Serial number

What did they use the upside down seven
forand why? My serial number looks to be
8n197525 but the seven is actually stamped
updide down.

Just a little fun at the factory as you can see on my 1939 three star 9n with the extra star on the head. He probably didn't realize the seven was upside down until after he stamped it.

<a href="https://imgur.com/mfZc4pi"> </a>

All vehicle engine blocks were hand-stamped with a serial number at Ford after they passed QC Inspection/break-in testing. The man delegated to do the stamping was an unskilled, lowly-paid employee, and usually a Negro or a disabled person, probably wheelchair bound but able to utilize their hands. Shift hours were 9 hour days, 6 days a week. Each letter, number, and character was an individual steel hand stamp -see picture below. Now imagine you are the one stamping blocks all day. Fatigue would set in and arms and hands got sore/weak, often resulting in mistakes and lightly stamped serial numbers. There was no thought to ergonomics back then. Ford used 'thugs', hired muscle, usually former convicts and/or fighters, as line bosses who ensured no one slacked off on their job hired by the biggest thug at Ford then, Harry Bennett, Henry's right hand man in charge of the Rouge Plant functions. Men weren't allowed to even smoke on the line and were not allowed to sit down even when the line stopped. You didn't become idle until it was break/lunch time. Bennett was despised by most workers and also by Edsel Ford and Charles Sorenson. So, this explains why we see many weakly stamped or mistake riddled serial numbers.

FORD ENGINE BLOCK SERIAL NUMBER HAND STAMPS:

Tim *PloughNman* Daley(MI)