FREE ESSAY ON HENRY FORD

HENRY FORD

When Henry Ford was born on June 30th, 1863, neither him nor anyone for that matter, knew
what an important role he would take in the future of mankind. Ford saw his first car
when he was 12. He and his father where riding into Detroit at the time. At that moment,
he knew what he wanted to do with his life: he wanted to make a difference in the
automobile industry. Through out his life, he achieved this in an extraordinary way. That
is why he will always be remembered in everyone's heart.
Whenever you drive down the road in your car, you can thank all of it to Henry Ford.
Through his life he accomplished extraordinary achievements such as going from a poor
farm boy to a wealthy inventor who helped Thomas Edison. When he was a young man, he
figured out how to use simple inventions, such as the light bulb. He then taught himself
the design of a steamboat engine. His goal was to build a horse-less carriage. He had
come up with several designs and in 1896, he produced his first car, the Model A. When
Ford's first car came out, he had been interviewed by a reporter and when asked about the
history of the car, he had said "History is more or less bunk."
Ford worked in Thomas Edison's factory for years and the left to become an apprentice for
a car-producer in Detroit. While working there, he established how he was going to make
the car. He looked through hundreds of books on bicycles and books on horse and buggies.
Ford decided to use wheels from a bicycle, and the same steel framing. From the horse and
buggy, he took the idea of the shape of the actual frame. He also made a handlebar that
was in the same place as horse rider for a buggy. When Henry For opened his first
automobile plant, not only did it bring much attention to the industry, but it also made
people want to own a car so that they looked "cool". People knew that this was going to
be a successful industry so they wanted to work in it.
Even though most people think that the first true car ever made by Henry Ford was the
Model A; they are actually being deceived. Henry Ford's first actual cars were made for
racing. Only a year or so later did Ford start making Model A's. The profits from the
Ford Motor Company were used to make racecars for special races. When Henry Ford first
decided to make cars, he had a huge dilemma. He didn't know whether to use petroleum,
electric, or steam engines for the car. After much reasoning and many experiments, he
finally rested on petroleum because there was an abundance of it in the U.S. at the
time.
When the car began production, it immediately had an impact on the working hours of
people. The car allowed people to get to work and home much quicker. This allowed bosses
to shorten the workdays for their employees. However, not many people were able to
benefit from this because cars they were still a lot of money and the average person was
unable to afford it.
When Ford Motor Company started producing the Model A, they had to come up with a slogan.
While Ford was walking down the street one day, he was listening to a conversation
between two men and one of them said: "The person who invented this car was definitely
thinking of the people, not himself." This is where Ford got the saying Ford: Car for the
People. The reason many people felt this way was because it was cheap and could be
purchased by the average person.
The Model A was so successful that Ford began working on a new car. Little did he know,
it would become the most famous car ever. In 1907, the work on the Model T started. While
working on the project, Ford never rushed his people to work harder but he inspired them
by saying things such as "I wonder if we can do it?" The car was so well liked because it
was so high off the ground, the mechanics were simple, and the car itself was incredibly
strong. When a prototype Model T came out, Henry Ford immediately put it to the test.
Ford himself took the car to the British Isles, where he drove the car to the top of Ben
Nevis, the highest and toughest hill of it's kind. When the car achieved this without a
hitch, attention was drawn to it and it became very popular.
Since the Model T was so successful and well built, over the course of 20 years, there
were only minor changes made to it. As the Model T was at its top point of sales; a
competitor came into the picture. A new company called General Motors started producing
several kinds of cars. However, despite all of this, Ford Motor Company was still able to
maintain the top position in their industry. To stay on top, Henry Ford's top managers
brought up an invention they had been working on. This invention and also means of
production, was called mass production, which used the assembly line.
The assembly line worked in a way that had never been used before. Parts of the car moved
down the track and people attached their own certain piece to the car. Not only did it
make the production faster, but it also made it less expensive. However, when the idea
was first presented to Ford, he was not very fond of it. He was a very strong believer in
standardization. The most famous quote that he ever said comes from this belief. This
quote is: "You can have any color, as long as it's black." The assembly line made it so
that instead of taking 12 and half hours to make a car, it only took 1 and half with the
new method.
When Henry Ford had originally opened his plant, he was paying workers $2.34 per day for
a 9 hour work day. However, when the Model T came out, Ford became so wealthy from his
profits, that he raised wages to $5 a day for 8 hours of work. This method had never been
used before and was so popular, that there were greater sales, production, and the prices
of the car went plummeting as well. At the same time, people would line up everyday
outside the plant just to wait for a job. Sometimes, these lines went on for miles!
During the period of time that the wages at Ford were so low, people and unions were very
satisfied and happy. One of Henry Ford's employees wrote this poem:
Nothing to worry when next
day comes
Nothing but good clothes to
wear.
Sorry are we for the poor devils
who
Cannot our good luck share.
All of the people were in favor of the pay increase because when the raise was given,
other people in the family had the opportunity to stop working, and it gave families a
chance to become a family again.
When the Model T first came out in 1908, it was priced at $850. From there, it went down
to $360 in 1916 and after that, it went even lower to $290 in 1924. This caused sales to
go through the roof because more people could afford the car. By 1927, Ford Motor Company
had sold over 15 million cars. On average, 9,190 cars were made per day in the
factories.
When the year 1910 rolled around, Henry Ford had even bigger ideas for his company. He
had already conquered the U.S. but he had not conquered the International regions. In
early 1910, Ford Motor Company started to ship Model T's to countries such as Turkey,
Malaya, Newfoundland, Barbados, Mauritius, India, Africa, and Japan. When World War I
started, Ford still produced cars yet at the same time, they started to produce airplanes
for the airforce. When the war ended, many companies in other countries, tried to copy
Ford's Model T yet, they were not successful. One man, Morris Oxford, came so close to
Ford's design but did not produce the car he instead, used it for his own use. Oxford
later moved onto other industries to use similar methods as Ford's to run his business.
By the 1920's, Ford Motor Company, made well over half of the motorized vehicles in the
entire world. At this time, the automobile industry was so large, that it used more than
80% of rubber, and well over 75% of glass. However, in 1928, Ford lost its seat as the
largest U.S. producer of automobiles. General Motors had been producing a larger variety
of cars for a much cheaper price. Even though Ford Motor Company lost its number one
place in the U.S., it was still the largest overseas producer of automobiles. Ford was
shipping over 75% of all the cars in other countries, excluding the U.S.
When Ford Motor Company was no longer the number one car producer in the U.S., Henry Ford
decided that it was time to invest in other industries. Over the course of only a few
years, Henry Ford came to be a major owner of coal, iron ore, steel mills, paper, cement,
and oil. Ford also took part in growing timber, Sawmills, rubber plantations, railroads,
blast furnaces, planes, and ships. It did not take long before Henry Ford was making back
the money he was loosing from not having the number one seat in the U.S.
However, more trouble was just a few years away. Soon, there were three major automobile
companies: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. General Motors and Chrysler were coming
out with new cars every few months. On the other hand, Henry Ford was very certain he
would still make it on the Model T. His stubbornness about not producing a new type of
car not only made him drop to the third largest producer, but he also lost almost half of
his fortune.
After this event, Ford knew that his time was up. So in 1945, in his early 80's, Henry
Ford stepped down as the owner of Ford Motor Company. When he did so, he handed the
business over to his grandson, Henry Ford II. The new Henry Ford started producing new
state of the art cars. Once again, Ford's sales went skyrocketing and they were back up
at the number two spot of the producer of all cars.
Two years after Henry Ford stepped down from his position at Ford Motor Company, he
passed away at the age of 84. When his death first occurred, many people were corrupt and
argued that Ford's way of business was unlawful because machines were replacing skilled
men. However, in the minds of most individuals, Henry Ford will forever be remembered as
not only the creator of one of the greatest car companies of it's time, but the inventor
of one of the best cars ever made, the Model T.
Bibliography
1.) Cy Caldwell Henry Ford, Juilian Messner, New York, ? 1947 pg. 1-40
2.) Paul Joseph Henry Ford, Inventors, Minnesota, ? 1997 pg. 1- 29
3.) Edmond O'Connor Henry Ford, Geenrhaven World History Program, Minnesota,
? 1980 pg. 2-18