The Model T Could Have Been Potato Powered in Henry Ford’s Vision for Early Alternative Fuels

The ever-popular Model T, which first hit the early American roadways 117 years ago this month, has been known to operate on multiple fuel types beyond traditional gasoline. Though it was not designed with this capability in mind, a pursuit by Henry Ford during the car’s height of popularity could have brought an alternative to gasoline to market. 

Archived documents from the 1910s show Ford was pursuing various means to create alcohol-based fuel for use in motor vehicles and other internal combustion-powered machines. The potential sources included sugarcane, wood, and potatoes, among other items.

The Model T, which exploded in popularity during the decade after its Oct. 1, 1908, debut, is known by enthusiasts to be capable of operating on different fuel sources beyond traditional gasoline, including ethanol and kerosene. 

“All the world is waiting for a substitute for gasoline,” Ford, a noted nondrinker, said in a 1916 issue of the Western Brewer, where he also lamented the closure of some 60 breweries due to Michigan’s statewide prohibition. “When that is gone, there will be no more gasoline, and long before that time, the price of gasoline will have risen to a point where it will be too expensive to burn as a motor fuel.”

A suitable substitute 

Experiments at the newly established Henry Ford and Son Laboratories at Fair Lane and the Ford Farm in Deaborn over an 18-month period were said to prove that not only could denatured alcohol serve as a suitable substitute for gasoline, but it could be done in a way that was also profitable enough to make this new process a viable business venture. Further, Ford claimed that shuttered breweries could be converted into distilleries for the purpose of making denatured alcohol for use in automobiles or other internal combustion engines, saving countless millions of dollars, which had already been invested in the buildings by their owners. 

While the typical four-cylinder Model T engine was capable of producing 20 horsepower and delivering between 13 and 21 mpg, Ford boasted that a Model T used in testing of the alcohol-based fuel achieved 15% more power than with gasoline, although he conceded its fuel mileage was somewhat lower. The alternative fuel was also predicted to be a boon to farmers, as well, who would soon be using farming tractors such as the popular Fordson. Henry Ford told the Western Brewer he already had 30 such “motor tractors” running on alcohol in Dearborn. Moreover, he foresaw a future where alcohol-based fuel could be supplied by underground pipes for use in illumination and cooking, in the way natural gas is used. 

In detailing the experiments, Ford revealed that numerous items, such as grains and vegetables, had been converted to alcohol. That included waste from canneries and sugar factories that would have otherwise been discarded. Cornstalks and a variety of potatoes from Germany, which Ford predicted could be grown in northern Michigan, were also thought to be promising sources for this endeavor, too. 

Detour ahead  

Despite the potential for this alternate fuel source, Ford’s efforts were sidelined by the increasing difficulties in establishing distilleries in the prohibition era. Michigan’s statewide ban on alcohol was already in place, and a national restriction loomed. By the time prohibition was repealed in 1933, Ford Motor Company had moved on, replacing the Model T with the Model A, and then the flathead V8. 

While his idea didn’t come to fruition, Henry Ford’s early endeavors in alternative fuels set a precedent for the ingenuity and forward-thinking that defines Ford Motor Company today. 

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