Born: July 30, 1863 Died: April 7, 1947 Place of Birth: Dearborn, Michigan
Major Notes:
Henry Ford was one of six children born to William and Mary Ford.
He worked on his father's farm and went to a one-room schoolhouse.
Ford left home at 16 to look for work in nearby Detroit.
He found work learning machine shop work and the workings of the internal combustion engine.
After three years, Henry Ford returned home to work on the farm again and do part-time work with Westinghouse Engine Company.
Later, in 1888, he was by the hired Edison Illuminating Company and worked up to be Chief Engineer.
In his spare hours, he experimented building cars and successfully completed his first in 1893.
In 1903, Henry Ford decided to go into the automobile manufacturing business and created Ford Motor Company.
Sometimes Ford is credited as having invented the automobile and its assembly line of construction; neither is true.
What his company did was to use more effective means of mass-assembling his vehicles along with introducing incentives and higher pay for the work force.
Ford sold over 15 million "Model T" cars between the years 1908 and 1927.
Over the years, Ford had his share of problems with employees, government regulations, unions, and competition.
A number of these problems were attributed to Henry Ford's own personality which tended to be very authoritative.
Henry Ford, nevertheless, is credited as being a dominant force behind the change of work and social values in United States.
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