re-install 36 distributor

[FlatheadTed]

It was Emil Zoerlien who took the orders from Henry to develop it and fit it on there ,It wouldn't be a early flathead with out the distributor on the front. The Diver Dan ,one of the best pieces of art and Engineering out there .

 

[FlatheadTed]

Malory might have been involved or came into the picture later on ,

 

[rotorwrench]

That's not the way Mallory painted the picture. According to their company history, it was he and Henry that developed the first system for the V8 and subsequent improvements. The patent papers also tell a story. He was a close second to Tom Edison in the number of registered patents in that time frame.

 

[FlatheadTed]

This article was taken from Ford Life ,I can recall about 30 years ago the Same comment
Also I notice my early distributors have Ford stamped all over them ,does this mean a Patent infringement by Ford .

My dad tells a story of going to a v8 club meeting in the 70s and the speaker was the guy who put the distributor in that spot. Started his speech by saying that he was the ************** the put the distributor on the front of the flathead. He went on to say the Henry would not spend the extra money to move it to a better spot.

 

[jacob smith]

My dad did say it had something to do with the fact the Ford did not want to spend the extra money for additional gears to move the distributor.

 

[Brendan]

I realize you have to remove the pan below the grille to do this, but installing the distributor from the bottom I believe is easier than fighting the fan, hoses and generator.

yup that is the easy way! also if you can get some help

 

[FlatheadTed]

This is how you change one on a 47

 

[Lawrie]

Ted ,would you be able to get a copy of the mag article,
thanks Lawrie

 

[rotorwrench]

Henry Ford payed to use a lot of other peoples patent rights as long as it didn't cost him an arm and a leg. He didn't like using Bendix brakes either due to costs but he used them on the Lincoln cars. He and Mallory were a lot alike and became good friends back in the late 20s. I'm sure they had agreements between them that were good for both parties and Mallory supplied Ford the parts he wanted, Ford name and all. Holley became the ignition supplier at the beginning of the 8BA era but this was after Henry Ford had passed and Henry II was running things.

Harvey Firestone was in the family and also close to Henry so Ford Motors used Firestone tires and many of those early ones had the Ford brand on them.

I'm not saying there wasn't any one else involved but Mallory was the original patent holder of the design that was used. Here is a link. http://www.dragzine.com/news/video-a-brief-look-into-the-history-of-mallory-ignition/

 

[FlatheadTed]

Yes I can I have the book ,I am trying to get better pictures up that's readable ,Ted

 

[FlatheadTed]

I do have the Magazine Lawry

I will try and put up clearer stuff next week ,there is a lot more info out there . Emil was a electrical engineering who did his trade in Germany The third picture is Emil holding a trophy given on his retirement in 59 I(Quote )t was made up out of a 36 distributor by the Experimental machine shop employees to represent the item he was most commonly associated with ,The story goes that Henry did not have a electric motor to test the distributor with so he had Emil make up a model steam engine to rev at 3000-RPM ? to test it ,also he said they had no coil so they stuck a model A coil on top glued in with ocom .Henry wanted the HT wires encased in baker lite ,ect
Going by Rotor wrenches link there may have been some involvement by Malory

 

[FlatheadTed]

To add to this its documented that Emil was put in charge of the Dynamiter testing room to work out timing of the v8 as they were having trouble .Also cam shaft experiments ,Later on wind tunnel work on cooling in 37 .Ted

 

[petehoovie]

Here's the Emil Zoerlein Patent of 1943 > https://www.google.com/patents/US2326113

It's the CRAB....Click on the Images

 

[rotorwrench]

Henry Ford was eventually granted Patent Number 2,020,405 in November 1935. The Patent office considered it different enough to grant him this patent. The original Mallory patent was in the theory and design of a front mounted distributor but it was a pretty basic and general design. There was plenty of room for improvement and Ford did so several times in those first 5 years of the V8.

 

[petehoovie]

Henry Ford was eventually granted Patent Number 2,020,405 in November 1935. The Patent office considered it different enough to grant him this patent. The original Mallory patent was in the theory and design of a front mounted distributor but it was a pretty basic and general design. There was plenty of room for improvement and Ford did so several times in those first 5 years of the V8.

See > http://www.google.com/patents/US1963657?dq=patent:1963657

 

[ford38v8]

Henry Ford payed to use a lot of other peoples patent rights as long as it didn't cost him an arm and a leg. He didn't like using Bendix brakes either due to costs but he used them on the Lincoln cars. He and Mallory were a lot alike and became good friends back in the late 20s. I'm sure they had agreements between them that were good for both parties and Mallory supplied Ford the parts he wanted, Ford name and all. Holley became the ignition supplier at the beginning of the 8BA era but this was after Henry Ford had passed and Henry II was running things.

Harvey Firestone was in the family and also close to Henry so Ford Motors used Firestone tires and many of those early ones had the Ford brand on them.

I'm not saying there wasn't any one else involved but Mallory was the original patent holder of the design that was used. Here is a link. http://www.dragzine.com/news/video-a-brief-look-into-the-history-of-mallory-ignition/

Henry Ford believed that hard work should profit, and that investors and patent holders were immoral parasites. His win in the Selden License suit bolstered that belief that he carried throughout his life, and can be seen in all his business dealings. That the Lincoln car's features didn't always follow this philosophy was because it was under the leadership of Edsel rather than Henry.

The Ford tires were produced by Ford in his own tire plant. I may be wrong, but I don't think Firestone manufactured any tires bearing the Ford name. In general, though, the Ford name did appear on many parts going into the Ford car for reasons involving product liability on knockoff replacement parts.

 

[rotorwrench]

Another example of Henrys dealings with out side sources was Chandler Groves. Ford couldn't make all the units he needed for production so he outsourced a lot of stuff like the carburetors but he always secured deals with these companies which were to benefit him in the end. This was the same reason he bought out John & Horace Dodge at great expense. If you wanted to make things for Henry Ford, he had to like you first and then he had to end up owning the product or you wouldn't supply for him. This is all well known in the FoMoCo history. Another example was Houdaille shock absorbers. Henry didn't design those either but he did produce them. Agreements were made with Houde Engineering to produce them as well as National and Spicer. Ford made a lot of their own stuff but they had to have back up when production was high or in case of an accident at a plant, labor strike, or something of that nature.

 

[FlatheadTed]

These are some publications taken fron various publications ,the first from Petersons Ford of the thirty's. Spider Huff head of Electricial was asked by HF to develop the dist ,he said it couldn't be done so the job was given to Emil

 

[FlatheadTed]

xxxxxxxxxxx

 

[rotorwrench]

The article indicates several possibilities. A person can believe that Ford built the system entirely by his own research done by his own employees and they can also believe that the secrecy was due to elimination of industrial espionage and/or possible patent right infringement security. A lot was going on in Fords head at the time. The fact that he was treating Emil like a mushroom also indicates something else. My guess is that he never told Emil about the Mallory idea and he didn't want him to find out either. Ford already knew what he wanted which was somewhat similar to what Mallory was already trying to patent at the time. Ford likely didn't want Mallory knowing what he was doing there so he kept his developments a secret. Mallory was awarded patent rights on his design in 1934 which gave Ford a window of opportunity to use his own changes on the design from early 1932 until he could secure his own patent in 1935. It would be interesting to find out what went on there with Mallory since he was already producing parts for Ford on the Model A/B design. Mallory likely made those first coils for the early 1932 Ford until Ford could tool up for that stuff. Mallory may have figured Ford would have to pay him royalties on his original patent but Ford likely had leverage due to the changes he had already made on Mallory's design. All I know is that it must not have bothered Mallory too much since he continued to supply a lot of Fords needs for ignition parts right up to 1948. This indicates he likely didn't have a big problem with Ford as long as he was getting a piece of the production pie. Henry Ford's name is the only one on that patent in 1935 so you can see that Ford didn't include Emil in the credit for that either. If Emil was involved to that extent, you would think that his name would have been included like it was in the 1943 patent. Ford and many other manufacturers had their employees sign documents to the affect that what ever was developed by them became the sole property of the manufacturer that paid for that development but their names were generally included. Henry Ford's character was flawed in that respect. I think he had a lot of explaining to do at the pearly gates with the way he treated his son Edsel.

I worked for a guy that had spent quite a few years working for Bill Harrah at his museum restoration shop in Reno. He specialized in Stanley Steamer automobiles. He had a little steam engine that came from an elaborate popcorn popping machine from the 1930s. He ran it off of compressed air but it sounds a lot like the one Emil made to run the distributor machine. It had a flywheel governor on it too. The little thing would run at a pretty high rpm when the pressure was throttled up to governor speed. I guess the pop corn machine had all sorts of little mechanical thing to run on it like a little carnival display with a ferris wheel and a carrousel.