History of Henry Ford’s Quadricycle

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 four. They decided that we would become the Quad Squad. 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. Now, 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. Matt Anderson is curator of transportation at the Henry Ford, and he takes us back to the beginning, to the replica of a workshop shed where Ford and some friends built the Quadricycle in the year 1896. Inside is a replica of the Quadricycle itself. What is a Quadricycle? Well, like the name suggests, a 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, 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 three, four o'clock in the morning running this through the streets of Detroit. So there weren't too many people around. That said, he did have somebody riding in front of him on a bicycle to kind of warn people that look out, car coming through. I mean, it must have been like a spacecraft for people. 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 build an automobile, his innovations accelerated fast. By June of 1924, the 10 millionth Ford automobile, a Model T, rolled off the assembly line. Have you got your own quattro cycle that maybe we can take for a spin? We actually do have an operating replica if you'd like to give it a try. I would love to. Which is the driver's side? This is the driver's side. Good, all right. Okay, that's not bad. Little cozy. Here's our tiller for steering. This is basically the clutch. There is a brake on this, but even though Henry's real one, he would have dragged with his foot to stop. Oh, okay, this actually has a brake. We're a little bit safer today. And most importantly. Gotta let people know we're coming. We're ready. And off we went, driving through Greenfield Village in just the spot where Henry and Clara Ford posed for this photo in 1946. I love a good quattro cycle ride.