Henry Ford: Brilliant Innovator of Industry

Full name: Henry Martin Ford
Date of birth: July 30, 1863
Place of birth: Springwells Township, Michigan, U.S.
Date of death: April 7, 1947 (Age: 83)
Place of death: Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.
Height: 5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
Parents: Mary Litogot Ford (Mother), William Ford, John Ford, Margaret Ford, Jane Ford, William Ford, and Robert Ford (Siblings)
Education: University of Pennsylvania (BA, BS)
Spouse: Clara Jane Bryant ​(m. 1888)
Children: Edsel Ford
Occupation(s): Engineer, Industrialist, Publisher, Philanthropist

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Who is Henry Ford?

Henry Ford is the founder of the Ford Motor Company. He is also the developer of the assembly line production system, a mass production system.

Henry Ford Birthday, Height, and Family Life

Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, in Wayne County, Deɑrborn, Detroit, Michigɑn, USA to a family of Irish descent. Ford, who has six siblings in total, is the eldest of the siblings.

His siblings were John Ford (1865-1927); Margaret Ford (1867-1938); Jane Ford (c. 1868-1945); William Ford (1871-1917) and Robert Ford (1873-1877).  Henry Ford’s mother’s name was Mary Litogot Ford and his father’s name was William Ford. His mother passed away when he was only 12 years old.

Henry Ford Career

After his mother passed away, he started to spend time in the mechanical workshop he founded himself. When he was only 15 years old, he built his first steam engine. In 1879, he started to apprentice in the workshop of a company in Detroit. He first developed himself in pocket watches. He aimed to produce quality and cheap pocket watches. However, he gave up after a while.

In 1882, he got his first steady job as a steam engine installer in southern Michigan. He then found a job at the Westinghouse Company and worked on gasoline engines. After his marriage to Clara J. Bryant, the daughter of a farmer, Henry Ford improved his financial situation by establishing his own sawmill. In 1881, he started working as an engineer at the “Edison Illuminating Company” founded by Thomas Alva Edison. In 1893 he was appointed Chief Engineer. The world-famous inventor Thomas Alva Edison and Ford became friends in the following years.

In 1893, he built his first single-cylinder gasoline engine in the kitchen of his home. Three years later he built his first automobile. After his promotion to chief engineer, Ford was able to devote enough time and money to his personal research on fuel engines and completed the development of his Quadricycle in 1896. After this success, he left Edison’s company and founded the Detroit Automobile Company in 1899 with other investors. In order to show the superiority of his own models, he successfully competed his vehicles with the vehicles of other manufacturers. Unable to earn enough money, the Detroit Automobile Company went bankrupt in 1901.

In 1902, he founded the Ford Motor Company, in which he held 25.5% of the shares. In the same year, the first automobile they produced was sold in the USA. After 1904, he exported his automobiles to other continents. In 1913, while producing his “Model T” car, he introduced the moving belt system for the first time. “Model T” was produced between 1908 and 1927 and 15 million units were sold. In 1906, Ford opened its first European branch in England. Ford established factories in Belgium (1922), Italy (1923) and Germany (1925). After 1928, Ford’s business in Europe was managed centrally from a new plant in England.

Since its foundation, Ford has never borrowed money from anyone, nor has it sold bonds or bills. In the year the company was founded, 1708 two-cylinder 8 horsepower cars were built. The company’s capital was 100 thousand dollars at the beginning. Different models of automobiles were in demand.

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In 1917, the enterprise expanded its production range by adding agricultural vehicles (mainly tractors) to its production. By 1926, the company’s capital had risen to 1 billion dollars. The Ford Company became the largest motor company in the world. They were not only making automobiles but also various vehicles and their spare parts. Now no one in the whole world had not heard the name Ford.

In 1914, Henry Ford astonished the industrial world by increasing the wages of his workers. In the Ford factory, workers worked 8 hours a day and received a daily wage of 5 dollars. In other factories, workers worked 9 hours a day and received half the wages of Ford’s workers.

On the other hand, he was absolutely against unionization in his factories. The goods Ford produced were sold at a very low profit, but it profited from the sheer volume of production. Thus the company soon became one of the world’s biggest companies. In 1915, the 1 millionth car was built. By 1926, the factory was capable of producing 2 million cars a year. In 1928, the 15 millionth car was produced.

The Y Model, launched in 1932, was designed especially for the European market. This model, together with the V8 engine developed in 1933, played a decisive role in the development of the business in the following years. In the Second World War, Ford adapted his business entirely to war production, just as he had done in the First World War.

The Ford Motor Company became one of the largest companies in the delivery of war materials and made a lot of money. Nevertheless, Ford worked for the preservation of peace before both world wars, and in 1936 he founded the Ford Foundation, a foundation aimed at securing peace.

After 1919, Ford, who ran the company with his son Edsel, bought all the shares of his company at that time. In 1925, he also briefly switched to the production of passenger and cargo airplanes. Henry Ford, who loved people as well as machines, opened many charities and hospitals during his lifetime. He also donated a significant portion of his fortune to the Ford Foundation.

In 1915, Henry Ford gathered the most prominent people of the time and traveled to Europe on a ship. He took all the travel expenses on himself. His intention was to prevent the outbreak of World War I. Unfortunately, the journey for peace did not yield a good result. During World War 1, Ford wanted to enter the aviation industry and founded an airplane company. In 2002, the US Flying Commission named Henry Ford one of the pioneers of the aviation industry, but Ford’s airplane company was shut down in 1933 due to stagnant sales.

Henry Ford ran for senator in 1918 but did not win.

Ford married Clara J. Bryant in 1888. He had a son named Edsel from this marriage in 1893. When his son Edsel died in 1943, he took over the management of the company again. In October 1945, he handed it over to his grandson Henry Ford II.

Henry Ford died on April 7, 1947, at the age of 84 in Fair Lane, Dearborn, Michigan, USA.

Top 10 Henry Ford Quotes

• Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
• It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
• Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.
• If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.
• Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.
• Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
• Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
• Exercise is bunk. If you are healthy, you don’t need it: if you are sick you should not take it.
• If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.
• When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.