Resumo da biografia de Henry Ford

Henry Ford Research

        Henry Ford was a mechanic, inventor, industrialist, and social activist. He started the era of the automobile, when thousands of cars were made. He was the founding father of the Ford Motor Company, and he became very successful in his company by making his products in assembly line, and thus insinuating industries to do the same. Ford played a large role in bringing about the modern consumer age.

Henry Ford was born in July 30, 1863 in Dearborn, Michigan. He was the child of William and Mary Litogot Ford. Henry Ford showed a mechanical inclination at early age. When he was a kid, he built his own steam engine, and with it his own tractor. His father expected Henry to follow his footsteps in farming, but Henry had other plans. When he was only sixteen, Ford left his parent’s farm to seek his fortune in Detroit. He found work as an apprentice in a fire hydrant shop, earning his first salary of 2 dollars and 50 cents a week, and also repaired watches at night. He was determined in becoming a wealthy man, so he joined the Detroit Dry Dock Company, earning less, but gaining experienced, which for his was more important. By the time he was 20, he was earning a good salary and was already a steam expert in the company.

In 1888, Henry Ford married Clara Bryant, settled in a farm in Dearborn and farmed for a couple of years. He did not find farming any more attractive then when he was a teenager. It was doing this period that he built his first internal-combustion engine, similar to the ones we use today. He was convinced that electricity was the key to building an effective mechanical vehicle, so he became chief night engineer in the Detroit illuminating company, owned by Thomas Alva Edison. His new wage of 100 dollars a month supported his wife, son, (Edsel, born in 1893) and his “horseless carriage”, which was a plan to build his automobile. At Christmas Eve, 1893, after three years of working on his automobile, Henry Ford tested his first steam carriage. Although it was not the first gasoline powered car, – Gottlieb Daimler had built his horseless carriage six years before – his invention caused something of a sensation in Detroit.

In 1899, Ford founded the Detroit Automobile Company, which ended up failing him economically, but gave him the chance to concentrate all his energies in designing automobiles. During this period, his understanding of the automobile and the automobile manufacturing grew immeasurably, and he learned how to be the best in business. He designed a four cylinder carriage and in October 10, 1901 he tested it on a race against Alexander Winton, a designer of what was then the world’s fastest automobile. Ford won the race and the publicity of this event raised money for his third automobile company, the Henry Ford Company in 1903. Ford became obsessed in building race cars, and he set several world records for fastest cars, one of which he covered one mile in 36 seconds (average speed of 100 miles per hour). After two failed attempts, Henry Ford had launched a hugely successful car company.

Back at that time, automobiles were only designed for wealthy individuals, but Henry Ford had a different vision. He saw the automobile as a tool that would transport people from cities to farms, and vice versa. In 1908, the Ford Motor Company came out with the Model T. This model was exactly how Ford had dreamed about, a light-weight, inexpensive, reliable automobile, priced to be available to the average working consumer. By 1922, Ford had already sold his black Model T millions of times, and he was the richest man in America. It was common to see a Model T driving through the streets of America, and Henry Ford was greatly appreciated by many Americans.