Henry Ford Biography Essay

     In 1903 the Ford Motor Company was incorporated after two unsuccessful attempts. Henry Ford was the vice-president and the chief engineer. The company started out only making a few cars a day at the Ford factory, with two or three men working on a car at a time and having to use parts made to order from other companies.2

Henry Ford was one of the most brilliant entrepreneurs in creating the automobile assembly line, it was his controversial characteristics and unorthodox approach towards administrating the Ford Motor Company which resulted in the conglomeration of one of the most successful corporations in the world. At the turn of the century everything was booming! The growth of the economy and stock market increased the job opportunities as well as morals. As a result of this industrial revolution, out of the woodwork came a humble yet driven man, Henry Ford. Between the five dollar/day plan, his policies on administrating the company, and his relations with his customers, Ford was often presented as a suspicious character. This

Henry's dream of the automobile started with the production of his first auto, on June fourth 1896, the primitive auto was named the quadracycle. Not exactly a modern auto the Quadracycle was reminiscent to a babbycarrige on bicycle wheels but was a start to Ford's empire and the development of the automobile for the people. Many saw Henry's potential and helped him to find a successor to the Quadracycle; one such person was the Mayor of Detroit, William Mayburg who provided financial support to Ford to continue his research. Generous investors such as this and the help of four investors donating 10,000 dollars each led to the official founding of the Ford Motor Co. in 1901.

“Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.” (Henry Ford). Henry Ford is one of the world’s most renowned leaders for the automobile industry. The son of a farmer, Ford has always been interested in how things worked. He has improved the models of his cars to make manufacturing them faster and more efficient by using assembly lines. He also set a balance between his employees’ wages and hours worked. Ford never stopped innovating and it is shown in his later Models of his car. Ford set standards for future motor companies and set standards for modern day manufacturing.

Machines running, hammers dropping, and drills drilling are the sounds of Henry Ford’s revolutionary assembly line. Henry Ford grew up in the late eighteenth century during the industrial revolution. There were no electric lights, only gas lamps and candles. Horses and trains were the only cost effective way of transportation for the public. When Henry Ford was a child, he saw a steam driven car on the road and was mesmerized. At this point, he knew he longed to become a mechanic that works on cars. At the age of sixteen, Henry Ford got a job as an apprentice machinist in Detroit at the Detroit Dry Dock Company. Three years later he returned to work on the family farm, and became adept at operating the

At the start of the 20th Century, there were 8,000 cars in the US and 25,000 worldwide. By 1985 there were more than 375 million cars worldwide (“Car”). One company that changed the way of car production was The Ford Motor Company. The owner of this company was named Henry Ford. He was born on July 30, 1863, and died on April 7, 1947, (Gelderman). Ford came up with an idea where he would just make one car model called the Model T so he could mass produce cars. He did this so that he would use the same types of materials and save money. Doing this also reduced waste because he used the same materials every time. On October 1, 1908, Ford successfully produced the first Model T. In 1914 the assembly line was created and that made it possible

In 1908 Henry Ford had constructed the Model T; the time it took him to create this automobile was 13 days. Now eager to achieve more, Ford knew that he needed a place to construct these cars. He also knew that to sell mass amounts he would have to sell cheap, and buy parts and supplies even cheaper (Douglas, 25). The construction of the first Ford Motor plant used the world’s only conveyer belt. This was part of the Fords plan to build fast, when he constructed the assembly line cars were pumped out in as fast as 15 minuets, this was down from 19 days. Ford was able to make the automobile a car for everyman, a working man with a family.

You might not know that Henry Ford did not start out as a successful producer of automobiles. After building his first car, the Quadricycle. In 1899 he formed the Detroit Automobile Company, which quickly failed after only a few vehicles were produced. Henry and some of his original investors regrouped and formed the Henry Ford Company which quickly ran into problems as well. Henry Ford was dismissed by his board of directors from the company that carried his name because of his inability to bring a car to production. The company was reorganized as the Cadillac Motor Car Company under the engineering leadership of Henry Leland.

Octavian Augustus (63 B.C.E-14 AD) is known as the first, and one of the greatest, Roman Emperors ever. Octavian enabled the long, peaceful time of the Pax Romana by changing Rome from a fragile, crumbling republican government to a mighty empire. Octavian¹s government was strong enough to withstand weak emperors who mismanaged the Empire. His changes proved to be the cornerstone of the greatest empire the world has ever seen.

“With one workman doing a complete job he could turn out from thirty-five to forty pieces in a nine-hour day, or about twenty minutes to an assembly. What he did alone was then spread into twenty-nine operations; that cut down the assembly time to thirteen minutes” (Ford, 45). Ford had nearly cut the production time of one Ford Model T in half, allowing for more automobiles to be produced in a day. The Ford Motor Company was able to produce 150 Ford Model Ts every day and eventually reached nearly 10,000 Model Ts a day by 1925 (Sandler, 21). Each worker would contribute his skill at assembling a single part of the Model T, and once he completed his task he would pass the Model T on to the next worker in line along the assembly line, similar to the meat production factory in which Ford envisioned his idea. His idea soon caught on and became an idealistic way to mass produce products in America which soon caught on to other industries and continued to inspire the ways Americans would produce goods even to this day.

“The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see his much he conceive for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed” - Henry Ford, he was an inventor and he build cars and then started his own company. What made him famous was his introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. As the 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 good coupled with high wages for workers. What did he invent, well he invented the Model T automobile, the year that he made it was in 1908. Where he built it was in Detroit.

Henry Ford was an engineer from Detroit, Michigan who had an idea. By 1902, Ford had attempted several times to produce a gas powered vehicle, but with little capital, he realized that his attempts were futile. Ford approached a man by the name of Alexander T. Malcomson about the possibility of manufacturing an automobile. Malcomson, a friend of the family and wealthy coal merchant was reluctant at first but finally agreed with Ford, and decided to assit Ford financially with his endeavor. With Malcomsons investment and Ford's engineering skills a partnership was formed and in mid June of 1903, papers of incorporation for the Ford Motor Company were filed in Dearborn, Michigan.

Cars changed the way people lived, worked, and enjoyed leisure time; however, what most people don’t realize is that the process of manufacturing automobiles had an equally significant impact on industry. The creation of the moving assembly line by Henry Ford at his Highland Park plant, introduced on December 1, 1913, revolutionized the automobile industry and the concept of manufacturing worldwide.

Henry Ford’s legacy began early whenever he created a self propelled wagon, but his work began to get notoriety in October of 1908 with the introduction of the Model T. This car was the first of its kind, and was fully manufactured by Ford in the United States. Henry’s goal was to produce a car that was affordable to every household income. “The Model T made its debut in 1908 with a purchase price of $825.00. Over ten thousand were sold in its first year, establishing a new record. Four years later the price dropped to $575.00 and sales soared. By 1914, Ford could claim a 48% share of the automobile market.” (Sorenson, "Henry Ford Changes the World, 1908.") The original price was in the average household’s budget, but when the price dropped four years later there was a ten times increase in the amount of Model T’s sold. Another great idol in the worlds eyes began his trek to success one century later, and has innovated his industry such as Ford did. Steve Jobs, “The Father of Apple Inc.”,

Founded in 1903, Henry Ford managed to get investor support to open the first manufacturing automobile company in Detroit, Michigan. Ford Motor Company has been known for its mass production of vehicles using a perfected assembly line method and its innovations in the automobile industry. Ford’s famous Model-T was developed as an innovative automobile that could be produced quickly, while keeping the cost to a minimum. This allowed people with a lower income the opportunity to afford an automobile. One of the biggest changes in the automobile industry occurred in 1913 with the introduction of a perfected assembly line method. This assembly line method was the one of the main reasons Ford Motor Company was able to keep the cost of vehicles and the production time to a minimum. Ford also took the first step to increase wages of their employees above the industry standard. Although it was still a very low value, Ford offered $5 per day which was a huge improvement from the $2.34 per day that most companies offered.