Show fords discovery of vanadium steel told one ol of the most interesting chapters lit in the early history of 0 the ford motor company according to mr air al J warner ford dealer Is the account of henry fords discovery of 0 ya vanadium nadium steel the material was discovered quite br by accident relates mr warner always on the lookout tor for something new assist him in building i car ir that would I 1 aul d idt III I 1 che the nee needs j of th e multitudes tor for even then henry ford dreamed of 0 the universal car one day dabin in the year 1905 he attended an automobile race at palm beach in a smashup smash up a french car was wrecked and at the scene ot of the wreck mr air ford picked up a small valve strip stem it was very light yet it had great strength no one seemed to know of what it was made the man who was destined to become the worlds greatest motor car manufacturer determined to discover more about that bit of metal eventually ventu ally he found that it was french steel with vanadium in it mr ford tried every steel maker in this country but none could make vanadium steel so he sent to england tor for a man who understood how to make it commercially the next problem was to get a plant to turn out the metal that was wag extremely difficult tor for vanadium requires degrees fahrenheit and ordinary furnaces could not go beyond 2700 degrees A small steel plant at canton ohio was offered a guarantee against loss it if it would undertake to run a heat the first heat was a failure allure but the second one proved successful now henry ford had a steel with a tensile strength of pounds where before he had to be satisfied with steel running between and pounds tensile strength with vanadium steel available ford took cars apart an and d tested every part to determine exactly what kind of 0 steel was best for or each unit hard steel tough steel or elastic steel this was the first time in the history of a big enterprise that the exact quality of steel was determined scientifically quality in material was wag necessary to give service in use mr air ford was wag convinced so vanadium steel the strongest toughest and most lasting of steels formed the foundation and superstructure super structure of tile the car which built the great ford industry and that car the model T of which more than were produced and sold was constantly improved until it was finally succeeded by the model A and then followed by the VS V S 8 today the 1935 ford VS V S 8 Is heralded as henry fords masterpiece the only V 8 that can call be bought for or less than 2000 but I 1 often wonder observed the local dealer what the history of the ford motor company would have been and what the history of the automo automotive tivO industry would have been had henry ford not picked up that little valve strip stem at palm beach |