THE BEAN CAR

No, it’s not just an excuse to make another joke about gas—this car was really made out of beans.

BACKGROUND

Henry Ford had lots of big ideas. In 1913 he came up with his biggest: using an assembly line to build cars. Cars would no longer be handmade one at a time, they’d be mass-produced hundreds at a time. Even after the assembly line was up and running, Ford kept trying to find cheaper and more efficient ways to build his cars.

Although he is known as one of history’s greatest industrialists, Ford was raised on a farm. From this upbringing, he developed a lifelong interest in putting science to work for agriculture. In 1929 he built a laboratory to research potential new uses for farm crops, especially one crop in particular: soybeans.

PLASTIC RAP

Today, about half of the items we use in our daily lives are made from plastic. But in the 1930s, plastic was the new miracle product. Combs, brushes, buttons, and jewelry were just starting to be made out of the stuff. Ford wondered if cars could be made out of plastic, too.

Most of the plastic we use today is derived from hydrocarbons, such as petroleum oil. But it can also be made from any carbon-based fiber, which means almost any plant. Knowing this, in 1932 Ford called his scientists together in Detroit, dumped a few bags of soybeans on the floor, and said, “You fellows are supposed to be a bunch of smart guys. See what you can make out of these.”

Smallest motorized car ever? The Denso Micro-Car. It’s the size of a grain of rice.

Two years later, the Ford team came up with a soybean oil that they used to make a tough enamel for painting cars. They also developed a soybean paste that could be molded into car horn buttons. By 1940 two pounds of soybeans were going into every Ford car as gearshift knobs, door handles, pedals, and gears. His labs also came up with a new, improved plastic that was 10 times stronger than steel—but weighed a third less.

BEAN MACHINE

Ford wanted to start making car doors and hoods out of this amazing new material, but first he had to convince a skeptical public. He called in a group of reporters, then jumped up and down on a sheet of his new soybean plastic. It didn’t bend an inch. “If that was steel,” Ford declared, “it would have caved in.”

In 1941 Henry Ford finally built the first soybean car. It was a sensation! People marveled at the tough soybean plastic body and the clear plastic windows and windshield. The seats were upholstered in a soybean “wool.” The only metal in the car body was in its frame, which meant the car weighed less than a regular car—1,000 pounds less. Newspapers all over the country raved about it and predicted that soon every new car would be made out of plastic.

STOPPED SHORT

But it all came to screeching halt when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Suddenly the United States was at war, and Ford and the other carmakers had to convert their factories from making cars to building new steel tanks, jeeps, planes, ships, and submarines for the armed forces. No new cars were made until after World War II ended in 1945. By that time Ford had moved on to other projects, and the soybean car was forgotten.

Wrong answer! The Hundred Years’ War lasted 116 years—from 1337 to 1453.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

When Henry Ford started experimenting with soybeans back in the 1930s, he said, “Soybeans will make millions of dollars for farmers, and provide us with needed things nobody even knows about now.” It turns out that Ford was ahead of his time. Today soybeans are one of America’s biggest cash crops and the country’s most valuable export. They’re used in plastics, but you’ll also find them in inks, varnishes, paints, and glues…and new Ford cars.

In 2003 the Ford company celebrated its 100th anniversary by building a new bean car, or more accurately, a “veggie” car. The roof and carpet mats of the new Model U are made from corn; the seats and bumpers are made from soybeans; and the oil used to lubricate the engine comes from sunflower seeds. Plus there’s no dirty exhaust—instead of smoke, the hydrogen-powered engine gives off steam. And this car of the future is almost totally biodegradable!

Mr. Bean: Henry Ford once went to a convention wearing clothes made from soybeans.