Essay, Research Paper: Henry Ford

Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863 to William and Mary Ford. He was the oldest of six children. He grew up on farm in Dearborn, Michigan. He lived a typical childhood of spending his days in at school and doing farm chores. Ever since he was young, he showed an interest in mechanical things, and how they worked and functioned. He used to take things apart and put them back together for fun to see how they worked (Head 47 - 50).
In 1879, at the age of 16, he left his home to travel to the city of Detroit to work as an apprentice for a machinist. He occasionally returned home to work on the farm. He was an apprentice for three years and then returned to Dearborn. During the next few years Henry operated and repaired steam engines when he could find work in Detroit factories, and worked on his fathers broken down farm equipment, as well as helping out his father with other farm work.
Henry got married to Clara Bryant in 1888. He supported himself and his wife by running a sawmill. (Head 145 - 152). Finally, in 1891, Henry became an engineer with the Edison Illumination Company. This was an important milestone in his life because it showed that he had made a positive career move into industrial field. He was promoted to Chief Engineer in 1893. This gave him enough time and money to concentrate on his own experiments on internal combustion engines (www.ai-online.com).
The key point of his research came with the accomplishment of his own self-propelled vehicle, the Quadricycle. This bike had four metal wheels and was steered with a tiller, like a boat. It had two forward speeds, and no reverse. This was not the first self-propelled vehicle but it gave Henry Ford the recognition of a major pioneer who helped this country become a "country of motorists" (Head 22 - 24).
Ford decided that he wanted to become an automobile manufacturer. After two tries, Ford motor company was finally incorporated in 1903 with Henry Ford as the Vice President and Chief Engineer. When the company first started it was only producing a few cars a day at the Ford factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit (Head 99 - 100).
Ford was successful when he produced an automobile that was reasonable priced, reliable and efficient with the invention of the Model T in 1908. This vehicle started a new era in personal transportation. It was easy to operate, maintain, and could handle all kinds of roads. It was also very cheaply priced at 850 dollars. The cars sold fast and the middle class could afford a car. By 1920, about 4 million Model T's were sold (Head 103 - 105).
The model T revolutionized America in many different ways. For example, The Model T was produced on an assembly line on a very large scale. The assembly line was a powered by a chain that brought the body of the car to each of its parts. The parts were then attached to the body of the car and moved on to the next station. It usually took fourteen hours to build one Model T, and with the assembly line it only took six. Henry built a huge factory based on the assembly line. The assembly line added more jobs and greatly reduced the cost of production (Head 65 - 67).
Since the invention of the assembly line, Ford was able to produce many more cars than usual and increase his profits. Since the profits were increased, Henry was able to raise the worker's salaries from $2.50 an hour to $5.00 an hour. He also cut the workday to only eight hours a day, making the workers very happy. People from all over the nation tried to get a job working at the Ford Motor Company because the wages were so good. Also since the assembly line increased profits, Henry was able to sell Model T's for a cheaper price. In 1915, the price of the Model T's went down to $490 (Head 27 -29).
Ford's assembly line didn't always manufacture cars. In 1941 the Ford manufactured parts for bombers for the U.S. Government and later, the entire airplane. Then he built a huge factory at Willow Run, Michigan to continue manufacturing airplanes. By the end of the War, the plant had manufactured more than 8000 airplanes (www.ai-online.com).
In the time period from 1937 to 1941, the Ford Company was the only major manufacturer of automobiles in the Detroit area that had not recognized labor unions as the collective bargaining representative of employees. The company was later found guilty for repeated violation of the national Labor Relations Act (Head 69 -70).
Henry Ford was also interested in other fields besides the automobile and airplane manufacturing. In 1915, he had world peace on his mind. He organized a peace ship that brought him and a number of people to Europe where they attempted to persuade an end to WWI without success (Head 33).
While still working at his company, Henry was also nominated for the U.S. Senate for the state of Michigan in 1918. He was defeated. In 1919 Ford gave out 7.5 million of his own money to construct the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit (Head 27 - 28).
As Ford was got older he retired from the direction of his gigantic enterprise in 1945. Two years later, on April 7, 1947, Ford died in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford left behind a personal fortune estimated between 500 and 700 million (www.ai-online.com).
In conclusion, Henry Ford was a very important part of our society. He was responsible for many inventions, including the Model T. His biggest contribution was revolutionizing and perfecting the assembly line.


Word Count: 962