“The Model T was not a car as we know them now – it was a person – crotchety and mean, frolicsome and full of jokes – just when you were ready to kill yourself, it would run five miles with no gasoline whatsoever.. I understood IT but as I said before, IT understood me: It magnified some of my faults, corrected others. It worked on the sin of impatience; it destroyed the sin of vanity. And it helped to establish an almost Oriental philosophy of acceptance.” So were the words of American author John Steinbeck, published in 1953 in the Ford News about the passing of the Model T as the end of American innocence. Henry Ford, founder, engineer, and leader of Ford Motor Company, had brought not only America the notion of an affordable, practical means of motorized transport, but the entire world. He embodied much of what America strove to be in the 19th and early parts of the 20th century – independent, forthright, and self made. His company, like his cars, became showpieces of the American middle class, offering an alternative to vast income disparities and luxury goods for the few with concepts such as the $5 work day and simple, low priced vehicles his own workers could afford. As Henry Ford neared the end of his life in 1947, however, he saw an America much changed from his youthful days as a farm boy, with the vast centralization of power brought about by two world wars, and a technocratic elite coming to dominate society from within institutions like the major corporations that he in part helped create.
-- Brought to you by --
Very special guest Alex Walker @alexwalker196
with Adam Smith, Hans Lander and Nick Mason
- https://myth20c.wordpress.com/2017/09/21/henry-ford-life-work-and-legacy/
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— Timeline —
1863 – Henry Ford is born in a small Michigan farm to English and Belgian immigrants, the oldest of five children.
1876-1879 – Henry becomes a budding young mechanic, teaching himself how to draw rudimentary blueprints and disassemble watches and tools.
1879 – Henry moves just outside of Detroit to live with his Aunt, gaining early skills as a machinist/mechanic and engineer.
1884 – Henry, now a man, enrolls at Goldsmith, Bryant & Stratton Business University in Detroit.
1888 – Clara Jane Bryant becomes the wife of Henry Ford, and they remain together until Henry’s death in 1947.
1894 – Henry becomes the Chief Engineer of the Edison Illuminating Company and a top protege of Thomas Edison.
1896 – The Quadricycle, Ford’s first motorized vehicle, is driven throughout the streets of Detroit.
1899-1901 – Ford founds the Detroit Automobile Company, later abandoning it as the company’s sales fail to achieve investor expectations. Later in 1901, Ford builds a race car that competes, and finds victory, in Michigan’s first major automobile race. The Henry Ford Company is founded with Henry as the chief engineer, but is then forced out of the company by investors.
1903 – The Ford Motor Company is successfully founded with Henry Ford occupying two roles of chief engineer and vice president.
1907 – Ford manufactures his first tractor, marking the company’s first major step in developing the rural/farm worker market.
1908 – Highland Park is developed by Albert Kahn and marks the largest factory in operation up to that point.
1908 – The Model T, a landmark vehicle and product in American manufacturing history, is released to the public. The car would later go on to sell 15 million units.
1911 – Ford defeats the Selden Patent, an obscure 1879 patent that was holding back the American automobile industry.
1914 – Henry Ford makes several landmark moves by perfecting the assembly line production model, utilizing a series of process engineering and administrative breakthroughs, as well as doubling worker’s pay to $5.00 an hour and ensuring a full two-day weekend for all laborers.
1918 – Henry Ford runs for Senator of Michigan, although loses the election by 4500 votes.
1919 – Henry and Edsel Ford, hatching a takeover plot to oust the Dodge Brothers and other investors, finally privatize the Ford Motor Company.
1925 – After expanding into hotels, tractors, naval vessels, and automobiles, Henry Ford develops an aviation unit and rapidly becomes one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer.
1927 – Ford introduces the Model A and begins phasing out the Model T.
1932 – Ford releases the new V8-Engine model, and faces down the infamous Hunger March by Ford company laborers.
1943 – After shifting in and out of various positions with the company, Henry Ford once again assumes control of the Ford Motor Company.
1947 – Henry Ford passes away in the middle of the night, resting on the shoulder of his wife Clara.
