Ford Quadricycle: Henry Ford's First Car

As soon as wheels were invented humans tried to figure out exactly how many of them were needed to get around. Now, we have everything from a unicycle up to an 18-wheeler. Early on the car industry came up with a magic number for they decided that we would become the Quad Squad.

Most of the first car builders were inventors, rather than businessmen, working with their imaginations and the parts they had on hand. Thus, the invention of the Quadricycle marks an important innovation as a proto-automobile that would lay the foundation for the future, with more practical designs to follow.

Although, the automobile is so sophisticated today this everyday form of Transportation had its start in the not so distant past this early vehicle housed inside the Henry Ford Museum is called the Quadricycle. The quadricycle is the first car that Henry Ford built,

it wasn't designed for production, it was sort of an experimental vehicle so he could wrap his mind around what it took to build a functioning automobile from the early Tiller. Instead of a steering wheel to the bicycle wheels and bicycle chain this may all look primitive but back when it was built it was progressive.

After more than two years of experimentation, Ford, at the age of 32, had completed his first experimental automobile. He dubbed his creation the "Quadricycle," so named because it ran on four bicycle tires, and because of the means through which the engine drove the back wheels.

In the year 1896, the inside is a replica of the quadricycle itself what is a quadricycle well like the name suggests the quadricycle is a little bit like a bicycle instead of two wheels, it has four but the big difference is this vehicle was powered by an internal combustion engine which is what makes it a car exactly right and not a bike right.

The quadricycle had two speeds low speed was about 10 miles per hour and the top speed was about 20 miles per hour that might not sound fast but the quadricycle had no brakes. To stop it Henry Ford would put his foot out, Flintstone style or place it on the tire to slow down where was the shed located.

The shed was located behind the duplex that Henry and Clara rented in Detroit on Bagley Avenue. I wonder when he rode it down the street what kind of a sensation it caused. He actually rode it on June 4th 1896 in the early morning hours, he had to go to work that day so he's up at 3:00 - 4:00 o'clock in the morning. Running this through the streets of Detroit so there weren't too many people around that.

Talking about the engine, it was a two cylinder, pure ethanol powered motor that could produce 4 horsepower. The transmission had only two gears (first for up to 10 mph (16 km/h), 2nd for up to 20 mph (32 km/h)), but did not have a reverse gear. The tiller -steered machine had wire wheels and a 3 US gal (11 L) fuel tank under the seat.

It would have been pretty crazy there'd only been one other automobile driven through Detroit by a man named Charles Brady King and that was in April just a few months before this .So, while Ford was not the first person to built an automobile his innovations accelerated fast by June of 1924. The ten millionth Ford automobile, a Model T rolled off the assembly line.

The success of the little vehicle led to the founding of the Henry Ford Company and then later the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Ford would later go on to found the Ford Motor Company and become one of the world's richest men. The original Quadricycle resides at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.