Interpreting Factory Shipping Invoices, 1909-1911
By Mark Cameron
Originally published in The Model T Times, November-December, 1999
If you are interested in a particular Model T built between March 1909 and September 1911 you can obatin a copy of the original factory shipping invoice from the Research Center at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. These invoice records are organized by engine serial number and offer some interesting insights into how the Ford Motor Company kept track of individual cars in the early years of Model T production. At one time more complete records were available but a fire some years ago destroyed the records for cars built after September of 1911. The shipping invoices are typical of many of the Model T archival records in that they seem to raise as many questions as they answer. Lets take a look at one of these invoices and see what it can (and cannot) tell us about a particular Model T.
The shipping invoice forms used during 1909 are a single page document. During 1910 the form was expanded into a two page document. The first page is from the shipping department and the second is from the manufacturing department, Some information is redundant and has been found to be contradictory on some invoices. As with any human endeavor, mistakes were undoubtably made on some of these records. In fact, some surviving cars have been found to confirm that information was sometimes recorded incorrectly. Here is my interpritation of each section of the example invoice pictured. I would welcome any additional opinions or examples from invoices I have not seen.
Title block (shipping department): Note that the upper left corner allows the forman to note what type of car is being shipped. It is interesting to note that a loose motor was also invoiced using this document. The car in the example is a Torpedo Runabout, number 46294. The significance of the auto order number is unknown. As you can see these records are sometimes very difficult to read. All of these records are stored on microfilm and the original documents probably have been destroyed. This invoice is actually one of the better-looking examples I have seen.
Shipment block: In this example our Torpedo is for domestic shipment and was ordered by the NW Auto Co. in Mpls, MN. Under their order number D4826. "Same" indicates that the car is to be shipped directly to Northwestern Auto. In some cases the ordering agent would specify that the car be shipped directly to the local agency or end customer. If this were the case this address would appear in the "ship to" block. The "via" and "car no." blocks refer to the rail carrier, not the automobile itself.
Equipment block: This is where things start to get interesting. Note that Ford was able to customize each vehicle to the owners taste to a greater degree in later years. However, the invoices I have seen have not shown that any of the more unusual equipment was actually included. The fact that things like the top were still listed as special equipment indicate that this form may have remained unchanged from the earliest days of the Model T. The script in the lamp block indicates E & J lamps. This was determined by comparing several invoices written by the same shipping clerk (in this case Fishback). The windshield "M" probably indicates Mezger, makers of the "automatic" windshield. The speedometer is Stewart and the tires are "D" which could mean Diamond Tire Co. I beleive that the "Dragon" horn refers to a style of horn with a trumpet type bell that was advertised under the name Dragon. I don't believe it is the serpent horn seen on more expensive cars of this era. Note that this car was shipped on April 7th of 1911.
Title Block (manufacturing department): This section restates the information from the shipping department form. Perhaps these forms remained separated during the assembly process so the same information was need on both forms. Notice the notes made in this section of the form. Shipping Invoices often contain many notes in the margin that can be very difficult to read. Typical notes include things like "new style gaskets" or "1911 Style cover" Another common notation was "no striping on gear or fenders" (running gear was a synonym for the chassis). It appears the foreman were interested in noting design changes as they appeared in production.
Chassis assembling block: Our Torpedo appears to have 56-inch tread and left hand control. The 60-inch wide track was popular in the south. I have no idea what the 48-inch option was. Perhaps this is a railroad guage tread for rail service cars sold overseas.
We can also see that this car came with a Kingston carburetor, Heinze coil unit and Ford-made radiator. The "C" cylinder head may indicate factory number 401c which was the third major revision to the cylinder head casting. Note that the Firestone tire designation appears to be in conflict with the shipping department notation. The brand of wheels is noted on many invoices with the letters "K & H" for Kelsey or Hayes wheels and "Prudden" for W.K. Prudden. the "removable bottom" refers to the oil pan. After looking at several invoices I believe that the "trans. cover" refers to the pan and hogshead as a unit. Many invoices have notations about design changes in the oil pan and hogshead in this area. Note the foreman who signed off on the chassis (Lewis)
Car assembling block: Our Torpedo has a metal body made by Pontiac (This refers to the O.J. Beaudette company of Pontiac Michigan) with serial number 6850. The floor board designation (3 slot) is confusing because all Model Ts used this type of floorboard after about car number 800. It seems like a waste of time to write this out on every invoice so long after the change was made. The cushions are marked as "reg". Other invoices say "regular" in this area. The Paint designation "fair" is very common. I have heard of only one invoice that said "poor". Perhaps "fair" also refers to the finishing company used by Ford to paint their bodies. Note that the assembler added a note that this car has a "Jackson" top. This may refer to the American Top Company of Jackson, Michigan. The "M-W-S" might mean the Mezger
windsheild. The assembly forman was Spangler.
Car Testing Block: Note that this car was assembled, tested and shipped all on April 7th. A lot of space is reserved to note problems with the car. On one of the invoices I have seen the tester noted that one of the cylinder head bolts was broken off in the block. Hubbard tested the car and the head tester was Hadas.
As you can see the interpritation of shipping invoices can be a difficult process which requires more than a little guesswork. John Regan has done extensive research on shipping invoices and has determined that the handwriting tendencies of the different formeman can be used to determine which car was built immediately before and directly after the car in question. Since cars were assembled at about 30 different stations during this era it is helpful to go forward 30 cars and also back about 30 cars to find the car which was built by the same team of assemblers as the car you are researching. You will usually find more similarities in equipment (and handwriting) with cars that are 30 serial numbers apart than you will with cars that have consecutive serial numbers.
In case you are wondering, car 46294 has survived ad was restored back in 1975 by Bruce Webster of Edina, Minnesota. When found it had the numbers B6850 stamped on the seat riser and underneath both doors. With no invoice information to work from, Bruce restored the car using a Heize coil box, Kingston carburetor and E & J lamps.
Factory invoice copies can be purchased by writing to:
The Henry Ford Museum Research Center
20900 Oakwood Blvd.
Box 1970
Dearborn, MI 48121-1970
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