Entrepreneur Assignment:
Henry Ford: Early
Life & Engineering Career
Born in 1863, Henry Ford was the
first surviving son of William and Mary Ford, who owned a prosperous farm in
Dearborn, Michigan. At 16, he left home for the
nearby city of Detroit, where he found apprentice work as a machinist. He
returned to Dearborn and work on the family farm after three years, but
continued to operate and service steam engines and work occasional stints in
Detroit factories. In 1888, he married Clara Bryant, who had grown up on a nearby
farm.
In the first several years of their marriage, Ford supported himself and his
new wife by running a sawmill. In 1891, he returned with Clara to Detroit,
where he was hired as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company. Rising
quickly through the ranks, he was promoted to chief engineer two years later.
Around the same time, Clara gave birth to the couple's only son, Edsel Bryant
Ford. On call 24 hours a day for his job at Edison, Ford spent his irregular
hours on his efforts to build a gasoline-powered horseless carriage, or
automobile. In 1896, he completed what he called the "Quadricycle,"
which consisted of a light metal frame fitted with four bicycle wheels and
powered by a two-cylinder, four-horsepower gasoline engine.
Henry
Ford: Birth of Ford Motor Company and the Model T
Determined to improve upon his prototype, Ford sold the
Quadricycle in order to continue building other vehicles. He received backing
from various investors over the next seven years, some of whom formed the Detroit
Automobile Company (later the Henry Ford Company) in 1899. His partners, eager
to put a passenger car on the market, grew frustrated with Ford's constant need
to improve, and Ford left his namesake company in 1902. (After his departure,
it was reorganized as the Cadillac Motor Car Company.) The following year, Ford
established the Ford Motor Company.
A month after the Ford Motor
Company was established, the first Ford car—the two-cylinder, eight-horsepower
Model A—was assembled at a plant on Mack Avenue in Detroit. At the time, only a
few cars were assembled per day, and groups of two or three workers built them
by hand from parts that were ordered from other companies. Ford was dedicated
to the production of an efficient and reliable automobile that would be
affordable for everyone; the result was the Model T, which made its debut in October 1908.
A month after the Ford Motor
Company was established, the first Ford car—the two-cylinder, eight-horsepower
Model A—was assembled at a plant on Mack Avenue in Detroit. At the time, only a
few cars were assembled per day, and groups of two or three workers built them
by hand from parts that were ordered from other companies. Ford was dedicated
to the production of an efficient and reliable automobile that would be
affordable for everyone; the result was the Model T, which made its debut in October 1908.
Henry Ford: Production & Labor
Innovations
The "Tin Lizzie," as the Model T was known, was
an immediate success, and Ford soon had more orders than the company could
satisfy. As a result, he put into practice techniques of mass production that
would revolutionize American industry, including the use of large production
plants; standardized, interchangeable parts; and the moving assembly line. Mass
production significantly cut down on the time required to produce an
automobile, which allowed costs to stay low. In 1914, Ford also increased the
daily wage for an eight-hour day for his workers to $5 (up from $2.34 for nine
hours), setting a standard for the industry.
Even as production went up, demand for the Tin Lizzie remained high, and by
1918, half of all cars in America were Model Ts. In 1919, Ford named his son
Edsel as president of Ford Motor Company, but he retained full control of the
company's operations. After a court battle with his stockholders, led by
brothers Horace and John Dodge, Henry Ford bought out all minority stockholders
by 1920. In 1927, Ford moved production to a massive industrial complex he had
built along the banks of the River Rouge in Dearborn, Michigan. The plant
included a glass factory, steel mill, assembly line and all other necessary
components of automotive production. That same year, Ford ceased production of
the Model T, and introduced the new Model A, which featured better horsepower
and brakes, among other improvements. By that time, the company had produced
some 15 million Model Ts, and Ford Motor Company was the largest automotive
manufacturer in the world. Ford opened plants and operations throughout the
world.
Henry Ford: Later
Career & Controversial Views
The Model A proved to be a
relative disappointment, and was outsold by both Chevrolet (made by General Motors)
and Plymouth (made by Chrysler); it was discontinued in 1931. In 1932, Ford
introduced the first V-8 engine, but by 1936 the company had dropped to number
three in sales in the automotive industry. Despite his progressive policies
regarding the minimum wage, Ford waged a long battle against unionization of
labor, refusing to come to terms with the United Automobile Workers (UAW) even
after his competitors did so. In 1937, Ford security staff clashed with UAW
organizers in the so-called "Battle of the Overpass," at the Rouge
plant, after which the National Labor Relations Board ordered Ford to stop
interfering with union organization. Ford Motor Company signed its first
contract with UAW in 1941, but not before Henry Ford considered shutting down
the company to avoid it.
Ford's political views earned him widespread criticism over the years,
beginning with his campaign against U.S. involvement in World War I. He made a failed bid for a U.S. Senate seat in 1918,
narrowly losing in a campaign marked by personal attacks from his opponent. In
the Dearborn Independent, a local newspaper he bought in 1918, Ford published a
number of anti-Semitic writings that were collected and published as a four
volume set called The International Jew. Though he later renounced the writings
and sold the paper, he expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and Germany, and in 1938 accepted the Grand Cross of the
German Eagle, the Nazi regime's highest medal for a foreigner.
Edsel Ford died in 1943, and Henry Ford returned to the presidency of Ford
Motor Company briefly before handing it over to his grandson, Henry Ford II, in
1945. He died two years later at his Dearborn home, at the age of 83.
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