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Henry Ford
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By rights, Henry Ford probably should have been a farmer. He was born in 1863 in Dearborn, Michigan, on the farm operated by his father, an Irishman, and his mother, who was from Dutch stock. Even as a boy, young Henry had an aptitude for inventing and used it to make machines that reduced the drudgery of farm chores. At the age of thirteen, he saw a coal-fired steam engine lumbering along a long rural road, a sight that galvanized his fascination with machines. At sixteen, against the wishes of his father, he left the farm for Detroit, where he found work as a mechanic's apprentice. Over the next dozen years he advanced steadily, and became chief engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company.
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Henry Ford was a pioneer of "welfare capitalism" designed to improve the lot of his workers and especially to reduce the heavy turnover that had many departments hiring 300 men per year to fill 100 slots. Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best workers. On January 5, 1914, Ford announced his five-dollar per day program. The revolutionary program called for a raise in minimum daily pay from $2.34 to $5 for qualifying workers. It ... set a new, reduced workweek, although the details vary in different accounts. Ford and Crowther in 1922 described it as six 8-hour days, giving a 48-hour week, while in 1926 they described it as five 8-hour days, giving a 40-hour week.
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Henry Ford long had an interest in plastics developed from agricultural products, especially soybeans. He cultivated a relationship with George Washington Carver for this purpose. Soybean-based plastics were used in Ford automobiles throughout the 1930s in plastic parts such as car horns, in paint, etc. This project culminated in 1942, when Ford patented an automobile made almost entirely of plastic, attached to a tubular welded frame. It weighed 30% less than a steel car, and was said to be able to withstand blows ten times greater than could steel. Furthermore, it ran on grain alcohol (ethanol) instead of gasoline.
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With Edsel running the company, Henry Ford had the freedom and money to pursue his unlimited causes and enthusiasms. He would crusade against alcohol and smoking. He would support projects in agriculture, health, technical education, synthetic materials, shipping, hydroelectric power, and the revival of square dancing.
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Born into a farming family in Greenfield, Michigan, in the United States, Henry Ford moved to Detroit in 1879 to work in machine shops, securing a post as an engineer with the Edison Iluminating Company in 1891. He made his first automobile in 1896 and, after three years, gave up his work with Edison to concentrate on automobile production with the Detroit Automobile Company, for which he was chief engineer and partner. At this time he produced two vehicles, a Quadricycle car and a delivery wagon. After a couple of abortive starts the Ford Motor Company was established in 1903, early landmarks of which included the launch of the Model T in 1908, the establishment of the moving assembly line in 1913, and the building of the world's biggest automobile manufacturing plant in Baton Rouge (1917-27). By 1921 the Ford Motor Company accounted for 55 per cent of the total output of the automobile industry. Five years later, in 1926, Henry's son, Edsel B. Ford, became president of the company.
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Henry Ford’s son, Edsel Bryant Ford, 1893–1943, b. Detroit, shared in the control of the vast Ford industrial interests. He was president of the Ford Motor Company from 1919 until his death, when his father once more became (1943) president of the company. The eldest Ford soon retired again when his grandson, Henry Ford 2d, 1917–87, b. Detroit, succeeded him in 1945. The younger Henry Ford moved quickly to restructure and modernize the company, which had slipped from the world’s largest automobile manufacturer in 1920 to number three in the U.S. market in 1945. He removed a number of long-time Ford executives, such as Bennett, and for the first time in company history, recruited outsiders for positions of responsibility. The company spent $1 billion between 1945 and 1955 to expand its operations, introduced successful new models, and raised $690 million in capital by offering stock to the public (1956).
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Henry Ford