Who Is Henry Ford's Automotive Industry?

Henry Ford was an inventor and businessman who completely revolutionized the automotive industry with the methods he used to conduct business. Born near Dearborn, Michigan on July 30, 1863, Ford came from humble beginnings. His childhood on his family farm was marked by his dislike for farming affinity for technology like pocket watches. As a sixteen year old, he became an apprentice at a machinist. There he began to gather knowledge about the inner workings of steam engines and business in general. After a brief stint on his family’s farm, Ford returned to industry as an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company, and by 1893 he had been promoted to chief engineer. Ford began experimenting and developing plans for his version of the “horseless

Ford’s intentions with creating a car for the people can be observed in his autobiography, My Life and Work, where he writes, “I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one — and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces” (Ford 73). Before Ford entered the automobile industry, it had been dominated by people selling cars to the wealthy who wanted playthings, not something that could aid their everyday life. This monumental change in focus from the elite the masses in the automotive industry also brought about an equally monumental change in American society as a result, and the cheap mass production and the five dollars a day wage played integral roles in this development. The Henry Ford writes, “mass automobility facilitated the growth of vast new suburbs with their attendant schools, retail stores and industries” (The Henry Ford 9). The middle class grew with the suburbs, and the suburbs grew with the automobile. People could now not live in the cities of their jobs, and could instead use their new, cheap automobile to drive to work. Ford’s developments in the forms of the assembly line and the five dollar day were important in their own rights, but what was more important was the effects on society they brought