Glass block, or glass brick, has an interesting history and connection to Chicago via two Chicago World’s Fairs and multiple Chicago based companies.
Gustave Falconnier Glass Designer
The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition is known for introducing many things to the United States. One lesser-known first at the World's Fair showed the United States the first glass bricks made by Gustave Falconnier.
Falconnier, an architect, Chicago city council member, prefect of Nyon, France, and a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris held many patents in the 1880s for various types of glass blocks of interesting geometric shapes.
At the Columbian Exposition, Falconnier exhibited his glass in buildings outside of the Horticultural Building, showing their potential uses in architecture and horticulture. Falconnier was given an award by the fair commission for, “a new departure in glass building.”
Despite being shown in the horticultural pavilion, the fair commission gave him a somewhat backhanded compliment, saying that, “Their adaptability for conservatories intended for plant cultivation has not yet been fully demonstrated, but for conservatory vestibules and other rural effects they are well adapted.” And finally, “In the construction of surgical, photographic, and other experimental laboratories, where extra subdued light is required, they possess great merit.”
The Northern Pavillion of the Horticultural Building and Exhibit of Hot-Houses and Summer-Houses.
Falconnier’s glass block had a flaw that prevented it from taking hold in America. Because they were blown glass, the blocks needed a hole. Even a small hole, eventually plugged up leading to fogging. Once fogged, the bricks would need to be replaced. A tall order indeed for something that is meant to be permanently put into a wall. Glass block would get a second chance at Chicago's Century of Progress International Exposition in 1933 before it really took hold in US architecture. However, other types of architectural glass that would be formative to glass block’s future were taking shape in Chicago. The popularization of Art Deco glass block walls came via the crowd-pleasing thirteen houses of the future displayed at the 1933–34 Chicago World’s Fair. Glass block walls gave builders an avant-garde 20th-Century sensibility that people really liked. The Chicago World’s Fair buildings, at the time, considered the height of American modernity, influenced United States architectural design for many years thereafter. The Century of Progress which had been planned before the crash of 1929, opened in the middle of a worldwide economic crisis. Despite that fact, or perhaps because of it, the Century of Progress resolutely focused on an optimistic vision of the United States yet to come, a premise that proved to be a wise move as it attracted so many visitors that organizers kept the fair open for a second year.
Owens-Illinois exhibit at the Chicago Century of Progress International Exposition, 1933-34.
One of the Fair's most popular exhibits featured thirteen futuristic houses clustered together on the shores of Lake Michigan. Those houses, built from innovative construction materials and with several examples clearly paying homage to the European “International Style” or the colloquial “Streamline Moderne,” turned out to be a crowd-pleaser. Few fairgoers actually contemplated living in homes like George Fred Keck’s Glass House, a three-story, glass-clad, polygonal tower suspended from a central pole that clearly owed a lot to Le Corbusier’s idea of the house as a “machine for living,” but most attendees marveled at the technology displayed within and without.
Keck’s design, which the fair billed as the “House of Tomorrow,” made the June 1933 cover of Popular Mechanics.
Keck’s house controlled its own climate via central systems and sealed windows. It included not only a garage for the car but a hanger for the family plane. Keck’s design, which the fair billed as the “House of Tomorrow,” made the June 1933 cover of Popular Mechanics. The idea of an “automatic” house that heated and cooled itself, rotated to face the sun, and opened its own Venetian blinds caught the fancy of fairgoers. It likewise influenced architects throughout the United States in the subsequent years before World War II. Bits and pieces of the fair’s dramatic architecture showed up on the cultural periphery. Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
The first records were on cylinders, the earliest of which were made by the inventor of the first ‘Phonograph’, Thomas Alva Edison in 1877. Attempts had been made of ‘recording’ sound much earlier than this, but none were capable of reproducing the human voice.
A 19th-century illustration of the first phonograph, devised in 1877 by US inventor Thomas Edison. It both recorded and recreated sounds using a foil-wrapped cylinder (center). A sound receiver (round) rested lightly on the foil by a needle (not seen). Sound waves made the receiver vibrate, leaving a trace on the foil as the cylinder was turned with the handle at right. The recorded sound could then be recreated by attaching the sound horn (upper right) to the receiver, adjusting the position of the needle to the start of the trace, and rotating the cylinder. Distorted but recognizable sounds were produced.
By 1887, another American, Emile Berliner (a German immigrant to the U.S.) filed a patent for a recording system based on a flat disc instead of a cylinder. This was a very significant development because the new discs were much easier to mass-produce than the cylinders that they replaced. This was important in making the technology available to a wide market.
On November 8, 1887, Emile Berliner, a German immigrant working in Washington D.C., patented a successful system for sound recording. Berliner was the first inventor to stop recording on cylinders and start recording on flat disks or records. The first records were made of glass. They were then made using zinc and eventually plastic. A spiral groove with sound information was etched into the flat record. To play sounds and music, the record was rotated on the gramophone. The "arm" of the gramophone held a needle that read the grooves in the record by vibration and transmitted the information to the gramophone speaker.
By the turn of the 20th century, the industry had begun to settle on a diameter of 10 inches for the new format. The rotational speed varied somewhat from one manufacturer to another, but most turned at between 75 and 80 revolutions per minute (RPM) and most ‘Gramophone’ machines were capable of some adjustment. The name ‘Gramophone’ began as a Trademark for Berliner’s new invention, but Europeans adopted it as generic while Americans continued to use the term ‘Phonograph.’
Emile Berliner's Gramophone. circa 1910
One popular theory for the choice of 78 RPM was chosen as the standard because of the introduction of the electrically powered synchronous turntable motor in 1925, which ran at 3,600 RPM with a 46:1 gear ratio, resulting in a rotation speed of 78.26 RPM. It is far more likely that a speed of around 78 RPM simply proved the best compromise from empirical results with the materials and technology available at the time.
Various materials were used for manufacturing the earliest discs, but shellac (a resin made from the secretions of the lac insect) was found to be the best. Shellac is a natural thermoplastic, being soft and flowing when heated, but rigid and hard-wearing at room temperature. Usually, a fine clay or other filler was added to the ‘mix’. However, by the 1930s the natural shellac began to be replaced by equivalent synthetic resins.
All of the earliest 78 RPM recordings were single-sided, but double-sided recordings were introduced first in Europe by the Columbia company. By 1923, double-sided recordings had become the norm on both sides of the Atlantic.
The 78 RPM disc reigned supreme as the accepted recording medium for many years despite its tendency to break easily and the fact that longer works could not be listened to without breaks for disc changes (at 5-minute intervals for 12-inch discs).
In 1948 the Columbia company had perfected a 12-inch Long Playing (LP) Vinyl disc. Spinning at 33⅓ RPM the new format could play up to 25 minutes per side. This new record medium also had a much lower level of surface noise than did its older shellac cousin. However, Columbia’s big rival, RCA Victor then produced the seven-inch 45 RPM vinyl disc that could hold as much sound as the 12-inch 78 RPM discs they were to replace but were much smaller, more attractive, and cost less to produce.
RCA came up with the number 45 from taking 78 and subtracting Columbia’s new 33 RPM format speed, which equaled 45.
Around September of 1948, William Paley, at CBS had offered RCA’s David Sarnoff the rights to the 33⅓ technology at no cost because it would help boost 33⅓ format record sales for all. Sarnoff thanked Paley and told him he would think about it, but RCA had already perfected it’s secret 45 RPM project. Paley was shocked and more than a bit miffed when RCA rolled out their own 45s a few months later.
Record companies and consumers alike faced an uncertain future as to which format would survive. The two systems directly competed with each other to replace 78 RPM records, bewildering consumers, and causing a drop in record sales.
In 1949 Capitol, and Decca started issuing the new LP format, and RCA relented and issued its first LPs in January of 1950.
On a personal note:I owned a kick-ass component hi-fi stereo system in the 1970s and 80s. I would buy virgin vinyl, high-fidelity, albums whenever available (they cost a lot more). The largest selection of these Hi-Fi and Quaraphonic albums was at Rolling Stones Records in Norridge, Illinois. I bought Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in high-fidelity. I heard notes and accompanying instruments I never heard on the radio or listening to a mass-produced vinyl record.
Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in High-Fidelity on White Virgin Vinyl.
RCA had announced the new format and introduced the record player in January of 1949, but it was months later until there was a use for it. The first 45, was released on March 31, 1949; it was the RCA Victor 45 label’s “Texarkana Baby” flip-side “Bouquet of Roses” by Eddy Arnold.
RCA Victor 45 - Eddy Arnold, Texarkana Baby (1949)
On May 7, 1949, the first 45 RPM record hit the billboard charts. The song was “You’re Adorable” by Perry Como. The next week, the year’s biggest 45 RPM hit appeared on the Billboard charts; "Riders In The Sky” by Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra.
'A' - You’re Adorable, by Perry Como,
with the Fontane Sisters, Orchestra. (1949)
Vaughn Monroe & his Orchestra
Riders In The Sky (A Cowboy Legend) (1949)
The 45 RPM was gaining in popularity, and Columbia issued its first 45 in February of 1951. The years from 1949 to 1951 were referred to as “the war of the speeds” years.
Soon other record companies saw the mass consumer appeal the new 45-format allowed, and by 1954 more than 200 million 45s had been sold at an average cost of 69¢ ($6.75 today).
Some record players had four speeds, which included 16⅔ RPM, beginning in 1953. Because most, but not all, 16s had big holes and were 7-inches in diameter many of them were mistaken for 45 RPMs, and, at that size, the speed allowed for up to 20 minutes of playing time per side. However, there was no true standard size and they were also manufactured in 9, 10, and 12-inch diameter, and these larger records played even longer. Just like the other speeds and formats 16s could be played one record at a time or stacked on a changer for continuous play.
So why didn't 16 RPMs catch on? At 16 RPM records were too slow for proper high fidelity sound, so they were not often used for music. They were mostly used as "talking books." Radio stations often used the discs for pre-recorded radio shows containing interviews, dramas, and documentaries. The hard to find 16s were manufactured for commercial use.
Chrysler Corporation created Highway Hi-Fi, an audio format that enabled the 7-inch 16⅔ RPM records to be played in their cars from 1956 to 1958. The system employed a sapphire stylus with a ceramic pick up on a turntable that was installed below the instrument panel.
It took many years for the 78 to disappear because the new vinyl records needed new equipment on which to play them, but the two new vinyl formats were to dominate the recorded music industry until the advent of the digital compact disc (CD) in 1982. Even then, vinyl would take much longer to fall into oblivion than 78s did when vinyl recordings first appeared.
The 45 RPM records years of greatest success began with the onset of rock and roll. The new 7-inch format was favored by the young and in the UK sales of 45s overtook 78s early in 1958 as rock and roll established a boom in record sales. During the next few years, the UK was to become a major source of popular recorded music with the advent of British 'beat' groups which were exemplified in the 'Beatles'.
This was the 'golden era' for the 45. Although sales of popular music were to grow dramatically during the following decades, buyers gradually transferred their purchases to the 12-inch LP as their affluence grew. Indeed, by the end of the 1960s sales of the 45 had even begun to decline. During the early years of the Beatles, a record would need to sell in excess of 750,000 copies to reach the coveted number 1 chart position. Such was the decline in this part of the market that by the 1970s only 150,000 copies could achieve the same result.
Vinyl records making a comeback after 30 years of being behind CDs. This trend has built up slowly. By July 2019, vinyl records generated $224.1 million selling 8.6 million units, opposed to CD’s which had made $247.9 million on 18.6 million units.
Throughout its lifespan, vinyl has faced numerous challengers for the top spot for auditory medium, from cassettes to digital. The key driving force behind the resurgence is social media. Back in the day, you could show your friends your record collection, now you can show the whole world.
View-Master is the trademark name of a line of special-format stereoscopes and corresponding View-Master "reels," which are thin cardboard disks containing seven stereoscopic 3-D pairs of small transparent color photographs on film. It was originally manufactured and sold by Sawyer's.
The View-Master system was introduced in 1939, four years after the advent of Kodachrome color film made the use of small high-quality photographic color images practical. Tourist attraction and travel views predominated in View-Master's early lists of reels, most of which were meant to be interesting to users of all ages. Most current View-Master reels are intended for children.
Edwin Eugene Mayer worked as a pharmacist at Owl Drug store in downtown Portland, Oregon, after serving in the U.S. Army in World War I. He built up a photo-finishing business there and bought into Sawyer's Photo Finishing Service in 1919 with the help of his father August Mayer, his fiancée Eva McAnulty, and her sister Vi McAnulty.
Edwin described how he started the business in a letter dated April 1, 1954:
"Suffice to say that in 1919, what little it was, was purchased with borrowed ($3,500) money from Dad, aided by about $1,600 in insurance money Eva got when her father died and which was left in permanently, and $1,600 borrowed from Vi and repaid, along with Dad's notes, within a few years."
As the business grew, Ed Mayer incorporated in about 1926, taking on partners Harold and Beulth F. Graves, Thomas and Pauline Meyer, and Augusta and Raymond F. Kelly, renaming the business Sawyer Service, Inc. The company relocated to a large two-story building at 181 Ella St., near Morrison Street in Portland, Oregon.
The company was producing photographic postcards and album sets as souvenirs by 1926 when Harold Graves joined Sawyer's. Graves handled marketing for the products while Mayer ran the business. Later, photographic greeting cards were added to the Sawyer's product line, marketed to major department stores. Sawyer's was the nation's largest producer of scenic postcards in the 1920s and the future View-Master viewer eventually became an extension of the two-dimensional cards.
The company took the first steps towards developing the View-Master after Edwin Mayer and Graves met with William Gruber, an organ maker of German origin trained by Welte & Sons and an avid photographer living in Portland. Mayer and Gruber had both developed devices for viewing stereo images, but Gruber had made up a stereo imaging rig out of two Kodak Bantam Specials mounted together on a tripod. He designed a machine that mounted the tiny pieces of Kodachrome color transparency film into reels made from heavy paper stock. A special viewer was also designed and produced. He had the idea of updating the old-fashioned stereoscope by using the new Kodachrome 16-mm color film, which recently had become available.
A View-Master reel holds 14 film transparencies in seven pairs, making up the seven stereoscopic images. The components of each pair are viewed simultaneously, one by each eye, thus simulating binocular depth perception.
According to a 1960 court document, the Gruber-Sawyer partner venture began from that first meeting in 1938. Thereafter, Ed Mayer negotiated with Gruber while production methods and some marketing were developed. After three years, a formal agreement was entered into on February 24, 1942, between Gruber and Sawyer partners, doing business as Sawyer's.
Ed Mayer and people within the Sawyer's organization were uncertain what to call their new product, but they eventually came up with the name "View-Master". The View-Master brand name eventually came to be recognized by 65 percent of the world's population, but William Gruber disliked the name which Mayer gave it, thinking that it sounded too much like Toast-Master, Mix-Master, or some other kitchen appliance.
The View-Master was introduced at the 1939 New York World's Fair, marked "Patent Applied For". It was intended as an alternative to scenic postcards and was originally sold at photography shops, stationery stores, and scenic-attraction gift shops. The main subjects of View-Master reels were Carlsbad Caverns and the Grand Canyon.
The View-Master was marketed through Ed Mayer's photo-finishing, postcard, and greeting card company Sawyer's Service, Inc., known eventually as Sawyer's, Inc. The partnership led to the retail sales of View-Master viewers and reels. The patent on the viewing device was issued in 1940, on what came to be called the Model A viewer. Within a very short time, the View-Master took over the postcard business at Sawyer's.
1940s View-Master Reels.
Ed Mayer gave details of the company's expansion in a letter dated April 1, 1954:
In 1939, 20 years after starting the business, we had, by dint of hard work and long hours and frugal living, accumulated a business (Sawyer's) worth about $58,000.00 and Western Photo Supply Co. owning the buildings, worth about $30,000.00. The above figures were for the total business and buildings owned by the Kellys, Graves, Mayers, and Meyers. In 1946, we had already grown a lot from 1939, and Sawyer's made a lease with Western Photo Supply Co., to build and lease two new buildings to Sawyer's, in addition to the two we already had. At this point, Sawyer's also decided to change its structure from a partnership to a corporation, for various good reasons, one of which was to permit our children to participate in the stock ownership.
In the 1940s, the United States military recognized the potential for using View-Master products for personnel training, purchasing 100,000 viewers, and nearly six million reels from 1942 to the end of World War II in 1945.
After the development of the View-Master, Sawyer's, Inc. moved into a new building at 735 S.W. 20th Place in downtown Portland. The company also occupied a building next door at 740 S.W. 21st Avenue. Years later, Edwin Mayer and his Sawyer's partners purchased land in Washington County near Progress, Oregon, west of Beaverton, and built a large plant there in about 1951. The plant has since been removed and developed into a shopping center. After moving to the new plant, Mayer leased the old Sawyer's building on 20th Place to Oregon Television, Inc., KPTV, Channel 12.
In 1951, Sawyer's purchased Tru-Vue, the main competitor of View-Master. The takeover eliminated the main rival and also gained Tru-Vue's licensing rights to Walt Disney Studios. Sawyer's capitalized on the opportunity and produced numerous reels featuring Disney characters. The takeover paid off further in 1955 with reels of the newly opened Disneyland. Joe Liptak was the artist responsible for most of the Disney and the early Hanna-Barbera reels.
In 1952, Sawyers began its View-Master Personal line, which included the View-Master Personal Stereo Camera for users to make their own View-Master reels.
The View-Master Personal Stereo Camera was a 35mm film camera designed to take 3D stereo photos for viewing in a View-Master. First released in 1952, the camera took 69 pairs of photos on a 36-exposure roll 35mm film, taking one set while the film was unwound from the canister, and another set while it was rewound. Although the focus was fixed, the camera supported both variable aperture settings and shutter speeds.
It was successful at first, but the line was discontinued in ten years. This line spawned the Model D viewer, View-Master's highest-quality viewer, which was available until the early 1970s, and the Stereomatic 500, View-Master's only 3D projector. The other projectors were 2D and used only one of the images.
The Model E was introduced in 1955 with a more modern design, big ivory buttons on the picture changer levers, and a large "V" slot on top for easier reel insertion. It was released in brown and black in the United States and some other colors elsewhere. It was about 4 inches high, 5 inches wide, and 4 inches deep.
A View-Master Model E of the 1950s
The Model F was introduced in 1958. It used C-cell batteries to power an internal lighting source. Industrial designer Charles "Chuck" Harrison led the team designing the Model F View-Master. Fifty years later in 2008, Harrison won the Cooper-Hewitt Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1962, the Bakelite[1] models were replaced with lighter plastic versions, the first of which was the Model G. This change was driven by Sawyer's new president, Bob Brost, who took over in 1959. The View-Master had been constructed originally from Kodak Tenite plastic and then Bakelite, a hard, sturdy, somewhat heavy plastic. The lightweight thermoplastic became the material of choice under Brost.
A model G View-Master viewer from the last years of the Sawyer era.
In 1966, Sawyer's was acquired by the General Aniline & Film (GAF) Corporation and became a wholly-owned subsidiary. Under GAF's ownership, View-Master reels began to feature fewer scenic and more child-friendly subjects, such as toys and cartoons. Television series was featured on View-Master reels, such as Doctor Who, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Star Trek, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Family Affair, Here's Lucy, and The Beverly Hillbillies. Actor Henry Fonda appeared in a series of TV commercials for the GAF View-Master.
From 1970 to around 1997, there were versions of "Talking View-Masters," which included audio technology with the reels with three major designs with increasing sophistication. In the early 1970s, GAF introduced the View-Master Rear Screen projector, a table-top projector that displayed images from picture wheels.
First Generation Model Talking Viewmaster, 1970.
In 1980, View-Master released the Show Beam Projector, a toy that combined the company’s stereoscopic images and flashlight technology to produce a portable hand-held projector. The Show Beam used small film cartridges that were plugged into the side of the toy. Each cartridge contained 30 full-color 2D images.
In 1981, GAF sold View-Master to a group of investors headed by Arnold Thaler, and the company was reconstituted as the View-Master International Group.
VMI acquired the Ideal Toy Company in 1984 and became known as the View-Master Ideal Group; V-M Ideal in turn was purchased by Tyco Toys in 1989.
Tyco, including the View-Master Ideal Group, merged with Mattel Inc. in 1997. V-M was placed organizationally in Mattel's pre-school division and is now marketed under the Fisher-Price imprint, who continues an emphasis on juvenile content.
In 1998, during the purchase of the Tyco Toys-owned plant by Mattel, EPA investigations began on View-Master factory supply well for the toxic chemical trichloroethylene (TCE). The plant was shut down in 2001.
In March 2009, the Fisher-Price division of toymaker Mattel announced that they had stopped production in December 2008 of the scenic reels depicting tourist attractions. These reels of picturesque scenes and landscape scenery were descendants of the first View-Master reels sold in 1939. Fisher-Price announced they would continue to produce reels of animated characters. In late 2009, Alpha-cine announced it would take up scenic reel production under an agreement with Fisher-Price.
There have been some 25 viewer models, thousands of titles, and 1.5 billion copies of reels. The basic design remained intact for reels and internal mechanisms, despite its long history and many changes in models and materials, ensuring that every reel will work in every model.
View-Master is part of the National Toy Hall of Fame of the United States.
Reels have been produced for Disneyland, many TV shows (such as The Flying Nun, Lost in Space, and The Munsters), blockbuster movies (such as The Poseidon Adventure, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park), and the U.S. military (for airplane and ship identification and range estimation).
David L. Bassett, an expert on anatomy and dissection, collaborated with Gruber to create a 25-volume atlas of human anatomy using the View-Master system.
View-Master produced custom reels for commercial customers to show 3-D images of products and services to potential clients. For example, in the early 1990s, Canadian restaurant chain East Side Mario's used a View-Master reel and viewers for their dessert menu.
Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.
[1] Bakelite or Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride was the first plastic made from synthetic components and was patented on December 7, 1909. The creation of a synthetic plastic was revolutionary for its electrical nonconductivity and heat-resistant properties in electrical insulators, radio and telephone casings, and such diverse products as kitchenware, jewelry, pipe stems, children's toys, and firearm parts.
"YOU CAN HAVE ANY COLOR AS LONG AS IT'S BLACK." — HENRY FORD
Henry Ford (1863-1947) documented that he made the "any color so long as it is black" comment during a meeting in 1909. This famous quote by Henry Ford led to many people believing that the Ford Model T was available only in black. This is, however, wrong.
The first production Model T was built on August 12, 1908 ($850 retail - $24,500 today) and left the factory on September 27, 1908, at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, Michigan. Also known as "Tin Lizzie," the Ford Model T was the first affordable mass-production car.
Or, to be precise, the first affordable horseless carriage. Henry Ford aimed to make a car "large enough for the family but small enough for the individual to run and care for." Price was also kept low so that anyone who made a decent living could afford one.
This 1908 Ford Model T Touring (Tin Lizzy) is the earliest restored (in its original color) Model T known to exist, bearing serial number 90. One of the first 800 Model Ts made is a so-called "two lever car," meaning it has two levers on the left floorboard, two pedals on the floor, and two levers (for spark and throttle) in the steering column. Cars built after unit 800 were reconfigured with Flivver's famous three-pedal/one-lever layout. It sold at auction for $121,000 in 2015.
On December 1, 1913, Henry Ford installed the first moving assembly line to mass production of an entire automobile. His innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to 2½ hours.
Henry Ford with the Ford Model T.
So what about the notion that Ford Model T cars came only in black?
During the early stages of the Model T production, the car was available in almost any color except black. In fact, the very first model came in red. Later models of the Ford Model T came with various colors such as green, bright red, dark blue, maroon, brown, grey, and, of course, black.
But from 1914 to 1925, the Model T came only in black. There are many theories as to why Henry Ford chose only black back then. Ford Model T models were painted using a technique called japanning (known today as baked enamel). The coating was used for decorative items in the 1800s. Japanning gave a piano black finish and was also proved to be durable and rugged. Black was the only pigment it worked in.
Another theory is that black color dried faster than any color, which helped boost production. Also, in 1914, Henry Ford introduced assembly line car manufacturing, something every vehicle manufacturer follows today. Assembly line production was really efficient for Ford, and black paint was cheaper than color. Black could also be easily applied by almost anyone as it didn't require much detailing and precision like other paint colors.
This period also saw high demand for the Ford Model T, and Ford Motor Company had to meet the increased demand with enough supply. The variety of colors vanished temporarily because of the need for assembly speed. Using only Black paint meant more Model T cars rolled off the assembly line, and Ford's cost per car dropped. Most buyers weren't complaining either because the Model T looked really good in black.
But in the late 1920s, competitors of the Model T were offered in different colors. Eventually, Ford was forced to produce the Model T in colors other than black to maintain sales.
The production of the Ford Model T ended on May 25, 1927 ($300 retail - $4,500 today), an 82% reduction from the original 1909 retail cost due to assembly-line production. In almost 18 years, 15 million cars were produced.
The fifteen millionth milestone Ford Model T was green in color.
Robotic milking relies on cows learning how to use the milking robot to get themselves milked.
Milking is done automatically, without human intervention. When cows feel the need to empty their udders, they form a line in front of one of the farmer’s milking robots. When a cow enters the small stall, a computer recognizes it by an electronic chip on its collar and can tell when the cow was last milked.
Robots revolutionize milking cows.
The aim of the automatic milking system is to reduce the amount of labor needed to run a farm. This involves getting the cows to move around the farm by themselves and by using a robot to milk the cows. Milking robots also allowed farms to milk cows three times per day, instead of twice, increasing the milk yield per animal.
First, a cow is walked through the machine with both of the gates open. Then she is held in the machine for 4–5 minutes without being milked. After doing this 2–3 times, the farmer helps the cow to be milked by pushing her gently into place for the robot to attach the milking cups. Crushed barley is given to the cows as a reward each time they are in the machine; giving them a treat for being a good cow.
Teaching the cows to take themselves to be milked.
A milking system that is fully automated requires the cows to get themselves to the dairy for milking (the farmer does not need to go out and fetch them). Once the cows can do this, they can go and get milked at any time, day or night. The aim is to get a steady stream of cows through the dairy so that the milking robot is always in use.
Training cows to use the gates.
On their first day on the farm, the cows are walked around the property. They do a loop from the field, through a slightly open gate to a water trough which is along the race to the robot and back to a new field. One-way gates stop the cows going backward along this loop. The cows are taught to use the gates by leaving them ajar for a few days and giving them access to water, grass, or barley once they go through.
When the farm was first set up, the cows learned that they get rewards for going through the gates, and they ended up visiting the dairy shed too often. As a result, selection gates were installed. These control whether the cow is sent to the dairy or back to the pasture.
Determining when a cow is due for milking.
Electronic information on each cow is stored in a computer and is used to determine whether a particular cow is due to be milked or not. When the cow enters a selection unit, a signal from the computer directs the gate to open, either letting the cow back into pasture or directing her up to the dairy for milking.
Scientists think that cows learn to walk through the selection units to the dairy much faster if there is an experienced cow for them to follow. Farmhands are investigating whether cows already on the farm can teach new cows to use the system without any help from the farm staff.
The robotic milking system also has brought changes to the overall management of the farm. Before, dairy farmers had to monitor the cows daily and manually record their health information. Now, the milking robots automatically record data, such as the amount of milk produced, as well as the cow’s temperature, weight, and udder health. They relay this data to the farmer’s smartphone or tablet.
This information gives management advance notice about the health of the herd. This allows farmers to take action earlier, should a health problem arise. As a result, the animals’ health is improved, veterinary costs are reduced, and reproduction is facilitated.
