Born on July 30, 1863 on a Dearborn, Michigan farm, Henry
Ford created the Ford Model T car in 1908 and went on to develop the
assembly line mode of production, which revolutionized the industry. As a
result, Ford sold millions of cars and became a world-famous company
head. The company lost its market dominance but had a lasting impact on
other technological development and U.S. infrastructure.
Quotes
"The only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we make today."
– Henry Ford
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Automobile manufacturer Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863,
on his family’s farm near Dearborn, Michigan. When Henry was 15, his
father gifted him a pocket watch, which the young boy promptly took
apart and reassembled. Friends and neighbors were impressed and
requested that he fix their timepieces too.
Unsatistfied with farm work, Ford left home the next year, at age 16,
to take an apprenticeship as a machinist in Detroit. In the years that
followed, he would learn to skillfully operate and service steam
engines, and would also study bookkeeping.
In 1888, Ford married Clara Ala Bryant and briefly returned
to farming to support his wife and son, Edsel. But three years later,
he was hired as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company. In
1883, his natural talents earned him a promotion to Chief Engineer.
All the while, Ford developed his plans for a horseless carriage,
and in 1896, he constructed his first model, the Ford Quadricycle.
Within the same year, he attended a meeting with Edison executives and
found himself presenting his automobile plans to
Thomas Edison. The lighting genius encouraged Ford to build a second and better model.
After a few trials building cars and companies, in 1903,
Henry Ford established the Ford Motor Company. Ford introduced the
Model T in October of 1908, and for several years, the company posted
100 percent gains.
However, more than for his profits, Ford became renowned for his
revolutionary vision: the manufacture of an inexpensive automobile made
by skilled workers who earn steady wages.
In 1914, he sponsored the development of the moving assembly line
technique of mass production. Simultaneously, he introduced the
$5-per-day wage ($110 in 2011) as a method of keeping the best workers
loyal to his company. Simple to drive and cheap to repair, half of all
cars in America in 1918 were Model T’s.
From a social perspective, Henry Ford’s was marked by
seemingly contradictory viewpoints. In business, Ford offered profit
sharing to select employees who stayed with the company for six months
and, most important, who conducted their lives in a respectable manner.
The company’s “Social Department” looked into an employee’s drinking,
gambling and otherwise uncouth activities to determine eligibility for
participation. Ford was also an ardent pacifist and opposed World War I,
even funding a peace ship to Europe. Later, in 1936, Ford and his
family established the Ford Foundation to provide ongoing grants for
research, education and development. But despite these philanthropic
leanings, Ford was also a committed anti-Semite, going as far as to
support a weekly newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, which furthered
such views.
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