Henry Ford Research Paper

Henry Ford A lot of people assume that Henry Ford invented the automobile, but he did not. However, Ford is responsible for transforming the automobile from an unknown invention, to a masterpiece that has greatly changed the twentieth century. Ford was one of the greatest innovators of the nineteenth century (“Henry Ford Visionaries on Innovation”). Ford had a normal life like most kids but once he started to work in the engineering field, he knew right away what he wanted to do for the rest of his life! Consider, for a moment, what the world would be like without automobiles. Ford’s early life was completely ordinary. He was born on his father’s farm in Dearborn, Michigan on July 30, 1863. At a young age Ford started to

as a steam engine repair man” (Stewart "Henry Ford”). He fell in love with a young lady, Clara Bryant and married her in 1888, followed by the birth of their first child, Edsel in 1893. They later moved to Detroit and he took a position at The Edison Electric Illuminating Company. Ford formed a tight bond with Thomas Edison ("Henry Ford"), a relationship that would add to Ford’s ultimate success. They became such good friends that Thomas Edison’s son sent Ford, his father’s last breath. When Edison died his last breath was sealed in a bottle, which is currently on display at the Henry Ford

Soon after, the Ford Motor Company rolled out with their first model, the Model A. Many more models quickly followed, and they started to get national attention (America on the Move | Ford Model A Automobile). One of the models was the Model T, which had a sticker price of $825. That seems like a real deal but it is all relative given that the average yearly salary was $449.80 in the early 1900s. The easy to operate Model T was good for rough roads and easy and maintain. By 1918 half of the United States ended up owning a Model T, which propelled the Ford Motor Company to make some major building changes. Ford wanted to mass produce this automobile, which led him to use the assembly line. Before the assembly line only two cars were produced a day. With the assembly line, they could produce a car every two hours! Demand was so high, Ford started to use larger production plants and employed many more Michigan workers (History.com Staff). As the years went by, the sales began to decrease due to competition in the car making industry. Ford knew that he had to make a new model, so in 1927 the new and improved Model A came out and was an immediate success. The production remained solid at 1,201,053 cars in