Henry Ford's Biography

Henry Ford was an extraordinary man. He changed the car industry in numerous ways. Henry Ford was an American automobile manufacturer who in 1908 created the Ford model T car. He then went onto the assembly line, which made the industry revolutionize. Today, Henry Ford is known for helping the build of America's economy while the nation's vulnerable early years. He is also seen as one of America's leading businessmen. Early life for Ford was where he birthed his ideas. At the age of 13, Henry’s father gifted him with a pocket watch. He then took it apart and reassembled it. His neighbors and friends were very fascinated. They then asked him to fix their watches which he did with no trouble at all. Henry was not into the farming business, so he left his home at age 16. Once he left, Ford took an apprenticeship in Detroit as a machinist at a shipbuilding firm.

In 1888, Ford married Clara Bryant. By running a sawmill, Ford sustained him and his new wife in the first several years of marriage. He then went back to Detroit with Clara and became an engineer for Edison Illuminating company. Ford was raised to chief engineer by rising swiftly through the ranks, two years later. Clara gave birth to the couple’s only son, Edsel Bryant Ford around the same time. Ford spent his jagged hours on his efforts to build a gasoline-powered horseless carriage, or as we know it, an automobile. He completed what he called the “Quadricycle,” in 1896. It was powered by a two-cylinder, four-horsepower gasoline engine and included a light metal frame fitted with four bicycle wheels. Ford sold the Quadricycle in order to continue building other vehicles. He was very determined to improve upon his prototype. Ford gained backing from various investors over the next seven years. Some of whom founded the Detroit Automobile Company in 1899. This organization was later to be renamed the Henry Ford Company. The first car to be affordable for most Americans was the Model T. Ford proposed the Model T in October 1908 and maintained its production until 1927. The car was remembered for its sturdiness and versatility, immediately making it a tremendous commercial breakthrough. It was also recognized as the “Tin Lizzie”.

Ford Motor Company posted 100 percent increases for several years. Inexpensive to repair and simple to operate. Following Ford’s invention of the assembly line, approximately half of all cars in America in 1918 were Model T's. Henry Ford propelled the first moving assembly line for the mass production of the automobile in 1913. This original technique reduced the number of time it took to develop a car from 12 hours to two and a half. Which then reduced the cost of the Model T from $850 in 1908 to $310 by 1926 for a genuine model. The first Ford car the two-cylinder, eight-horsepower Model A was congregated at a plant on Mack Avenue in Detroit Ford produced the first V-8 engine in 1932. However, by 1936 the company had descended to number three in sales in the automotive industry. Ford pursued a long battle upon unionization of labor, despite his progressive policies concerning the minimum wage. He then declined to come to terms with the United Automobile Workers even after his rivals did so. In 1937, Ford security staff battled with UAW organizers at the Rouge plant, after which the National Labor Relations Board instructed Ford to stop intervening with union organization. Ford Motor Company endorsed its first contract with UAW in 1941. However, not before Henry Ford contemplated shutting down the company to dodge it. Ford published a plethora of anti-Semitic writings that were gathered as a four-volume set named The International Jew. He next renounced the writings and sold the paper. Ford then displayed admiration for Adolf Hitler and Germany and endured the Grand Cross of the German Eagle in 1938. The Nazi regime’s greatest medal for a foreigner. Edsel Ford, his son died in 1943. In 1945, Henry Ford resigned to the presidency of Ford Motor Company shortly before giving it over to his grandson, Henry Ford II. He then died two years later at his Dearborn home, at the age of 83.