Home > Henry Ford
: This article is about the founder of the Ford Motor Company; for articles on other people named Henry Ford, see Henry Ford (disambiguation).Henry Ford ( July 30, 1863 - April 7, 1947) was the founder of the Ford Motor Company and one of the first to apply assembly line manufacturing to the mass production of affordable automobiles. This achievement not only revolutionized industrial production, it had such tremendous influence over modern culture that many social theorists identify this phase of economic and social history as " Fordism."
1 Background
Ford was born on a prosperous farm in Dearborn, Michigan owned by his parents, William and Mary Ford, immigrants from County Cork, Ireland. He was the eldest of six children. As a child, Henry was passionate about mechanics. At 12, he spent a lot of time in a machine shop, which he had equipped himself. By 15, he had built his first internal combustion engine.
In 1879 he left home for the nearby city of Detroit to work as an apprentice machinist, first with James F. Flower & Bros., and later with the Detroit Dry Dock Co. After completion of his apprenticeship, Ford got a job with the WestinghouseWestinghouse logo (designed by Paul Rand) The Westinghouse Electric Company headquartered in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, is an organization founded by George Westinghouse in 1886. George Westinghouse had previously founded the Westinghouse Air Brake Compan company working on gasoline engines. Upon his marriage to Clara Bryant in 18881888 is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). In Germany, 1888 is known as the 1888 Year of Three Emperors. Events January 3 91cm telescope first used at Lick Observatory January 12 ? Blizzards in Dakota and Montana, Minnesota, Nebr Ford supported himself by running a sawmill.
In 1891Events January 1 ? Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany January 20 James Hogg becomes the first native Texan to be governor of that state. January 29 Liliuokalani proclaimed Queen of Hawaii March 9 ? 12 ? Powerful storm off England?s south coast; Ford became an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company , and after his promotion to Chief Engineer in 1893Events January 1 Japan accepts the Gregorian calendar January 2 Introduction by Webb C. Ball of the General Railroad Timepiece Standards in North America: Railroad chronometers January 13 The Independent Labour Party of the UK has its first meeting. Janua he had enough time and money to devote attention to his personal experiments on internal combustion engines. These experiments culminated in 1896Events January 4 Utah is admitted as the 45th U. January 5 An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Rontgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays. January 12 H. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph. January 18 The X-ray machine is exhib with the completion of his own self-propelled vehicle named the QuadricycleQuadricycle is a four-wheeled vehicle. The most common layout is when the wheels are placed at the angles of a rectangle. The alternative layout is when wheels are placed at the angles of a rhombus. The rhombus layout is not very convenient, because such, which he test-drove on June 4June 4 is the 155th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (156th in leap years), with 210 days remaining. Events 780 BC The first historic solar eclipse is recorded in China. 1039 Henry II becomes King of Germany. 1615 Forces under the shogun Tokugawath that year (this was also the first automobile he ever drove).
After this initial success, Ford left Edison Illuminating and, with other investors, formed the Detroit Automobile Company . The Detroit Automobile Company, however, went bankrupt soon afterward because Ford continued to improve the design instead of selling cars. Ford raced his vehicles against those of other manufacturers to show the superiority of his designs. With the interest in his race cars, he formed a second company, the Henry Ford CompanyThe Henry Ford Company was the second company for Henry Ford, founded in 1900. It resulted from the reorganization of the Detroit Automobile Company, his first unsuccessful attempt at automobile manufacture a year before. Leland was brought in by the inve. During this period, he personally drove his Quadricycle to victory in a race against Alexander Winton , a well-known driver and the heavy favorite on October 10, 1901. Ford was forced out of the company by the investors, including Henry M. Leland in 1902, and the company was reorganized as Cadillac.
