Ford Assembly Line

 Ford tested various assembly methods to optimize the procedures before permanently installing the equipment. The actual assembly line used an overhead crane to mount the body. Henry Ford's production time went from twelve and a half hours to two and a half hours. Which caused cars price that was $900 to go down to $440. Many employees were not happy with the amount of work they were doing without any pay raise. So Henry Ford increased the pay wages to keep  employees happy.

According to Henry Ford:

"The principles of assembly are these:

(1) Place the tools and the men in the sequence of the operation so that each component part shall travel the least possible distance while in the process of finishing.

(2) Use work slides or some other form of carrier so that when a workman completes his operation, he drops the part always in the same place--which place must always be the most convenient place to his hand--and if possible have gravity carry the part to the next workman for his operation.

(3) Use sliding assembling lines by which the parts to be assembled are delivered at convenient distances."

• James Martin Miller; Henry Ford (1922), The amazing story of Henry Ford, M. A. Donohue & co.

• Clymer, Floyd. Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877–1925 (New York: Bonanza Books, 1950)

• David Raizman, History of Modern Design, Prentice-Hall

 

References:

William Morris

Morris first repeating wallpaper design was created in 1862, but was not manufacture for the sale till 1864.  Morris had his wallpaper printed by a commercial wallpaper maker.  Morris created his first fabric print in 1868, which he used the ancient technique of hand woodblock printing, over the roller printing.  Morris had spent time at Staffordshire to refine his work of dyeing and experimenting with old techniques and experimenting with new methods.  One of Morris's experiments was reinstating to indigo dye.  The woven fabric's Morris used were sometimes made by machine including intricate double-woven furnishing fabrics in which two sets of warps and wefts are interlinked to create complex gradations of color and texture.  His textile designs are still popular today, sometimes they are re-colored to match current trends.

References:

• Fairclough, Oliver and Emmeline Leary, Textiles by William Morris and Morris & Co. 1861–1940, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, 1981

• Parry, Linda, "Textiles", in The Earthly Paradise: Arts and Crafts by Wiliam Morris and his Circle in Canadian Collections, edited by Katharine A. Lochnan, Douglas E. Schoenherr, and Carole Silver, Key Porter Books

• David Raizman, History of Modern Design, Prentice-Hall

  
  

Harmony in Blue and Gold

Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room ( 1876–1877) is one of  Whistler's masterpiece art. He painted the paneled room in a rich and unified palette of blue greens with over-glazing and metallic gold leaf. It now is considered a high example of the Anglo-Japanese style. At one point, Whistler gained access to Leyland's home and painted two fighting peacocks meant to represent the artist and his patron; one holds a paint brush and the other holds a bag of money, which is said to represent the fight that had caused Whistler's termination. The contents of the Peacock Room was installed in his Detroit mansion. Now the Peacock Room was permanently installed in the Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The gallery opened to the public in 1923.

^{Virtual Tour- The Peacock room}

References

• Merrill, Linda, and Sarah Ridley, The Princess and the Peacocks; or, The Story of the [Peacock] Room. New York: Hyperion Books for Children, in association with the Freer Gallery of Art, 1993.

• Merrill, Linda, The Peacock Room: A Cultural Biography. Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, in association with Yale University Press, 1998