Ford Rouge Plant 1962

[Tailfins4ever]

This was on the Hemming's Blog today.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2016/04/17/hemmings-sunday-cinema-gms-xp-500-fords-rouge-tony-arzenta/?refer=news

A little before Dave's time.

[simplyconnected]

...A little before Dave's time.

Not so much... I started working in the Stamping Plant in 1971. From there I went to the Iron Foundry, then the apprenticeship. As an Industrial Electrical Apprentice, I had to work 1,200 hours in the Power House, then on to the production plants. I worked in the Assembly Plant, Frame Plant, was a Leader in the Engine Plant, worked weekends in the Glass Plant and finally graduated in the Coke Ovens/Blast Furnaces (Basic Iron-making Operations). I even worked in the penthouse of World Headquarters, on a special assignment.

Many of the faces you see in this video I recognize, as my co-workers and friends. This was only the beginning of my career at Ford. I worked many tens of thousands of hard and long hours in The Rouge over thirty years.

The beginning of this film is little splashes of footage from many plant operations, all jumbled up. If you see something that you have questions about, ask me. - Dave

[Ford351c594]

of all the plants I went to in my trips to Detroit, I wish I would have gone here.


We drove by it quite a few times, but we went to proving grounds, x garage, the original Piquette plant they saved where the model T was still hand built before the assembly line, tech hotline, warranty assessment, SLTS, Roush, and world head quarters.

We also drove by the Packard plant a few times. That place is amazing still standing after all these years.

Pretty awesome Dave.

[simplyconnected]

Henry used the profits from the (Model T) Highland Park Plant to build The Rouge.

First he dug a huge 2-1/2 square mile hole then constructed catacombs of tunnels between the 17 plants, all tied into the Power House which fed every plant with electricity, coke gas, natural gas, city water, mill water, compressed air and steam. There are no telephone poles. Each plant had their own transformers with 13.800 volt primaries and 460 volt secondary's. Plants doing welding (spot and stick) had separate transformer power for lighting, another for motors and more for welding. Since the power house produced electricity from coal, there was hardly any interruption of service. One of the steel plants is an electric arc furnace. By contrast, Detroit Edison went down regularly.

One plant simply pulverized coal for use in, the Coke Ovens, three Blast furnaces, both foundries and the Power House.

The Rouge employed over 100,000 workers and Ford Motor Co., made money. Henry's vision was for every American family to have an affordable Ford in their driveway. He kept lowering the price and put many auto producers out of business.

[Dan Leavens]

Dave thanks for this. Your insight and knowledge of Rouge allows us to envision what this plant and surrounding areas would be like. It MUST have been massive in size..
Good stuff

[simplyconnected]

Dano, the technology behind each operation was astounding. Henry built from raw materials so his operation could not be interrupted. He even owned the DT&I (Detroit, Toledo & Ironton) railroad and many of the mines.

The Pulverizing Plant was a hammermill that turned coal into pea-size. The walls of the building were 'break-away' because of the coal dust produced.

The first time I saw it, I was amazed... When they blow coal into the Powerhouse boilers it absolutely explodes with the fury of gasoline. Now it makes sense that if the hammermill ignites (which it did), the few number of people inside can survive because the pressure has somewhere to go.

I explained this to my cousin and he said flour mills do the same thing from wheat, corn, oats, etc. They constantly keep it clean inside.

BTW, when Henry spent time in The Rouge, he mostly hung around the foundries and iron-making operations. He had a personal shop there and so did Edsel. - Dave

[keith]

I like to hear and read stuff about Henry and how it all began. What a visionary.

[Randy]

I like to hear and read stuff about Henry and how it all began. What a visionary.

Fascinating-absorbing to say the least.!
can you imagine thinking stuff up, Then make it happen.

[Ford351c594]

I like to hear and read stuff about Henry and how it all began. What a visionary.

in the old Piquette plant they talk about the fire doors all the time. He was apparently good friends with Olds that lost his plant to a small fire that couldn't be contained. Fearing the same he came up with what they call the first fire doors in a plant. He also had a pretty intense fire suppression system. That was one of the first of its kind.

it simply opens slightly in an upward direction and has a rope to a counter weight. A section of the rope is "weaker" so it pops faster due to the weight. Its is pretty amazing.

[flyinthermals]

The Rouge-(Small City)

What a great video. As I watch this for the third time I am amazed at the scale at which Ford was able to create and manufacture, not only cars, but also the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of employees and their families and still making profit. This lead to the growth of families, communities, towns, cities and the Country. The looks on the faces of the workers seem to show pride and a level of teamwork as they work for a bright future for their families. Fast-forward to today and the opposite is happening. For the sake of profit, and the lazy, noncreative and selfish way of seeking efficiency, companies cut costs by laying off and expecting the remaining work force to do the job with less people and in less time. Slowly eliminating the ability of their customers from purchasing their product. Towns and cities die and technology (robotics) and automation pushes out the few remaining jobs for the sake of operating costs and shareholder dividends. Or contract out parts from other Countries and decaying the ability of workers to earn a decent wage. The once great ideology of growing a company by growing a workforce and community has been replaced by growing a company by making it the most profitable with the least amount of overhead or pensions or benefits or bodies for that matter. Truly sad.

Although I could be wrong.

[simplyconnected]

Lucille Ball comes to mind. They asked her, what advice can you give young people coming up? She said, "Own everything." And, she did with Desiiu Productions.

Henry Ford subscribed to the same business model long before Lucille. If you look at your FE engine bolts, they have an 'F' on each head bolt. No other auto company cold headed their own bolts. Ford made as many parts as he could to control quality, availability and his dependence on suppliers. Those Great Lakes Freighters? He owned five of them to haul iron, limestone and coal.

If his raw materials stock bins were full early in the season he leased the boats to grain companies like Kellogg and Post. We had wharf rats that looked like small dogs. We also had cats to keep the population down. I brought home a few kittens in my day. They were all gray in color until they got their first bath. (I could tell you stories...) - Dave

[Randy]

They were all gray in color until they got their first bath. (I could tell you stories...) - Dave[/QUOTE]. . Dave tell us a story. I don't think we get tired of your stories. at least I don't, you were there, .fascinating times.! You are the Ford Historian of the Square.

[simplyconnected]

Ok, the Electrical Shop in the Blast Furnaces was huge. Did you see the gantry cranes that unloaded the boats? It's all part of the Blast Furnace (basic iron operations). Most of the production equipment is outside. The shop was open to the outside but sheltered. It held scores of very large DC motors, all good, ready to immediately replace any that went bad on the unloaders or in the boats. Time is money and NOTHING held up those boats.

One day I saw the collector shoes dripping molten copper. They rode on a D.C. hot rail that fed the unloader cranes. I called Power Operations to tell them. Their reply was, 'let it burn, but don't interrupt the unloading of those boats.' We'll fix it after the last boat leaves.

Ok so, the Electrical Shop had a cat (one of many over the years). The Pipefitter shop had one, Machine Repair, Hydraulic Repair and many other shops all had a cat. These are not your nice puddy-tats. They are quite feral because they are supposed to pare down the rat population.

This cat stood guard in and around the spare motors and various 'parts' cabinets. If a human got too close she would run. If cornered, she would scratch your eyes out, then run.

'Our cat' had a litter of kittens and she was a good mom. As soon as the kittens were big enough she took them hunting. The whole family was gone for three days.

All of a sudden they were all back but they also brought back a dead rat. Momma skinned the rat better than I could with a razor blade. The untouched carcass next to the pelt, were on the cement floor and momma stood guard over their trophy. That rat was strictly for the babies and momma made sure none of the adult cats came near.

You can imagine, with all the moving conveyors and heavy equipment, every one of the plants had rats. Trucks, trains, hi-lo and tugs constantly kept the doors open all year round, 24/7.

Yes, around the clock because steel production never stops. If the furnaces cool, the refractory and fire bricks contract and cave in, so even during a strike, the UAW authorizes a skeleton crew to maintain the furnaces without producing product. They must be kept hot. Furnaces and ladles were in the Coke Ovens, both foundries, Basic Oxygen Furnace, Electric Arc Furnace, Blast Furnace, the Treadwell train cars (that transported iron between plants) and the Ingot Mold Foundry.

We had people who lived in The Rouge. That's another story. - Dave