Henry Ford Industrialist* July 30, 1863 - April 7, 1947 Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web gardenofpraise.com

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".

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 United States	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
Inventors	Alexander Graham Bell 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	.	.
Civil Rights 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
Artists	John James Audubon artist and naturalist	Gutzon Borglum sculptor, Mount Rushmore	Ansel Adams photographer

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