Henry Ford Research Paper

Henry Ford

In its first year of production, Henry Ford sold 10,607 Model T’s for $850 apiece. This increase of business happened because most other cars at the time sold for $2,000. Henry also came up with the idea of the assembly line, which increased the production of cars from 10,000 to over 700,000 cars made and sold per year. Henry Ford revolutionized the manufacturing and automobile industries. Henry Ford grew up in Michigan with many siblings. Henry was born on July 30, 1863 in Dearborn, Michigan (which is now known as Springwells, Michigan). Henry was the oldest of six children with 3 brothers and 2 sisters. His brothers were William JR, John, and Robert and his sisters were Jane and Margaret. Henry’s mother, Mary, was a homemaker,

Early in his career, he was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Thomas Edison at the Edison Illuminating Company. During this time he also started a family, marrying Clara Jane Bryant on April 11, 1888. Five years later on November 6, 1893, Clara gave birth to Henry’s only son, Edsel Ford. In 1899, Henry stopped working with Edison in order to pursue his dream in the automobile industry. In his garage, Henry built his first automobile, the Quadricycle, which he drove successfully the very next morning. After he started his career in the automobile industry, Henry partnered up with James Couzens building and racing cars. In 1904, they set a new land speed record at 91.3 miles per hour. During this time, in 1903, he founded the Ford Motor Company after raising $28,000 from several different investors. Later that year, the Ford Motor Company sold their first automobile. After several years of hard work, in 1908 Ford and his crew built the first Model T automobile. In the first year of production, Ford sold 10,607 Model T’s for $850 each. To accommodate this huge increase in productivity, his workforce increased from 5,200 workers to 13,200 workers in the matter of a few short months. In 1913 Ford introduced the assembly line, which reduced the steps in the production of the Model T to only 84 steps. The assembly line also decreased the amount of time it took to make the Model T from 12 hours down to an