diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/conversions.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/conversions.rb
index 48d3f6d91d..663ea8747b 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/conversions.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/conversions.rb
@@ -5,6 +5,11 @@ module CoreExtensions #:nodoc:
     module String #:nodoc:
       # Converting strings to other objects
       module Conversions
+        # 'a'.ord == 'a'[0] for Ruby 1.9 forward compatibility.
+        def ord
+          self[0]
+        end if RUBY_VERSION < '1.9'
+
         # Form can be either :utc (default) or :local.
         def to_time(form = :utc)
           ::Time.send("#{form}_time", *ParseDate.parsedate(self)[0..5].map {|arg| arg || 0})
@@ -13,11 +18,11 @@ def to_time(form = :utc)
         def to_date
           ::Date.new(*ParseDate.parsedate(self)[0..2])
         end
-        
+
         def to_datetime
           ::DateTime.civil(*ParseDate.parsedate(self)[0..5].map {|arg| arg || 0} << 0)
         end
       end
     end
   end
-end
\ No newline at end of file
+end
diff --git a/activesupport/test/core_ext/string_ext_test.rb b/activesupport/test/core_ext/string_ext_test.rb
index cec6772272..427e7dfc57 100644
--- a/activesupport/test/core_ext/string_ext_test.rb
+++ b/activesupport/test/core_ext/string_ext_test.rb
@@ -78,6 +78,11 @@ def test_humanize
     end
   end
 
+  def test_ord
+    assert_equal 97, 'a'.ord
+    assert_equal 97, 'abc'.ord
+  end
+
   def test_string_to_time
     assert_equal Time.utc(2005, 2, 27, 23, 50), "2005-02-27 23:50".to_time
     assert_equal Time.local(2005, 2, 27, 23, 50), "2005-02-27 23:50".to_time(:local)