From a plaque at the entrance to Ford’s Highland Plant plant in Detroit, where in 1913 the first cars were made on a conveyor belt – and therefore one of the most significant locations of industrial society:
“Mass production soon moved from here to all phases of American industry and set the pattern of abundance for 20th-century living.”
I loved the notion of the ‘pattern of abundance’ and the implicit idea that it belonged to the 20th century – one of those phrases that means more with hindsight. It’s a wasteland now, of course.
The picture is from the University of Michigan’s materials on the role of the automobile in life and society.
Tags: Ford, Highland Park
