Henry Ford

Early Life

Henry Ford was born on 30th July, 1863 on a farm, to a family of six, in Michigan. When he was about ten, Henry saw a steam engine mounted on wheels. It was the first engine driven machine he ever saw, and his fascination with locomotives born right then, would drive him through a lifetime of innovation in the automotive field. At 16, he headed for Detroit, where he began work as an apprentice machinist.



Career

Ford returned to the farm in 1882, and having exhibited great acumen with portable steam engines, got employed by Westinghouse Company to service their engines. By 1891, Ford became an engineer, working with Edison Illuminating Company. He gained a quick promotion and thus, found enough time and money to indulge in experiments with gasoline engines. By the age of 33, he had designed a gasoline engine propelled vehicle, called the Quadricycle.

Ford collected interested investors and formed a company called Detroit Automobile Company. But his lack of interest in actually marketing the cars, instead of constantly improving them and racing against rival companies, led to bankruptcy of the companies bankruptcy. The investors, looking for profitability, hired Henry M Leland to get a production model released. Following this, Ford resigned and the company was rechristened Cadillac Automobile Company.

With the co-operation of new investors, Ford started another venture called Ford Motor Company in 1903. The company produced a newly designed car which recorded a land speed record, becoming the fastest car of its time. With fan fare and smart publicity, the car soon became well known all around America. In a few years, Ford developed another car called Model T. This car, with advanced features for its time, and a relatively more economic price tag, gained massive popularity, and went on to sell over 15 million units. It was said to have revolutionized automobile transportation.

Besides improving the desirable features of the car, Ford focused on smart marketing and publicity. He brought the concept of owning and driving an automobile to vast masses of America. Through his franchise car dealerships spread all over America, he was able reach a massive chunk of the population. In 1913, Ford introduced the assembly line system in his production facilities and further cut costs. Later on, this mode of production would catch onto several industries. Even as the price of the car was dropped to less than half of its original by 1916, the company was still making enormous profits due to cost cutting improvements each year. By 1918, with sales of about half a million units, half the cars in America were Model Ts. By late 1920, though competition was beginning to engulf an ever rising market share, Henry had sold a record number of cars, and would hold that record for almost half a century.

Next, in 1926, Henry created the Model A Ford, which was again, a marvel for its time. The model went through continuous revisions for over four years, when its production finally came to a halt in 1931. Thereafter, the company followed a policy of annual model change. Henry also started a credit company for people to gain finance, which would help sell further more units of his cars. By early 30s, a third of the worlds vehicles were Fords.

Ford harbored a passion for racing, specially with his Model Ts, stripped down for better power/weight ration. For his records in the automotive field and racing, Henry Ford has been honored with an induction in the American Motorsports Hall of Fame.

During WW I, Ford diverted attention to developing Liberty airplane engines. He bought the Stout Metal Airplane Company. Fords most successful airplane was the 12 seater Ford 4AT Trimotor, the first successful US passenger airplane.