realises somewhat less that with this car, Ford also learned the world the convenience of (semi)automatic transmissions.

The « T » also lovingly called the "Tin Lizzie" and the "Flivver", was equipped with a planetary gear type transmission. It had two speeds forward, and one reverse.

A three pedal affair…

Stepping into the Model T, you see three pedals on the floor, and a long lever at your left hand side.

Indeed, one controls the Model T's transmission with these three foot pedals and this lever.

The throttle is opened or closed with a lever on the steering wheel. You press the left pedal to engage the gear. When you press it fully to the floorboard the car enters low gear. When you hold the pedal in an intermediate position the car is in neutral. You can also do this when you pull the floor-mounted lever upright.

If you push the lever forward holding the left pedal in the intermediate position, and then take your foot off this left pedal, the Model T enters top gear. You can cruise with the Model T in all elegance without having to press any of the pedals, just moving the throttle lever up and down when you have to slow down or accelerate.

On open roads, you just keep the throttle lever in a fixed position, and presto, you drive in perfect cruise control! This is why you can see the actors in old still movies wildly gesticulating and talking, barely holding the steering wheel, wave hats, perform all sorts of acrobatics, with the T Ford unerringly continuing its path!

Simplicity: The steering wheel column had only two small levers...  

There was no separate clutch pedal, and therefore we can say that the Model T was a true (semi) automatic car…

The two levers can clearly be seen here...  

The middle pedal was used to engage reverse gear, it has also a large "R" letter embossed on it. The tall right pedal operates the engine brake, and it bears the letter "B" .

The floor lever also controls the parking brake, you just pull the lever all the way back.

"Tin Lizzy" could also play some (dirty) tricks: the drive bands of the planetary transmission could become maladjusted, and this could cause the car to creep, especially when the engine was still cold and had to be kept revving somewhat higher than usual. This was the favourite scene in slapstick movies where you see the unhappy hero just having cranked the engine almost being run over or chased by the T Ford chugging slowly along without a driver!

This maladjustment was extremely rare however, and will never happen on a "T" which has seen a hint of proper maintenance.

The T Fords were built to last: all the transmission gears were made of (everlasting) vanadium steel, and indeed, as you can see on the photos, they are gallantly surviving still 80 years later…

Celebration…

To emphasize the ingenuity and the longevity of Ford engineering, the people of Ford Motor Company Belgium organised an event with modern-day Ford automatic vehicles and an array of T-Fords.

They were brought to the premises and surroundings of the Kasteel Van Rullingen, showing how Henry Ford brought motoring to the masses, without the fuss of double declutching and crashing gearboxes…

Hans Knol ten Bensel