![]() In 1890, Ford started work on a two-cylinder engine.įord said, "In 1892, I completed my first motor car, powered by a two-cylinder four horsepower motor, with a two-and-half-inch bore and a six-inch stroke, which was connected to a countershaft by a belt and then to the rear wheel by a chain. In his farm workshop, Ford built a "steam wagon or tractor" and a steam car, but thought "steam was not suitable for light vehicles," as "the boiler was dangerous." Ford also said that he "did not see the use of experimenting with electricity, due to the expense of trolley wires, and "no storage battery was in sight of a weight that was practical." In 1885, Ford repaired an Otto engine, and in 1887 he built a four-cycle model with a one-inch bore and a three-inch stroke. įord said two significant events occurred in 1875 when he was 12: he received the watch, and he witnessed the operation of a Nichols and Shepard road engine, ".the first vehicle other than horse-drawn that I had ever seen". He was later hired by Westinghouse to service their steam engines. In 1882, he returned to Dearborn to work on the family farm, where he became adept at operating the Westinghouse portable steam engine. Flower & Bros., and later with the Detroit Dry Dock Co. In 1879, Ford left home to work as an apprentice machinist in Detroit, first with James F. He later wrote, "I never had any particular love for the farm-it was the mother on the farm I loved." His father expected him to take over the family farm eventually, but he despised farm work. įord was devastated when his mother died in 1876. At twenty, Ford walked four miles to their Episcopal church every Sunday. At 15, Ford dismantled and reassembled the timepieces of friends and neighbors dozens of times, gaining the reputation of a watch repairman. His father gave him a pocket watch when he was 12. He never attended high school he later took a bookkeeping course at a commercial school. Ford finished eighth grade at a one-room school, Springwells Middle School. Henry Ford's siblings were John Ford (1865-1927) Margaret Ford (1867–1938) Jane Ford (c. His mother, Mary Ford (née Litogot 1839–1876), was born in Michigan as the youngest child of Belgian immigrants her parents died when she was a child and she was adopted by neighbors, the O'Herns. His father, William Ford (1826–1905), was born in County Cork, Ireland, to a family that had emigrated from Somerset, England in the 16th century. Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863, on a farm in Springwells Township, Michigan. He died in 1947 after leaving most of his wealth to the Ford Foundation, and control of the company to his family. ![]() He turned over the company to his grandson Henry Ford II in 1945. After his son Edsel died in 1943, Ford resumed control of the company but was too frail to make decisions and quickly came under the control of subordinates. He opposed United States entry into World War II, and served for a time on the America First Committee board. In the 1920s Ford promoted antisemitism through his newspaper The Dearborn Independent and the book The International Jew. His commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout North America and major cities on six continents.įord was known for his pacifism during the first years of World War I, although during the war his company became a major supplier of weapons. Ford believed that consumerism was a key to global peace. As the Ford Motor Company sole owner, "he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world." Aside from " Fordism", Ford was also among the pioneers of the five-day workweek. He officially founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903, after prior failures in business but success in constructing automobiles.įord's 1908 introduction of the Model T automobile is credited with having revolutionized both transportation and American industry. ![]() ![]() It was a few years before this time that Ford first experienced automobiles, and throughout the later half of the 1880s, Ford began repairing and later constructing engines, and through the 1890s worked with a division of Edison Electric. In 1911, he was awarded a patent for the transmission mechanism that would be used in the Model T and other automobiles.įord was born in a farmhouse in Michigan's Springwells Township, leaving home at age 16 to find work in Detroit. As founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automobiles affordable for middle-class Americans through the Fordism system. Henry Ford (J– April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist and business magnate.
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