Rest of the Story

[Chris Haynes]

When the workers were cleaning up Greenfield Village for Ford's 100th in 2003 they found a lot of lost things. In the basement of the Thomas Edison lab they found several first design V8 blocks. These were never put into production and were strictly prototypes. I heard they were going to assemble one for the museum. I haven't been back since so I don't know if it got done or not.

[Joe K]

Originally Posted by daren007

Many manufacturers used a planetary transmission in the early 1900's

As did many machine tool manufacturers. Henry is reported to have come up with the 3 speed planetary for the original (early) Model A after studying a Flather Lathe 3 speed gearbox. https://www.charlesrivermuseum.org/f...4-engine-lathe and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_M...903%E2%80%9304)


Joe K

[rotorwrench]

Henry didn't like the gear cruncher sliding gear design, He had used planetary 2-speeds since the beginning so he really didn't want to go that way. In 1932, they used the first partially synchronized set up so they just kept making that better over time.

[Mulletwagon]

Originally Posted by 40 Deluxe

Shouldn't that be WINTER home in Florida? This was before air conditioning so Florida was a hot humid place full of bugs. I have often read of Henry and family going South during the winter, but not summer, as best I recall. I'm still thinking this story is more legend than fact.

Close. The exact description is "winter estate".

https://www.edisonfordwinterestates.org/