Sep 05, 2023
This one is a short, terse little puzzler from the archives of automotive history.
So, everyone knows this famous quote from Henry Ford. He said, "You can have any color of Ford you want, as long as it's black."
So the famous Henry Ford was known for being somewhat of a tightwad, among other things. He was also the father of the modern day assembly line. He did a lot in his time to help speed up production and make cars more widely available. But he was not known as a fun sort of guy. Took everything very seriously. Especially cars. He took cars very seriously because he was building cars for the whole country.
Henry Ford was known for selling cars, all of which were black. And the question very simply is, why did he choose black for the color of his cars?
And the obvious answer is that black was the cheapest paint, but that is not true. Black is not the cheapest paint.
So, what is the reason that Henry Ford chose black as the color of his cars?
Good luck.
So, why did Henry Ford only use black paint on his cars?
It wasn't because it was the cheapest.
It was because it dried quicker than any other color. So, if the paint dries faster, it doesn't slow down the production as much.
The black paint at that time dried faster than any other color. And that's why Henry Ford used to say, "You can have any color Ford you want, as long as it's black."
