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101 Men and Women Who Shaped Our World Sample Entry “Henry Ford” The Lincoln Library Press, Inc. (800) 516-2656 toll free 812 Huron Road E, Suite 401 (216) 781-9559 fax Cleveland, OH 44115-1172 www.TheLincolnLibrary.com Citation Gall, Timothy, ed. “Ford, Henry.” The Lincoln Library of Shapers of Society., vol. 3, Cleveland, OH: Lincoln Library Press, Inc., 2008, 112–121. © 2008 by Lincoln Library Press, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical—including photocopying, recording, Web distribution, or by any information system—without permission in writing from the publisher.
Ford, Henry
Henry Ford (1863–1947), American automobile manufacturer and
industrialist, is best known as the man who “put America on wheels.”
His work changed the lives of millions of people. He was born near
Dearborn, Michigan, on July 30, 1863. Ford introduced the concept
of mass production through use of the assembly line. The assembly
line was a development that in just a few years changed the entire
structure of the manufacturing industry. Mass production lowered
manufacturing costs for the automobile. This meant that even average
citizens could afford to own one. As a result,
the Model T, Ford’s first mass-produced car,
dominated the automobile market for nineteen
years. Ford was also known for promoting fair
labor policies that included a higher minimum
wage, a shorter workday, and profit sharing
for employees. Henry Ford died in Dearborn,
Michigan, on April 7, 1947.
that characterized his son. Henry’s throughout the neighborhood.
mother, on the other hand, was a Engines of all kinds fascinated him.
firm and decisive woman. She was Henry never let pass an opportu-
devoted to orderliness, cleanliness, nity to observe them, or to take
and the welfare of her family. She them apart and study them.
died when Henry was twelve years
old. At age sixteen, Henry left the
farm and went to Detroit, where he
Young Henry became a machinist’s apprentice.
Henry attended the local rural He found employment with the
Henry Ford was born near school until he was fifteen years Dry Dock Engine Company. He
Dearborn, Michigan, on July 30, old. When he was not in school
1863. His father, William Ford, he performed chores. But, he said, Henry Ford in 1927 leaving
was a prosperous farmer and a “I never had any particular love the White House after calling
warden of the village church. He for the farm.” In his free time, he on President Calvin Coolidge.
operated his farm successfully and tinkered with clocks and watches. Ford increased production of
lived at peace. William had none He became so skillful at repairing the automobile by his use of the
of the restless, visionary daring them that he was in great demand assembly line.
112113
Ford, Henry
spent the next two years working had been invented by a German
there. During this time, Ford man named Nicholaus Otto. The
greatly increased his mechanical engine made a profound impres-
knowledge. He borrowed a copy sion on his mind and he thought
of a magazine called World of about it constantly. He began to
Science from one of his friends. dream about finding a way to make
In the magazine, Ford read about watches efficiently and cheaply.
an internal-combustion engine that This was the first of Ford’s many
ideas.
Fascinated by Engines
Farming is a family business and
many hands are needed to keep
a farm running. Back home,
Ford’s father needed his help. So,
after three years in the city, Ford
returned to Dearborn. He wanted
to help, but he did not like farming.
Devoting as little time as possible
helping on the farm, Ford focused
his energy on using his machinist’s
skills on steam engines for farmers. On New Year’s Day, 1888,
Using an old mowing machine Ford met Clara Bryant, the daugh-
his father had discarded, Ford ter of a prosperous farmer in a
constructed a “farm locomotive.” neighboring township. Ford and
It was basically a tractor powered Clara quickly fell in love and within
by steam. The “farm locomotive” three months they were married
ran only forty feet that first trip and living in their own home.
and never ran again. Nevertheless, His friends hoped that Ford had
finally settled down, but ideas kept
Ford was not discouraged. He
fermenting in Ford’s head.
later said, “There was too much
hard hand labor on our and all Before long, however, he
other farms of the time…To lift the confessed to Clara, “What I would
drudgery off flesh and blood and like to do is make an engine that
lay it on steel and motors has been will run by gasoline, and have it do
my most constant ambition.” the work of a horse. But I can’t do
114U.S. Civil War ends
July 30. Born near Dearborn, Michigan.
1863
At age 16, moves to Detroit, Michigan, to work as a
machinist with the Dry Dock Engine Co.
it here on the farm. It would mean 1879
moving to Detroit.” And so, on
September 25, 1891, the young
couple packed their belongings
on a hay wagon and drove to
Detroit. Ford found work as a
steam engineer with the Edison Henry Ford, 25
Illuminating Company. There, his
Builds his own car by mounting the body of a buggy on four
mechanical gifts were soon recog- bicycle wheels and adding a two-cylinder gasoline engine.
nized and he was promoted to 1896
chief engineer. With this demand- Launches the Ford Motor Company and begins to
ing position, would Ford find time institute the concept of an assembly line for quicker,
to pursue his own ideas? easier production.
1903
Produces the famous Model T. The tough, reliable car,
The “Horseless Carriage” 1908 available only in black, sells for $850 and is an immediate
Somehow Ford found time to success.
experiment. He was obsessed with Announces that the minimum wage for his employees will be
World War I
the idea of a “horseless carriage.” 1914 $5 per day, which is more than the national average wage of
$11 per week for manufacturing workers. Also initiates an
When he wasn’t at Edison
eight-hour workday (instead of nine hours) and promises
Illuminating, he could be found in that future workers will share in company profits.
a shed behind his home, building
things and experimenting. In 1893
his son (and only child), Edsel, was
born. Ford continued to work in
the shed behind the family home.
In 1896, Ford built his first car,
which he called the Quadricycle.
It was made up of the body of a 1936
World War II
buggy mounted on four bicycle Workers on Ford assembly line
wheels, powered by a two-cylinder
gasoline engine. Establishes the Ford Foundation, a charitable organization
to support a broad range of educational, cultural, and
Early one morning he pushed social activities.
1947
it out of the shed and drove it
around the block. Emboldened April 7. Dies in Dearborn, Michigan at the age of 83.
by the success of his creation, a
few weeks later he replaced the
Quadricycle’s bicycle seat with
Milestones in the Life of Henry Ford
115“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it
into small jobs.”
—Henry Ford
Ford, Henry
a bench seat and dared to drive
the Quadricycle, with Clara and
Edsel, the full nine miles to his old
homestead in Dearborn. Had he
created the first automobile?
The answer to that question
is no. Nicolas Joseph Cugnot,
working in Paris, France, built the
first self-propelled vehicle in 1769.
It was a heavy, three-wheeled
carriage driven by steam. In 1801 Around 1885 in Germany, Karl in the United States working on
an Englishman, Richard Trevithick, Benz and Gottlieb Daimler built the problem of a mechanical road
produced a similar steam vehicle. the first vehicles using the internal- vehicle. In fact, Ford’s 1896
The early steam-powered automo- combustion engine. Charles and Quadricycle was inferior in many
biles gradually disappeared because Frank Duryea, two brothers working respects to others already in
of technical problems. existence in the United States
in Springfield, Massachusetts, had
But Ford’s wasn’t even the built and tested an internal-combus- and Europe. But his ideas about
first automobile to be powered by tion automobile in 1893. By 1892 manufacturing efficiency and
an internal-combustion engine. there were at least fifty inventors cost containment would help
drive his eventual success.
Will the Auto Catch On?
More and more the automobile
pioneers turned to the internal-
combustion engine and to gasoline
as the fuel, even though the early
cars were noisy, uncomfortable,
and unreliable. The design of
automobiles still presented many
challenges. Every detail of the
vehicle—bearings, wheels, tires,
batteries, carburetors, spark plugs,
This photograph shows a replica
in Greenfield Village in Dearborn,
Michigan, of the shop in which
Ford made his first automobile.
116A letter from Ford to his brother
dated January 6, 1902 on the
Henry Ford Company letterhead.
In it he talks about finding
investors for the company and
the money to be made in selling
automobiles.
brakes, and steering gears—had
to be designed, tested, and
redesigned. Many wondered if the
automobile would ever be more
than a novelty.
The obstacles faced by automo-
bile builders were not entirely
mechanical. People were not used
to the idea of cars. Those who
worked on motorcars were seen
as eccentric or even crazy. The
vehicles themselves were consid-
ered dangerous. Automobiles
frightened horses. Farmers who his use of the family resources for withdrew from the partnership in
drove horse-drawn wagons called his experiments. 1903. Together with eleven others
automobiles “devil wagons.” In he raised $28,000 and launched
After three years and with the Ford Motor Company. As the
1899 the town of San Rafael,
his wife’s support, Ford resigned years progressed Ford bought out
California, required cars to come to
his position with the Edison the other shareholders, one by one.
a full stop 300 feet from a moving
Illuminating Company to devote By 1919 he was the sole owner
horse. Many cities enforced a speed
himself full time to the develop- of what would soon become one
limit of eight miles per hour. The
ment of a working car. He joined of the world’s greatest indus-
state of Vermont passed a law in
with others in forming the Detroit trial giants.
1909 requiring motorists to have a
Automobile Company. This
“person of mature age” walk ahead
first venture was a failure. Ford Low Costs, High Profits
of a car carrying a red flag to warn
then helped to organize what
of the vehicle’s approach. People Ford had a simple formula for
later became the Cadillac Motor
wondered if the automobile would the operation of his business. He
Company.
ever catch on. proposed to,
At the turn of the century
The Ford Motor Company automobiles were custom-made,
reduce the price of his cars,
Such obstacles did not dishearten complicated, and very expensive. increase the number of sales,
Henry Ford. He was encouraged by They were regarded as “rich men’s make production more and
the success of the car he had built in toys.” Ford, however, was sure that more efficient,
1896, and devoted more and more they could be made simple, reliable,
of his time to his experiments. His and within the reach of the average increase the output of the
wife Clara believed wholeheartedly person. He could never convince factories, and
in his abilities and never questioned his associates of this, and so he repeat this cycle indefinitely.
117“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together
is progress; working together is success.”
—Henry Ford
Ford, Henry
To implement this formula price of his cars each year, while at
the same time making vast profits. model was discontinued nineteen
he built the assembly line.
years later, more than 15 million
Conveyors brought the job to
The Ford Motor Company cars had been sold.
the worker instead of the worker
produced several models in its first
wasting time going to the job. few years. But in 1908, the famous Innovation Beyond the
Model T appeared. There was Factory
Ford found it saved money to nothing flashy or fancy about it.
manufacture the parts of his cars It was tough, simple, and reliable. Ford is well known as the pioneer
in the Detroit area. He would then As Ford famously quipped, “Any of mass production. But he also
ship these parts to branch plants customer can have a car painted revolutionized the way products
any color that he wants so long as were sold by introducing the
where they were assembled. Ford
it is black.” The price was $850, dealer-franchise system, where a
also cut costs by acquiring coal and
equivalent to about $18,000 in dealer would be granted exclusive
iron mines, steel mills, railroads, a
2006. rights to sell a brand-name product
fleet of cargo ships, forests, glass- in a certain territory. This system
making plants, and a huge rubber How did the public receive the would serve as a model for count-
plantation in Brazil. By doing these Model T? It was an immediate less businesses that followed, from
things, Ford was able to lower the success. When production of this car companies to fast-food chains
118A drawing from one of Ford’s
many patents appears to the
left. The picture below shows
Ford posing in 1924 with the ten
millionth Ford Model T car. To
his left is Ford’s first car.
benefited—as Ford was fond of
pointing out, the men who worked
in his factories were able to
purchase the cars they built. Some
historians say that the Ford Motor
Company helped create the rise
of the middle class in American
twentieth-century society by
increasing the purchasing power
of the average citizen.
However, though Ford was a
strong advocate of better benefits
for his workers, some critics say
that he only wanted this when he
such as McDonald’s and Taco the work day would be reduced from could call the shots. For instance,
Bell. nine to eight hours, and promised he was opposed to labor unions.
that in the future, workers in his He also set up a “Sociological
Perhaps because of his humble
factories would share in the profits. Department,” meant to ensure that
origins, he was also an innova-
This business philosophy became his workers didn’t waste their $5
tor in labor policies. In 1914 he
known as Fordism. per day on drinking, gambling, or
startled the world by announcing
other activities of which he didn’t
that he was doubling the minimum Under Ford’s way of doing
approve.
wage for his employees, to $5 per business, not only were goods
day. At the time the average wage more affordable because of mass In 1938 Henry Ford suffered
for workers in U.S. manufacturing production, but also more people a heart attack and stepped down
industries was $11 per week, or could purchase them because they from running day-to-day activities
less than half of what Ford paid his were making more money. Both of Ford Motor Company in favor
workers. He also announced that the worker and the manufacturer of his son Edsel. In 1943 Edsel
119“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at
twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays
young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your
mind young.”
—Henry Ford
Ford, Henry
died of cancer and Henry Ford, and Greenfield Village, created by
in his late seventies, returned to Ford, opened. Thomas Edison
head the company. His health and President Herbert Hoover
was poor and he could not muster joined Ford at the opening. The
the energy necessary to succeed museum and village reproduce
at running the company, so in an early American community,
September 1945 Ford retired for with its church, town hall, school,
good, leaving his grandson Henry courthouse, general store, and
Ford II as president of Ford. firehouse, all grouped around the
village green.
Other Interests
Ford ventured into many fields Ford wanted to document
other than industry, but his efforts the world-changing work of the
were not very successful. He failed independent American inventors
in his race for the U.S. Senate. He and thinkers. He added Edison’s
also wanted to run for the presi- workshop and laboratory, Noah
dency, but no one would support Webster’s birthplace, the Wright
him. Ford distrusted bankers, Wall brothers’ cycle shop and home, and
Street, kings, newspapers, and other historic items to Greenfield
textbooks. He had the tendency Ford (right) fishing with Thomas
Village.
to make snap judgments, which Edison (second from right)
were picked up by newspapers and and Harvey Firestone (far left) Ford and Thomas Edison
given much publicity. For instance, sometime during the 1920s.
developed a friendship, and Ford
he said such things as “History is hired the inventor to try to invent
bunk,” and “All the art in the world celebrities to travel with him to a usable electric storage battery
is not worth five cents.” He was Europe to urge the fighting nations for cars, although Edison wasn’t
undeniably eccentric, but could to negotiate their differences. The ultimately successful.
also be racist and narrow-minded
mission was a failure. Afterward,
as well. In 1919, Ford founded his In 1936 he established and
he was quoted as observing that
own newspaper, the Dearborn
“we learn from our mistakes.” endowed the Ford Foundation,
Independent, and used it to launch
which continues to support a
attacks on minorities.
Ford’s charitable interests were broad range of educational,
No matter what the issue, aligned with his personal inter- cultural, and social activities
Ford wanted to get his own way. ests. In 1915 he contributed $7.5 into the twenty-first century.
Famous for his pacifism, he tried million to establish the Henry Ford In 2006 the Ford Foundation
to end World War I by chartering a Hospital in Detroit. On October awarded some $530 million in
ship, the “Peace Ship.” He invited 21, 1929, the Henry Ford Museum grants.
120Henry Ford
Motor Company was in thirty-
three countries around the world.
However, he was never able to
regain the dominance in the field
that he had once held.
Henry Ford died in Dearborn on
April 7, 1947, at the age of eighty-
three. He is buried in the Ford
Cemetery in Detroit. Henry Ford
was a complex man, not without
flaws, who did much to change the
fabric of American society.
Further Study
BOOKS
Bak, Richard. Henry and Edsel: The
Creation of the Ford Empire. Hoboken:
John Wiley & Sons, 2003. (M)
Batchelor, Ray. Henry Ford: Mass
Production, Modernism, and design.
Manchester: Manchester University
Press, 1994. (YA/M)
Bryan, Ford R. Beyond the Model T: The
Other Ventures of Henry Ford. Detroit:
Wayne State University Press, 1990.
(YA/M)
McCarthy, Pat. Henry Ford Building Cars
At first Ford didn’t recognize the for Everyone. Berkeley Hts., NJ: Enslow
Legacy Publishers, Inc., 2002. (Y)
The Model T dominated the changing nature of the car market Temple, Bob. Henry Ford Automobile
automobile field for two decades. and continued to sell only the Manufacturer and Innovator.
Model T, in just one color—black. Chanhassen, MN: Child’s World, 2003.
But by the middle of the 1920s, (Y)
roads had been improved—thanks But he was finally persuaded to
WEB SITES
in part to Ford’s own campaign evolve, and in 1925 began to
The Henry Ford Heritage Association.
for their increased quality—and produce the Model A. A few “The Ford Legacy.” www.hfha.org/
the public’s tastes had changed. years later, he brought out the V- fordlegacy.htm (accessed December
8 engine. Even as American sales 2007).
The Chevrolet, made by General
The Henry Ford Museum. “The Life of
Motors Corporation, became fell, Ford maintained his presence Henry Ford.” www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/
America’s best-selling car. overseas and at its peak Ford hf (accessed December 2007).
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