Henry Ford

Industrialist*
July 30, 1863 - April 7, 1947




Henry Ford
 

Henry Ford was born on a farm near Detroit, Michigan. He never really enjoyed farming and left the farm at age sixteen, three years after his mother died.

As a child he was fascinated by machines. He always carried around in his pockets nuts and bolts and machinery parts. By the time he was thirteen he could put together a watch that kept time. This interest in machines led him to work for a while as an apprentice machinist, and later he went to work for Westinghouse servicing their steam engines.

Clara Bryant became his wife in 1888. He returned to the farm, built a house, and ran a sawmill. They had one child, a son they named Edsel.

When Henry was twenty-eight he became an engineer at Edison Company which made electrical generating stations. He was made chief engineer two years later and advanced to a salary of $125 a month.

The first car he made was a "gasoline buggy" called the Quadricycle. He drove it around for two years, and it drew a crowd everywhere he went.


Ford Quadricycle

In 1903 he built two race cars to advertise the automobile. One he named the "999" and the other the "Arrow". He hired Barney Oldfield, a professional bicycle rider and race car driver to race for him. In 1904 Ford himself driving the Ford Arrow set a new land speed record in his car - over 91 miles per hour! The event took place on the frozen ice of Lake St. Claire.

When he was forty years old Ford and eleven investors formed the Ford Motor Company. They had a $28,000 investment in it.


Ford Assembly Line

The Model T Ford was introduced on October 1, 1908. Some called it the "Tin Lizzie" and the "Flivver". The cost of the touring car: $950. Five years later he started using an assembly line and could produce cars faster and cheaper until the price of the touring car fell to $360. Assembly lines had been used before, but he was the first to use conveyor* belts to move the parts where they needed them.

The 1912 Model T Ford touring car included such extras as oil lamps, horn, speedometer, and tools.


1912 Model T

Henry Ford's motto was "simplicity" *. By simplifying the process of making cars, he was able to make the car affordable to the common worker in America. Of course, this simplification resulted in only one color choice. He wrote, "A customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants - so long as it is black."

In his book he contrasts the making of axe handles by hand and machine to show how mechanization *reduced the cost of his car.

Ford hired handicapped workers*. He studied the jobs and the requirements and put each man in a place where he could do the job and make a living for his family.


Restored Model A Ford

Sales lagged in the 1920's as other car makers offered more options and financing. He and his son Edsel designed a new car, the Model A.

Ford was a firm believer in the idea that the able-bodied should work. He thought as an employer his job was to serve others. He paid his workers $5 a day. This was nearly twice as much as most employers paid their employees. He felt there was something sacred about wages and what they represent.

He instituted the 40 hour week with men working eight hours a day, five days a week. He had a code of conduct for his employees which forbade heavy drinking and gambling.

His company also made airplanes for a few years. One, a twelve passenger plane, was called the "Tin Goose". He produced tractors to help the farmer to farm more efficiently.

Ford developed an interest in plastics made from soybeans. He worked with George Washington Carver on the research. He even made a plastic car that could withstand heavy blows even better than steel. However, it was never successful.

Ford had a heart attack in 1938 and turned the running of the company over to his son, but Edsel died five years later, and Ford had to again assume leadership. He stayed in that position for two years, but due to his ill health, he made his grandson Henry Ford II president of the company in 1945.

Henry Ford died at the age of 83 of a cerebral * hemorrhage *. He was one of many people who helped to make America great. At the end of his book he describes his vision of a great country in which the resources of a country and the skills of its people are developed so that all have a fair share.



Many of the facts in this story were taken from the book, ( My Life and Work by Henry Ford and Samuel Crowther )
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The Life of Henry Ford
at Henry Ford.org

Henry Ford Changes the World, 1908
Eye Witness to History.com

Henry Ford
information at Wikipedia

Henry Ford
at World of Biography

Henry Ford
Time 100

Article about Henry Ford
Technical World Magazine March 1913

Henry Ford
Spectrum Home and School network

Henry Ford
at Spartacus

Henry Ford
at Idea Finder.com, timeline, many resources

Henry Ford
excerpt from a book published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The first moving assembly line
from PBS

At biography.com search for Henry Ford.
Scroll the panel for the "Video & Audio Results".







14064: Henry Ford: The People's Carmaker Henry Ford: The People's Carmaker
By Haydn Middleton / Oxford University Press

Henry Ford's life story is an inspiration to any child with a dream. In the early 1900s, people thought young Henry was crazy for wanting to build an affordable motor car. Today, Henry's "crazy" idea is credited for changing the face of the modern world! Your little dreamers ages 6 to 10 will be encouraged to persevere when they read this remarkable biography. 32 colorfully illustrated pages, hardcover from Oxford University.



From Word Central's Student Dictionary
by Merriam - Webster

(Pronunciation note: the schwa sound is shown by &)

industrialist
Pronunciation: in-'d&s-trE-&-l&st
Function: noun
an owner or manager of an industry : MANUFACTURER

conveyor
Pronunciation: k&n-'vA-&r
Function: noun
a mechanical device for carrying packages or bulk material
from place to place (as by an endless moving belt)

simplicity
Pronunciation: sim-'plis-&t-E
Function: noun
the quality or state of being simple

mechanize
Pronunciation: 'mek-&-"nIz
Function: verb
1 : to make mechanical; especially : to make automatic
2 a : to equip with machinery especially to replace human or animal labor

cerebral
Pronunciation: s&-'rE-br&l, 'ser-&-
Function: adjective
of or relating to the brain

hemorrhage
Pronunciation: 'hem-(&-)rij
Function: noun
a great loss of blood from the blood vessels especially when caused by injury

handicapped
Function: adjective
having a physical or mental disability





Biographies in this Series

Presidents of the
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George Washington
1st U.S. President

John Adams
2nd U.S. President


Thomas Jefferson
3rd U.S.President


James Monroe
5th U.S. President


Andrew Jackson
7th U.S. President

Abraham Lincoln
16th U.S.President

Franklin D. Roosevelt
32nd U.S. President

John F. Kennedy
35th U.S. President


James Madison
4th U.S. President

Theodore Roosevelt
26th U.S. President

Ronald Reagan
40th U.S. President

American Patriots Benjamin Franklin
patriot and statesman

Francis Scott Key
Star Spangled Banner

Deborah Sampson
woman soldier in the Revolutionary War

World Leaders Constantine
Roman Emperor

Alexander the Great
conqueror
Winston Churchill
British Prime Minister

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telephone

Johann Gutenberg
printing press

Cyrus McCormick
mechanical reaper

The Wright Brothers
first airplane

Henry Ford
Automaker

Thomas A. Edison
electric light bulb

Sequoyah
Cherokee alphabet

Nikola Tesla
700 patents

.
Explorers Christopher Columbus
explorer

Meriwether Lewis
explorer

Robert Peary
Arctic explorer

John Muir
Naturalist

Matthew Henson
Arctic Explorer

Sir Edmund Hillary
Mr.Everest

Kit Carson
Indian agent

"Johnny Appleseed"
orchardist

.
Women who made
a difference
Clara Barton
founder of the Red Cross

Helen Keller
overcame blindness & deafness

Florence Nightingale
founder of nursing profession

Joan of Arc
religious and military leader

Amelia Earhart
Aviator

Annie Oakley
sharpshooter

Susan B. Anthony
Suffragette

Elizabeth Keckly
Seamstress

Harriet Tubman
deliverer of slaves

Anne Frank
Diarist

Eleanor Roosevelt
Humanitarian

.
Scientists George Washington Carver
botanist and educator

Sir Isaac Newton
explained gravity and properties of light

Marie Curie
scientist, physicist

Louis Pasteur
Biologist

Albert Einstein
physicist, genius

Galileo
Astronomer, physicist

Lise Meitner
Physicist

. .
Educators Noah Webster
writer of dictionary

Booker T. Washington
leader and educator

Aristotle
Greek philosopher

Physicians Hippocrates
father of medicine

Walter Reed
discovered cause of yellow fever

Albert Schweitzer
humanitarian

Religious Leaders Increase Mather
Salem witch trials

.
Athletes Lou Gehrig
baseball player

Wilma Rudolph
Olympic gold medal winner

Tiger Woods
golfer

Michael Phelps
Olympic swimmer

. .
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Leaders
Martin Luther King
civil rights leader

Rosa Parks
bus desegregation

Sojourner Truth
Former slave

Frederick Douglass
Abolitionist

Mary Ann Shadd Cary
Civil rights leader

James Forten
Inventor, abolitionist

Composers Beethoven
composer

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artist and naturalist

Gutzon Borglum
sculptor, Mount Rushmore

Ansel Adams
photographer



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