One of the early Model T's-Old photo

[Herb Iffrig]

[JTT3]

_____________________________________________________

[Norman Kling]

Herb,
Do you know who the circled people are?
Norm

[Steve Jelf]

It has the no-windshield option, so 1909. An interesting feature is the Fast Frank hand crank.

[Art Ebeling]

It looks like the woman circled is on a cell phone. It was probably someone trying to reach her about her vehicle warranty.

[KWTownsend]

On the right is a statue of a weeping angel. Don't close your eyes, Doctor...

[JTT3]

Keith might be a real person, there is a little girl to the left of the image. Steve must be early it has the large E&J sidelights.

[ModelT46]

The early 1909 T, the hand cranks were held in place in a upward position. This is normal and all early Ts were that way. It also looks as if it has a Brisco radiator wh Does anyone know the history of this phto?ich was standard on the early Ts. It probably is one of the first 2500 Ts, which had a built in water pump. It would have been great if the left side was visible. It could be a two lever model. Does anyone know the history of this photograph? It is a copy. Camera shutters at that time were slower, so more time was taken to take a photo, so most all had great detail.

[Steve Jelf]

Does anyone know the history of this photograph? It is a copy. Camera shutters at that time were slower, so more time was taken to take a photo, so most all had great detail.

Yes, it's most likely a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, etc. Shutters of the time were slower because the emulsions were slower (less sensitive to light and requiring longer exposure). That had little to do with sharpness of detail. High resolution came from the combination of large format plate or film with a good lens. A photo shot in a large format (4 x 5, 5 x 7, 8 x 10) with a good lens might be shockingly sharp and clear, while the same photo made with a 1908 Kodak Brownie would not.

[Herb Iffrig]

Here is the back of the photo.

[JTT3]

With a little adjustment

[Tourabout]

I saw where the post card was listed on EBay.
It would be interesting to see if the family could be traced to present day. Chute doesn’t sound like a common name. Ella and Edgar could also be Clutes.

[CudaMan]

Older thread on crank holders:

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/118802/135173.html

I didn't realize that the earliest T's came with crank holders. N/R/S models had them. Bruce's book says the holder was discontinued after the first 2500 cars.

[Luke]

Should anyone want to purchase the card and do a good quality scan it's entirely possible to enhance as John has done, and additionally remove the pen circles (plus colour it if you'd like). Here's a rough idea of what it'd look like:

[JTT3]

Nicely done Luke, haven’t figured out how to colorize yet. How did you remove the circled area?

[Steve Jelf]

If this was really in 1908, it would have to be one of the first Model T's.The leaves would be off the trees by the end of November.

[Luke]

Nicely done Luke, haven’t figured out how to colorize yet. How did you remove the circled area?

John,

What's 'colorize'?

There are various techniques you can use to remove things like those circles, in part depending upon the software you use. For that job I'd typically use the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) which is a fantastic cross-platform image editor, and you could utilise any or all three of clone/heal/airbrush. I also enhanced the original image with GIMP, much as you did I expect.

GIMP is free, another alternative is a commercial Adobe package but it can be fairly expensive. Although I have the full (Adobe) suite I very much prefer GIMP and other associated software such as Darktable, Inkscape etc, and use them almost exclusively now. They're available for Linux which is my OS of choice, but you can also install them to a M$ or Mac OS.

I hate to think what someone would make of the preceding two paragraphs in 1908, and my apologies for sullying the purity of the discussion, but I trust that's given you some pointers? Happy to email or discuss on the 'ph if you want to pursue further.

Luke.

[Steve Jelf]

I use GIMP to correct my photographic mistakes or just to improve a picture. It's so versatile that I don't use most of what it can do, but it's great for the few things I regularly do with it.

[Drkbp]

Thank you John .....
Note on the post card appears to be:

Pa Clute taken
in Ashley, Ind(iana)
Ella & Edgar by
gate - 1908

Probably ... Oscar M. Clute circled in the touring with step daughter
Ella Clute and toddler Edgar Clute (18 months old) circled at the gate.

[ModelT46]

Interesrting. The Benson Ford collection has some of the shipping information and some early build sheets.. Someone should spend some time at the Benson researching for a possioble link to this car. I did so on my 1910 and found the name of the Ford Dealer .

[Drkbp]

Ashley, Indiana is 30 miles north of Fort Wayne, Indiana
and 120 miles southwest of Detroit, Michigan.
Light colored running boards. Linoleum?, hard to tell..
May be one of the very early cars.

[Luke]

I use GIMP to correct my photographic mistakes or just to improve a picture. It's so versatile that I don't use most of what it can do, but it's great for the few things I regularly do with it.

Steve,

This is good to hear! It means I now know you'll be able to fix your photo I 'accidentally' ripped (using GIMP) in Gerrit's thread a few weeks ago: https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/download/f ... &mode=view

Ken,

Without a much higher resolution scan it's not possible to be certain about the running boards - it could just be dried up dirt that's making them appear light. The original may not given enough detail anyway.

Good job on locating the detail about the occupants, I don't know how things work in the U.S., but is there a methodology to go forward from them and see if there are any relatives around that might like the card (or have other interesting photos)? FWIW the detail I've come across suggests Edgar was born in 1906, and lived until 1945, and Ella passed away in 1966. Also 'Pa' Clute could have been Walter (1876-1908)? IF that's the case it might further date the photograph...

Luke.

[Herb Iffrig]

How about the height of the door handles. They appear to be in the middle of the door's vertical side. Were they moved up higher later. When was that done?

[ModelT46]

There are three different bodies on the 1909s. The aluminum one, a wood one by "Ponitiac" and a wood one by Wilson. Some member should tell us which one had the door handle in that location.

[pete eastwood]

The car in the photo has the characteristic's of the earliest T's.
The front fenders with the "square" bill.
The low door handles ( although those went on into mid 1909)
The vertical crank holder.
The multi tier side lights
Looks to have the linoleum covered running boards with the brass trim (looks like the screws are barely visible in the photo)
Also looks like the plain radiator without the Ford script.
These things make it one of the first 2,500!

[Drkbp]

Darel,

Here is another one with the door handle in that position.
A two-lever E&J lamps but has a top.
That is a Briscoe on that too.

[Tourabout]

What’s up with that carbide generator?
Looks like it has the open bell horn with the separate cover attached.

[Rob]

A little more to work with on this one.

NRS had a spring steel piece and latch on the water pump to hold the crank upright. Model B and the 1906 K had a different arrangement to hold the crank upright (I believe the same set up as the waterpump T).

Hopefully someone here gets a good copy of the card.
Cheers,
Rob