The Flivver King: A Story of Ford-America

Abner, Milly, and their four children are crowded in their small apartment, and Abner’s new position has granted them a new stability. They rent a house with indoor plumbing all to themselves and stay there for several years.

Ford’s factory has grown to occupy a three-storey building “paid for entirely out of profits” (35). Both Ford and Abner are “exalted” (35) by seeing the business grow to such greatness from nothing. The new factory is a model of precision and efficiency, and Ford personally supervises the workers, periodically ordering them to work faster.

Ford attends a car race in which a French car is destroyed. He picks up a piece of the car and finds the metal, vanadium steel, far lighter and stronger than the material he uses in his cars. He hires an expert who can help him produce vanadium steel and begins to make his cars “lighter, stronger, cheaper” (36).

Abner Shutt continues to supervise the spindle-nut screwing in the factory. He no longer works with his hands except in order to demonstrate the proper technique or in case of emergency. Though he does his best in this new position, “in his secret heart he never ceased to be afraid of it” (36).