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many black smiths left. meet one here in san francisco. good evening and welcome to a second look i'm julie haener. this month marks the 100th anniversary of the industrial revelation. it was in 1913 that henry ford began using the assembly line to manufacture the model t. in 2000, bob mackenzie lookedded at the significance -- looked at the significance of that change. >> reporter: maneuvering your horse and buggy down market street was not easy. of course you had to be rich to own an automobile which didn't add to their popularity with everyone else. as the second decade took place, the auto owned the streets but it was still only the rich that owned them. henry ford changed all that. instead of making cars one at a time, the ford factory mass produced them with an idea called the assembly line. each worker did the same job over and over enabled the plant tocrank out a new car every 15 minutes. at last, the ford could take the roads. northern californians could climb the mountain to yosemite. people who did not have a week to hike up the hills could weekend in a natural paradise. getting wheels was almost like getting wings. the more cars we did, the more business we did and the more business we did. the more cars we could buy. and in the roaring 1920s they did. but outside city limits there were no paveed road and no road signs. the cloud of dust raised by one automobile made visibility pretty chancy for anyone behind. nevertheless, car owners took their spins in the country, lurching in and out of rust and bouncing on rocks and that was part of the fun. in the early part of the century, progress didn't seem to have a price. it brought prosperity and prosperity was good. the model t was built to be a model car but ford also built a speedster model t. it's a lot of work. >> right around 300 vintage cars are taking part this year in the wine country classic. open wheeled cars, stock cars, ferrari's cobras, jaguars you name it. there's no shortage of unique even one of a kind cars in the wine country. it's a 1915 ford model t speedster. owned by a firefighter. it presents a few challenges like. >> no breaks, i mean it has breaks but they only basically grip the rear hub of the tires and i mean you can go around the track maybe two laps and hitting the breaks at all turns by that by the end of two maps you don't have any brakes. >> reporter: that's not all, cars of this era need a driver and passenger. and the passenger is not along to enjoy the scenery. >> the passenger does a big job. mainly look out for faster cars. you have to pump the fuel to pressurize the tanks so you get some pressure in the carburetor. if it starting going, if it starts missing you have to start pumping it again. >> gary's dad is his passenger. it obviously won't be the fastest car on the track this weekend but it may be the one with the most interesting story. >> over the decades automobiles have played an important role in young romances. but for one castro valley couple their romance began later in life and was sparked by a common interest in one car, the ford model a. bob mackenzie brought us their story. romance bloomed in strange and wonderful ways. in the case of ted crosby and katherine wilkerson. he liked her model a and he liked his. years ago when cliff was married to someone else, they became to a car club. in 1989 ted lost his wife and the following year katherine lost her husband. as old friend they kind of naturally fell together. >> she needed help with her car. came to me for a tune up. and that's how we met. >> he must have given her a pretty good tune up because now they share a house and a life in the oakland hills. sometimes they'll go for a ride in his, sometimes in hers. by the way their roadsters aren't as rare as it may seem. there's still about 5,000 model a's. the model a was the car that followed the model t. henry ford's company sold millions of the model a's. for the main reason that they were confidentable and dependable. besides that they were found. when a couple has fun they don't fight. well, not much any way. >> never an argument. he's opinionated. that's all. >> well after you get so old you become opinionated. katherine's car is laid up at if moment. but generally ted manages to keep both of them rolling. he can do most mechanical jobs himself with some help from katherine. >> once in a while, when we can get things doing. she will stay here and chase tools for me. >> that's the best part, to be a go-for. still to come on a second look, taking a tour in a model t. yosemite here we come. and a bit later we visit the california volcano that erupted less than a century ago. this year is the 100th anniversary of henry ford starting the assembly line to build model ts. it's also the 100th anniversary being allowed into yosemite national park. george watson introduced us to a man who is once again giving people the opportunity to drive a model t in yosemite. at the turn of the 20th century, good old horsepower was still a valued method of transportation. eight short years later in 1908, henry ford would take the horses out of horsepower and put 20 of them in a block of iron under the hood of his new model t. ford brought his motor car to the masses and reinvented america's pioneering spirit. by putting people on the road in, he was however putting the car before the road sort to speak. in 1900 there was 144 miles of concrete paveed roads in the whole country. so almost all of america's motorized trips were by necessity in the back valleys. one was here to the granite of valley domes. everywhere americans drove their model ts it was a challenge. >> coming to yosemite it was the same kind of adventure. you would have blow outs, engine problems. one of the great things about these cars was that they were easily fixed. >> reporter: these with the dusty days of the 20th century. half of americans lived in farms or towns of less than 1,500 people. most people died within 150 miles from where they were born. these were changing times. at a time when cars were being allowed in yosemite, ford sold as many cars as americans. but that was a long time ago. what would you think about someone reaching back in time and pulling the model t out of distant memory and putting it into the present? david wood worth is trying to do just that. he's offering a vacation tour that includes luxury hotels, fancy food and most important, the chance to drive a model t over the same roads as the earliest automotive adventurers. >> we use original model ts with no alterations at all from the time they came off the assembly line and people get a feel for what it was for grandpa to really start driving the back roads of america. some people might have to relearn the trick of driving a model t. others like myself have to learn it from scratch. >> now this is your gas. so you can raise it up and down. release the hand brake just a little bit and then step on the little pedal which is on your left side. >> so we begin gently enough in the parking lot of the tania lodge. one of the yosemite stop overs on the t tours. but the adventure lies not here but out there. on the back roads of yosemite. >> this car is 90 years old and this is original equipment. you have to keep in mind this replaced literally the horse and buggy. people went from horse and buggy to this car. so this was a big step up for folks 90 years ago. horses could pull a buggy at 10 miles per hour for a couple of hours. model t could run all day at 35 miles per hour. still the t is an automobile. a piece of machinery front with intangibles that a horse could never know. stories of the old days traveling in a t abound. the kind of tall tales that in the telling eventually evolve into history. >> one of the stories that they have is going into yosemite because the brakes not being very good. they would drag a tree down the hill to help slow them down. >> reporter: model ts gave way to the best way of traveling in yosemite running at 10 miles per hour. >> i had a friend who used to come up that road from fresno. i asked him how long it took. and he said i will tell you how long it took, three flat tires. >> reporter: whether it was the turn of the last century or the turn of this one. it's not the how when it comes to traveling to yosemite, just being there is what counts. when we come back on a second look, active volcanos in california? yes, and one of them erupted less than a century ago. and a bit later, a blast from the past. what it takes to be a 21st century black smith in the area. look at 'em. living on cloud nine with that u-verse wireless receiver. you see in my day, when my mom was repainting the house, you couldn't just set up a tv in the basement. i mean, come on! nope. we could only watch tv in the rooms that had a tv outlet. yeah if we wanted to watch tv someplace else, we'd have to go to my aunt sally's. have you ever sat on a plastic covered couch? [ kids cheering ] you're missing a good game over here. those kids wouldn't have lasted one day in our shoes. [ male announcer ] switch and add a wireless receiver. get u-verse tv for $19 a month for 2 years with qualifying bundles rethink possible. a lot of people might not realize that california has active volcanos. one of them is mount lassen. 100 years ago the ground under it began to shake and steam came to the surface. it was a warning that a year later, mount lassen would erupt. >> reporter: even at the height of the season mount lassen is a quiet place. overlooking its kingdom of lesser mountains, lakes and valleys. the silence is broken by the occasional vehicle. or by the hiss and rumble of geothermal exhalation smelling of sulfur. yes a quiet uncrowded place. but 87 years ago the silence was abruptly broken. gas, lava, boiling mud and sulfur came roaring out of the mountain top. geologists knew that a volcanic eruption formed mount lassen about 400,000 years ago. an amateur photographer saw the spot, stood his ground and shot this film. from another spot an enthusiastic, took still pictures near his car. the eruption was not the first odd phenomenon on mount lassen. the mountain had been emitting blasts of steam an intrepid at venture who rid the top to look at this phenomenon. fortunately there were no hikers on that morning when the old volcano blew its top. buildings were lost but no lives. successive eruptions formed a huge mushroom cloud. and looked like this from the town of anderson 50 miles away. today mount lassen slumbers peacefully. throughout the park you can see and smell the evidence of more hot stuff down below. bubbles come up emits sulfur. >> there are going to be more eruptions in the future we just don't know if it's within our lifetime or if it's a geologic lifetime. because if you look at all the volcanos. every mountain is a volcano or part of a volcano, we have a history of eruptions. as recently as 1980, our own generation saw what a dormant volcano could do. mount st. helens a previous old docile mountain exploded sending down a deadly ash and lava. abandoning vacation homes that would vanish in the rain of hot ashes and molten rock. the explosion of mount lassen was more -- serious californias took to the mountains to take a look at this amazing thing, an active volcano in the u.s. families would picnic from a safe distance and watch the show. and leaving a devastating area miles wide where once there had been forest. the eruption put the previously obscure area on the map. through the efforts of mr. lummus and others, lasser became a national park in 1916. today people come for the view, the wild flowers, the clouds that look close enough to touch. the hiking and camping and fishing. fred hall has been bringing up his family from placerville for 40 year. >> the devastated area was devastated. there was small brush and you can see to the mountains now it's forest. we've seen a change in this place for 40 years. >> it's not like other parks like yosemite. you never see any crowds here. >> no i would say, the complaint of the forest service no one seems to come up here. it seems to be a lost attraction. that's one of the attractions that brings us up here. we've been to yosemite and have to fight the crowds on the valley floor and that's not for us anymore. >> when we come back on a second look, paul mackenzie introduces us to a man doing an old job in a modern world. earlier tonight on a second look. while the auto waves would lead to jobs for many people it would also eliminate work for many others. among them black smiths. well at least most black smiths. but there are still a few of them around. and in 2000, ktvu's bob mackenzie found one of them in san francisco. in the earl little 1920s, the black smith shop was still such a familiar site in american towns that buster keaton made one a setting for a comedy short, he didn't have to explain what a black smith did, everybody knew. a black smith used metal, pounding it into shape. in san francisco at that time the automobile had pretty well replaced the horse. but san franciscans still went to wilbert's shop to get pieces made. clockers was his apprentice who took his place. clockers would take a apprentice himself, and here's the surprise, wilber's shop is still there. and inside you will find mr. clockers apprentice. for almost 40 years now, tony roselini has been practicing this ancient trade just like he learned it from the old black smith. making tools and parts just like they were 100 years ago. >> most people like it. they like coming in here and finding out that this is history when they were made too see this downtown. >> reporter: the machines roselin uses are from the early 19th century. but they do the job just like they did then. the old forge generates 1800 degrees of heat enough to get metal red hot or white hot if necessary. >> heat the metal up and if you heat it up you can bend it, shape it, smash it do whatever you want with it providing you don't get it too hot then it burns up. it can burn up. >> reporter: ever burn yourself? >> yes, sir, lots of times. i've burned myself, i've hit myself. but i've been lucky. i've only been to emergency once. >> reporter: when a pair of tongs are put together, roselini will grind down the rough edges. apply a coat of rust resistant paint and a new tool is ready for a long and serviceable life. a new high rise building will soon spring up next to the old black smith shop. over the years developers have made officers on the property the shop stands on. but the owner is roselini's ex- wife who wants to keep the shop the way it is. >> do you get tired doing this? >> yeah, i get tired i'm an old guy. i get tired. my back bothers me once in a while. but as long as i feel pretty good. i still feel pretty good so i'm able to do this work. i take care of some special customers. they depend on me, so as long as i'm here i'll do it. >> so for the forseable future this building will be here. no matter how many skyscrapers spring up around it. >> and that's it for this week's second look. i'm julie haener, thank you for watching. 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