Yes, Tin Lizzie Was an Alcoholic

May 01, 2019

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by Marc J. Rauch (The Auto Channel) Correcting Bad Revisionist History About Ford's Model T Automobile -- The most venerated automobile of all time is Henry Ford's Model T. Nicknamed "Tin Lizzie," "Leapin' Lena," and sometimes "Flivver," the Model T went into production in 1908 and the last models rolled off the assembly line in 1927. The vehicle was a success everywhere in the world it was sold because it made owning a car affordable to the masses for the first time. It was reliable, durable, and replacement parts were available as needed.

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A part of the Model T's ubiquitous appeal to people around the world (even if it was not openly advertised as such) was that it was designed to run on different fuels, something that several other automobiles of the day were capable of doing (I purposely differentiate between "designed for," and "capable of").₁

In today's terminology this multiple fuel feature is closer to what we call "flex fuel" or what the Brazilians call "total fuel" because they have blends all the way up to E100.

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The same can be said for the UK's "petrol," which for at least six decades meant both a petroleum based engine fuel without ethanol, and petroleum based engine fuel with ethanol in it.

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In a 1998 white paper released in concert with the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the document provides background information in which they state, "Henry Ford was the first American automobile manufacturer to see the potential of ethanol as a fuel in the early 1900s. Many of his early...automobiles were capable of operating on ethanol fuel rather than gasoline."

• Jeffrey and Adrian Goettemoeller's 2007 book SUSTAINABLE ETHANOL contains the following passage on page 12: "In 1908, Henry Ford equipped his Model T with engines capable of running on ethanol, gasoline, or a combination of the two."

• In 2008, Andrew English, Motoring Correspondent for The Telegraph publications wrote a story celebrating the centennial of the Model T and he stated "It was originally designed to run on bio ethanol."

• On the webpage of the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration website, headlined BIOFUELS: ETHANOL AND BIODIESEL EXPLAINED, it states: "In 1908, Henry Ford designed his Model T, a very early automobile, to run on a mixture of gasoline and alcohol. Ford called this mixture the 'fuel of the future'."

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• The United States History for Kids website states, "Henry Ford and Model T Fact 19... The cars were flexible as to the quality or type of fuel it used...The engine was capable of running on gasoline, kerosene, or ethanol."

• On the Historic Vehicles Association website, they state that "Henry Ford produced the Model T. As a flexible fuel vehicle, it could run on ethanol, gasoline, or a combination of the two."

• In January 2011, Consumer Reports published a report on their website about ethanol. Their comments were right to the point: "The idea of running cars on ethanol is not new. Henry Ford designed the first Model T to run on ethanol so that farmers could produce their own fuel."

• Cole Gustafson, a biofuels economist at North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D., stated "Ethanol...fueled Henry Ford’s Model T in 1908."

• David Blume, author of ALCOHOL CAN BE A GAS and perhaps the world's leading overall expert on ethanol fuel, routinely refers to Henry Ford's intentional design of the Model T as a multi-fuel vehicle. As he told Jonathan Williams of the Wrestling With Pop Culture website in 2014, "The Model T, Henry Ford’s first (assembly line) production car, ran on both alcohol and gasoline...You just turned a couple of knobs and levers inside the cab of the car and you’d be running on alcohol."

• The History Channel states that the Model T "...could go as fast as 40 miles per hour and could run on gasoline or hemp-based fuel." ₃

• The ZME Science website describes the Tin Lizzie like this: "The Model T could also run on gas, grain alcohol, or ethanol. Farmers could easily distill their own fuel and use Ford’s vehicle as they pleased, without having to depend on gas supply which was rather scarce."

• In 2017, JEFF Zurschmeide wrote an article for EngineLabs website titled, HISTORIC ENGINES – THE FORD MODEL T. He wrote, "Because of the extremely basic design of the Model T engine, owners could run the car on gasoline, kerosene, or grain alcohol (pure ethanol). This “multifuel” capability was also done by design, to allow farmers to create their own fuel with excess corn. You can literally run a Model T on Moonshine!"

• On the FordModelT.net website of Australian automotive writer Mitch Taylor, he writes "The engine was capable of running on petrol, kerosene, or ethanol..."

• And, just a few months ago, in December 2018, automotive historian Jon Branch published a story about the Model T in which he wrote, "The engine was made so it could use fuels in common use in rural areas. Kerosene was a common fuel for farm tractors and stationary engines, ethanol was a home grown alcohol which was moderately popular until it became unavailable with the advent of the Prohibition era in 1919. So Prohibition didn’t just prevent human beings from drinking alcohol, it stopped Fords from drinking it too."

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In a story written by Daniel Strohl, "Fact Check: Henry Ford didn’t design the Model T as a multi-fuel vehicle," Mr. Strohl lays out why he and Hemmings feel that the Model T was not designed to run on any fuel other than gasoline. I'll be breaking their story down in a moment, but their position, I think, is simply encapsulated in the last sentence of the first paragraph: "...we’ve found no evidence that Ford designed the Model T to run on any fuel other than gasoline." This story was published on the Hemmings' website on April 23, 2017, almost exactly two years ago.

This Hemmings' story has led other individuals and entities to accept the conclusion that the Model T was not a multi-fuel vehicle. One such entity is a website called GREEN CAR REPORTS (not to be confused with the older, more established and credible entity GREEN CAR JOURNAL). The Green Car Reports story is titled "Alt-fuel history: Ford Model T wasn't designed for multiple fuels, really." It was written by Sean Szymkowski, and was published online five days after the Hemmings Motor News story. Mr. Szymkowski's opinion can be summed up with the two sentences: "Even those old-timers who have owned a Model T will likely rattle off a laundry list of fuels used, but Hemmings Motor News has utterly debunked the myth once and for all. After a bit of research, it turns out there is no conclusive evidence to affirm the Model T was meant to run on such fuels as ethanol or kerosene."

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I would like to point out that about four years before Hemmings published this "Model T Ford was not a multi-fuel car" story, they published a story titled "Cars of Futures Past – Ford Model T," which was written by Kurt Ernst (now Editor of Hemmings Daily - Hemmings' website). This story very definitely took the position that the Model T was designed as a multi-fuel car. The exact quote from the article is: "Ford designed the Model T to have multi-fuel flexibility, giving it the capability of running on gasoline, kerosene or ethanol."

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1. Henry Ford's first vehicle, his Quadricycle, which was built in 1896 ran on an alcohol (ethanol) fuel. Clearly Ford knew about alcohol being a good engine fuel.

2. Ford was raised on a farm, he understood about using crops as fuels. When Henry Ford introduced his first production automobiles there were no public fueling stations. He knew businesses and homeowners could make their own ethanol - but they could not make their own gasoline - and it was this knowledge that allowed Ford’s business model to become viable.)

3. Ethanol was used successfully as the premium fuel in motor sports around the world in the late 1800's and early 1900's (and, of course, in very recent times). Ford was involved in racing in the years prior to the introduction of the Model T - he built race cars. So, Ford and his designers were aware of ethanol's superior characteristics as a fuel.

4. In 1907, Congress removed the big tax on alcohol production that had been in place for more than 40 years. Henry Ford was well aware of the Congressional Hearings that were taking place in 1906 that led to the passage of the bill to remove the alcohol tax. We know Ford was aware of the Congressional Hearings because he references them in newspaper interviews.

5. As a result of the tax repeal, the price of alcohol fell below the price of gasoline. Since the Model T was supposed to be the car for the masses - an inexpensive car - how could Ford not want his car for the masses to be able to utilize whatever was the least expensive and most convenient fuel for drivers to obtain? (At the time, gasoline wasn't available everywhere, and gasoline stations didn't start to pop up around America and the world until after 1907).

6. Testimony had been presented at the "Free Alcohol" Congressional Hearings in 1906 about the successful wide spread use of alcohol as a passenger car engine fuel in Europe, and the potential importance it could have here.

7. The Model T was intended to be sold around the world, and it was as successful in other countries as it was in America. Europe and parts of Asia had even less access to petroleum oil and gasoline in those days than people in America. England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia, etc., used ethanol and ethanol blends as engine fuels. Around this time it was illegal to use gasoline in Spain. The Model T had to be able to function at optimum levels in all countries, the flexible capability made it possible.

8. In 1907-08 the U.S. Navy and U.S. Department of the Interior (Geological Survey) conducted over 2,000 tests on ethanol fuel. They found ethanol to be comparable or better than gasoline. Henry Ford knew of this.

9. It was believed that there was very finite availability of crude oil. Having a vehicle that could use more than one type of fuel was a great benefit.

10. Watch the video below of David Blume demonstrating how the Model T would work. The Hemmings' people say that despite the mythical claim that a switch would change the car from running on gasoline to running on alcohol, there isn't a switch like that. David coincidentally confirms this, but what he does show are the two cockpit adjustment controls that did allow for the switch from gasoline to alcohol. David describes the purposes of these controls (one to adjust timing, the other to adjust the air-fuel mixture). WATCH VIDEO

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11. Throughout the decades of the 1890's, the 1900's, and the 1910's there was a plethora of newspaper and magazine articles reporting on alcohol as a fuel and as an anti-freeze. My guess is that, percentage wise, more people in 1907 may have known that alcohol could be used as a fuel than people in 2007. Ford was not the only car company testing alcohol as fuel (and finding success), Pierce Arrow, Franklin, and Maxwell were some of the others. (Detroit Free Press, March 17, 1907, page 21)

12. Hemmings says that the Henry Ford comment about alcohol being the "fuel of the future" doesn't count as being proof that the Model T was a multi-fuel vehicle because it was made in 1925, near the end of the Model T's production run. However, it's irrelevant when Ford might have made that statement - in 1925 or at any time - because at least as early as 1906, Henry Ford did make statements such as "Alcohol will revolutionize the American industrial situation." And nothing says "Alcohol is the fuel of the future" better than saying that alcohol fuel will revolutionize everything. And this statement was made two years BEFORE the introduction of the Model T, not seventeen years after. (The Pittsburgh Post, June 10, 1906, page 28; Abilene Daily Chronicle, June 11, 1906, front page: and Ft. Wayne Journal, June 17, 1906, page 20)

Furthermore, the initial reference to any such specific words that "Alcohol is the fuel of the future," by Henry Ford, may come from a 1917 newspaper story written by journalist Frank G. Carpenter about Henry Ford's new Model T tractor and its value as a farm tool. The sub-headline of the article includes the phrase "Alcohol the fuel of the future." In the story itself, the journalist asks Ford or a Ford spokesperson about the cost of fuel. The reply is: "I doubt whether gasoline will be the tractor fuel of the future. Kerosene is now being used...and in the future the fuel will probably be alcohol and it will be made on the farm." (Capper's Weekly, January 5, 1918, page 7) The significance is that, once again, Ford's alcohol fuel planning didn't come as an afterthought at the end of the Model T passenger car era.

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13. Hemmings places great emphasis on the carburetor information (or what they think is a lack of carburetor information) that is contained in Bruce McCalley's book MODEL T FORD: THE CAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD. As included earlier, Hemmings' position is that despite there being thirteen or more different carburetors used in the Model T over its years in production, that Mr. McCalley never mentions even one carburetor that was designed to run on anything other than gasoline. Using the "optics" of today's obsessive child-proof labeling Hemmings thinks this "argument from ignorance" means that the 13-plus carburetors were incapable of working with anything but gasoline.

Well, in January 1907, the trade industry publication THE POWER WAGON featured a story on page 26 titled "Prof. Lucke's Alcohol Tests." The sub-headline of the story is "Columbia University Professor Says Present Carburetters May be Used for the New Fuel." Putting aside the funny way they spelled 'carburetors,' the story makes an incredible announcement. Here's some of what the story states: "Some time ago Professor Lucke of Columbia University was appointed by the national government to investigate the possibilities of denatured alcohol as a fuel for internal combustion engines. After many experiments he reports, contrary to general expectation, that alcohol may be used to advantage in the ordinary type of carburetter and without any alterations in its structure... All of the professor's experiments were conducted with 1906 engines**... In driving it is found that the alcohol explodes better when the spark is carried well advanced and the needle valve in the carburetter well open...Thumping in the engine, due to pre-ignition when gasoline is used, is not noticed with alcohol. In fact, intense heat and an advanced spark even in very hot weather all tend to assist the new fuel to act. Thus it can be seen hill climbing in summer with air-cooled motors will be made easy."

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14. Victor Wilfred Pagé was a well known expert on automobiles. He was an inventor, car designer and builder, mechanical engineer, and author of more than a dozen automotive technical books and manuals.

The 1918 edition of his book THE MODERN GASOLINE ENGINE - ITS DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE was an expanded edition to more than 1,000 pages owing to the technological information that had been developed during the First World War (1914-1917). Chapter V - the fifth chapter, beginning on page 349 - discusses liquid fuels, one of which is alcohol. Pagé writes that its use was mostly in countries other than the U.S. and Russia (they had control of their own petroleum oil). On page 355, he states that "some authorities contend that alcohol will be the fuel of the future."

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Victor Wilfred Pagé was also an experienced owner of a Ford Model T. In 1915, Pagé began writing books that were specific to the Model T. ...

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Among the liquids that can be combined with air and burned, gasoline is the most common and is the fuel utilized by the majority of internal combustion engines employed in self-propelled conveyances."

So, in other words, the Ford Model T was designed to be a multi-fuel vehicle. Yes, gasoline was the most common, no one is arguing that, but Ford engineers were familiar with other liquids that could do the job. What might those other liquids be? Kerosene, alcohol, and benzol of course. The fact that Henry Ford believed in "farm fuels" means that his logical choice was alcohol - or as we call it today: Ethanol.

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While certain persons alive today working for Hemmings Motor News and Green Car Reports might be hard pressed to consider that the carburetors of a century ago could easily handle more than just gasoline (as they do today, by the way, because all carburetor and fuel injected vehicles can easily handle E10, E15, E20, E25, E30 and higher).

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15. If you want to talk about an exhaustive and authoritative book on a specific subject, THE FORBIDDEN FUEL - A HISTORY OF POWER ALCOHOL must be included. This book was originally published in 1982. It was written by Hal Bernton, William Kovarik, and Scott Sklar. You'll recall that I brought up Professor Bill Kovarik's name a few pages ago. This book, as the title suggests, presents the most thorough history of alcohol fuel.

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DIRECT EVIDENCE

1. The following quote is from the Washington Post article sent to me by Bill Kovarik. It's dated May 22, 1906, page 8 (two years BEFORE the introduction of the Model T):

"WITH THE AUTOMOBILISTS - In anticipation of the passage of the act permitting the manufacture of "denatured" alcohol free, Henry Ford the Detroit automobiles manufacturer, is preparing to meet the new conditions with an automobile that will use the new fuel instead of gasoline. For several weeks past the well-appointed laboratory and experimental force of the Ford Company have been conducting exhaustive experiments to determine the best type of carburetor, or mixing valve, for vaporizing alcohol for internal combustion motors."
This same basic story appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, May 20, 1906 (two days before the Wash. Post story) on page 6; as well as in several other cities around the country.

2. From Detroit Free Press, June 11, 1906, page 9:

"ALCOHOL MOTOR CARS - Big Plant to Manufacture Them is Being Planned - Will be Located in Detroit - Henry Ford Will Head The Company...Enterprise is Result of Passage of Denaturized Alcohol Bill - Ford has also made exhaustive experiments with alcohol as fuel for internal combustion motors and has been very secretive about the positive results of these experiments." This same basic story appeared in multiple cities around America.

3. From Ft. Wayne Journal-Gazette, June 17, 1906, page 20:

"FORD SAYS FREE ALCOHOL WILL REVOLUTIONIZE AMERICAN INDUSTRIES...During the past three years Ford has devoted all his leisure time, a great deal of thought and research, not only to the invention of motors that will use alcohol as fuel, but to the study of the production of alcohol itself." Same basic story appeared in multiple cities around America.

4. For several years, until a design change was made around 2008, the Ford Motor Company website included a section on Environmental Vehicles, which included Fuel Cell Vehicles, Hybrid Vehicles, and Ethanol Vehicles. The Ethanol Vehicles webpage states: "Vehicles fueled by ethanol actually use E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Ford's interest in using ethanol as an alternative fuel goes back to the days of Henry Ford. Ford planned to use ethanol as the primary fuel for his Model T..."

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5. On May 30, 2006, the Louisville Courier-Journal ran a story on page D3 about Dogwood Energy, a small distillery making ethanol for fuel. The spokesman for the company told the reporter, "Using ethanol to power cars isn't new. The Model T was originally built to run on alcohol." This newspaper report fueled (pun intended) some controversy with members of the Model T Ford Club of America, who describe themselves as the world's largest Model T fan club. The group is located in Richmond, Indiana - a couple of hours north of Louisville. A club executive contacted the newspaper to check that information. The newspaper contacted Ford Motor Company and asked if the story was true. The newspaper subsequently published the following: "According to Ford spokeswoman Kristen Kinley, Henry Ford's first four-wheel engine-powered vehicle, the quadracycle, ran strictly on ethanol in 1896. When it was released in 1908, the Model T could run on either gasoline or ethanol or a combination thereof. As the market embraced petroleum, Ford stopped producing vehicles that could run on either fuel and focused on gasoline engines. But the first few years of Model Ts could run on either fuel."

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If you take a look at the monthly Hemmings magazine (and now the "cars for sale" section of their website), it's full of these cars - remember, this is how I found my 1956 Bentley S1 thirty five years ago. What I didn't know when I bought the Bentley was that it may very well have run on Cleveland Discol power alcohol or KoolMotor power alcohol (the two major UK brands owned by Standard Oil and Cities Service, respectively) for some or all of the 28 years that it was driving the roads in England. When I picked up the car at the docks in California, it was not in perfect condition - but then I didn't buy it in perfect condition. However, when I turned the key the car started and I immediately drove it many miles away to my home. The Bentley was my primary personal vehicle for the next 20+ years. The point is that if my car might have been powered by ethanol then the same would be true for literally thousands and thousands of European vehicles manufactured between the years 1900 and 1970 that must have been sold through Hemmings. The bottom line is that if ethanol is so bad for internal combustion engines, where are all the thousands of reports complaining about the damage. And if ethanol was so damaging, then why did Standard Oil, ESSO, Cities Service and other leading oil/gasoline companies sell this power alcohol fuel in Europe as being cleaner, safer, more powerful, higher MPG, and less expensive than ethanol-free gasoline?

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In 1906, prior to the passage of the Free Alcohol Act, Henry Ford spoke about alcohol fuel and the predatory nature of Standard Oil in a newspaper interview. He praised alcohol as a coming boon to rural and urban industries. Then, addressing the issue of long term alcohol fuel availability, Ford said: "No immense plant is necessary - no costly machinery. It is not even necessary to manufacture it (alcohol fuel) on a large scale. Every farmer can afford to make enough for his own individual use...And he can make it as he does butter - cheaper, considering his leisure at certain seasons, than can a factory competitor. There can never be a monopoly of the alcohol industry. To control the output of the sale of this product, the Standard Oil Trust would have to own every farm in the Unites States, obviously impossible." (The Daily Standard, June 22, 1906, page 3)

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The year 1907 was a pivotal year. ... Second, it was the year in which the Free Alcohol Act took effect, which rescinded the onerous tax that had been placed on alcohol production more than 40 years earlier. Almost immediately the price of alcohol fell below the price of gasoline in America for the first time ever. And then in one year's time, Henry Ford would introduce the Model T, which revolutionized the automobile industry, it became the best selling car in the world, and IT COULD RUN ON ALCOHOL. As the many, many, many newspaper articles of the years between 1900 and the start of Prohibition point out, alcohol was being looked upon as the fair-haired child because it was cleaner, safer, and more powerful in internal combustion engines than gasoline or kerosene.

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Although new oil discoveries in the western U.S. would cause the price of gasoline to fall back below the price of alcohol fuel, alcohol was still priced close enough to be a problem.

The First World War presented a new problem for gasoline producers, especially Standard Oil and its "baby Standards" (the newly formed companies that resulted from Standard Oil's conviction of violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Law in 1911). The Germans were winning the air war in Europe, with planes fueled with alcohol-gasoline blends, proving the blends' superiority over straight gasoline. And the war pushed the need for bigger, faster internal combustion engine vehicles with high compression engines. Gasoline caused engine knock, which in turn limited the production and consumer acceptance of modern cars and trucks. The only known solution at that time was to use alcohol or alcohol-gasoline blends.

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In a September 1916 newspaper interview, a reporter asked Henry Ford if Standard Oil had interfered with the development and progress of alcohol as a fuel in the years since the passage of the Free Alcohol Act. Ford responded: "Sure, certain people have seen to that. Such a fuel would put gasoline out of business." READ MORE