When Henry Ford was born in Greenfield Township, Michigan, nobody knew what an important role he would play in the future of the automotive industry. From a young age Ford was fascinated by machines and their mechanics. At age twelve Henry saw his first car and was amazed by this “horseless carriage”. From that point on his dream was to make his own car. He spent the next few years taking apart toys, watches, gadgets, anything he could get his hands on. He worked on the farm but eventually needed to move on to bigger things. He and his wife, Clara Ford, moved to Detroit where he was able to get a job at Edison Illuminating Company and learn even more about engineering. At a conference in New York City, Ford had the chance to meet Edison and show …show more content…
Edison was thoroughly impressed and gave his stamp of approval and the following week Edison offered Ford a promotion. Ford declined the offer and quit to pursue his ultimate passion: cars. He had come up with several designs, and in 1896, he produced his first car. After years of trial and error he came up with the assembly line and the most popular car of the time, the Model T. This model was easy to manufacture and affordable to the middle class. Henry Ford and his innovative method of manufacturing cars made them more affordable to the public thus boosting the American economy and laying the foundation for the automotive industry for generations to come.
Throughout his life, Henry Ford encountered many obstacles while engineering cars, money being a major one. He was able to come out with a few different models of cars but he wasn’t happy with how costly they were. Ford focused on making an affordable car, “He didn’t want to have the car loved by the rich; he wanted to have the car loved by everyone” (mag). In order to do this he needed investors. Early in his career he focused on race cars, specifically for the purpose of establishing his name in the