Henry Ford - an American industrialist

Henry Ford, born July 30, 1863, was the first of William and Mary Ford's six children. He grew up on a prosperous family farm in what is today Dearborn, Michigan. His mother died in 1876, when he was only 13. Henry's father wanted him to take over the family farm, although he never actually liked the farm.

He was good at solving math problems in his head. But Henry's greatest love was studying mechanical objects.

On trips to nearby Detroit with his father, Henry had seen steam engines on trains. A common source of power for machines of the day, steam engines burned coal or wood in a boiler to heat water until it created steam.

In 1888, Ford married Clara Bryant and in 1891 they moved to Detroit, where Ford had taken a job as night engineer for the Edison Electric Illuminating Company.This event signified a conscious decision on Ford's part to dedicate his life to industrial pursuits. His promotion to Chief Engineer in1893 gave him enough time and money to devote attention to his personal experiments on internal combustion engines.

He became one of the scores of other people working in barns and small shops trying to make horseless carriages. Ford read about these other efforts in magazines, copied some of their ideas, added some of his own and convinced a small group of friends and colleagues to help him. This resulted in his first primitive automobile, completed in 1896. A second, more sophisticated car followed in 1898.

In 1896, Ford attended a meeting of Edison executives, where he was introduced to Thomas Edison. Edison approved of Ford’s automobile experimentation. Encouraged by Edison, Ford designed and built a second vehicle, completing it in 1898. Backed by the capital of Detroit lumber baron William H. Murphy, Ford resigned from the Edison Company and founded the Detroit Automobile Company on August 5, 1899.

After one more unsuccessful attempt to establish a company to manufacture automobiles, on June 16, 1903, Henry and 12 others invested $28,000 and created Ford Motor Company. The first car built by the Company was sold July 15, 1903. Henry owned 25.5% of the stock in the new organization. He became president and controlling owner in 1906.

The Ford Motor Company manufactured its first car – the model A – in 1903. By 1906, the model N was in production, but yet Ford hadn’t achieved his goal of producing a simple, cheap car. From 1908 to 1927, the Ford Motor Company sold more than 15 million Model Ts around the world. Henry Ford helped people move beyond the horse and the road engine toward a more modern world filled with fast and powerful cars.

As owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "Fordism": mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Henry Ford introduced the 40-hour workweek to his factory staff in May 1926 and to his office staff in August 1926.

The most important invention Henry Ford made was the Model T assembly line. He made the assembly line to make the transition of making anything easier that will be purchased. The assembly line was invented while he was making his Model T cars.

Henry Ford died at his residence, Fair Lane Estate in Dearborn, at 11:40pm on Monday, April 7, 1947, following a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 83 years old.
Henry Ford - an American industrialist