Shown below is the full-page advertisement seen on page 29 of
the October 3rd, 1908, Saturday Evening Post. It appeared among
ads for other, better known automobile makers like Packard,
Cadillac, Winton, and Oldsmobile—expensive cars for wealthy
buyers. Until then, the Ford Motor Company had been only a
modest competitor, producing a small number of Henry Ford’s
Model R and Model S vehicles. But with his Model T, things would
be different. Ford would introduce a new design and business
plan with the assumption that all Americans, not just the rich,
wanted their own automobiles. He was ready to give them— a
4-cylinder, 20 horsepower, five-passenger family car—powerful,
speedy and enduring,—a car that looks good, and is as good as it
looks. His gamble paid off generously; in the first year, Ford
sold 10,000 Model Ts—ten thousand new cars for a nation that
previously had only 100,000 registered vehicles! The Model T’s
success was due, in part, to its superior engineering, including
its use of Vanadium steel, a t