Henry+Ford

=Henry Ford toc= Henry Ford was a very famous engineer/inventor known for his automobile manufacturing. He was definetly one of the most intelligent engineers at the time. Ford was the American founder of the Ford Motor Company and was also the father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. Being the owner of the Ford Company, he became one of the richest and most famous people in the world.

Early Life
Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863 and grew up on a successful farm in Dearborn, Michigan. He was the first of William and Mary Ford's six children. Ford went to one-room schools and did farm chores all the time. At an early age, Ford showed a great interest in mechanically related things. In 1879 when he was sixteen-years-old, Ford left home for the close by city of Detroit. He went to work as an apprentice machist to learn some basics. He occasionally returned to his farm to help with things. For the next three years he remained an apprentice and then he returned back to Dearborn. During the next few years, Henry divided his time between repairing and operating various steam engines, finding occasional work in a factory in Detroit, and running his fathers farm. In 1888, he married Clara Bryant and supported himself and his wife by running a sawmill. This was his life up until he started to really get famous and plunge into his profession.



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Ford Motor Company
After two unsuccessful attempts to make a company to manufacture automobiles, the Ford Motor Company was established in 1903, Ford as vice-president and chief engineer. It was located on Mack Avenue in Detroit. The company only produced a few cars a day with two or three groups of men on each car. Ford soon realized his dream was coming close, producing an automobile that was reliable, efficient, and reasonably priced. The demand for these cars was growing enormously so the company opened a large factory at Highland Park, Michigan in 1910.  At this new location, Ford combined precision manufacturing, standardized and interchangeable parts, a division of labor, and, in 1913, a continuous moving assembly line for workers to work on. By 1918, half of all the cars in America were Model T's.  Fords dream of mass producing good and affordable cars had come true. He became known all over the world for his wealth from this mass-production.

Ford Airplane Company
After being a successful motor company, Ford entered the aviation business during World War 1, building Liberty engines. Fords most famous and successful aircraft was the Ford 4AT Trimotor. It was nicknamed the "Tin Goose" because of its excessive metal construction. It held uncomfortably held 12 passengers. The Trimotor first flew on June 11, 1926, and was the first successful U.S passenger airliner. A total of 200 Trimotors were built before the making of them was discontinued in 1933. They were discontinued because of the poor sales during the Great Depression. Henry Ford was honored by the Smithsonian Institution for changing the aviation industry.

Ford had an interest in auto racing from 1901 to 1913 and began his involvement in the sport as a driver and a builder of the racing cars. He entered stripped-down Model Ts in races and finished first in an "ocean-to-ocean" race in 1909. He was later disqualified from this race. Later, he set a one mile (1.6 km) oval speed record at Detroit Fairgrounds in 1911 with driver Frank Kulick. In 1913, Ford dropped out of racing completely because he was unsatisfied with many of the rules. For example he entered a reworked Model T in the Indianapolis 500 but was told his car needed an extra 1,0000 pounds added to it to qualify. Ford talked briefly about his experiences with racing in his book //My Life and Work//. He spoke of it in an unworthy tone, saying that at the time racing was only good for showing the worth of a car. Regardless of this, Ford made a big impact on auto racing during his racing ears, and he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1996.

The End
Henry Ford went into retirement in September 1945 and died in 1947 in very ill health of cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 83. He gave the presidency of the company to his grandson Henry Ford the 2nd. He died on April 7, 1947 in Dearborn, MI. He was buried in the Ford Cemetery in Detroit, MI. Ford was a great role model for many people at his time, and still is. Not only did he benefit from his success, but so did others. They could use their skills to build off of his. He layed a good foundation for cars in general. Henry Ford was a very famous and strong figure.