Life of Henry Ford

Henry Ford played a large part in the invention of the automobile. He grew up in a decent house, and had a good opportunity to be successful. He didn’t like school, nor farming that much so he left for Detroit where he worked as machinist. After learning the tricks of the trade he went back to his home down of Dearborn and took part in the invention of the horseless carriage. It was a contraption with four bicycle wheels that run off an engine. In 1903 he established Ford as we know it today. In the early days of Ford they produced only three cars per day. There was eleven men involved in the process. However, after the model T was made the demand was huge. Ford had no choice but to come up with an alternative way of producing the goods. The assembly line was then born. With these new advanced they were able to produce one new car every 24 seconds compared to three a day. This easily met the demand at the time. Similar to certain companies these days Ford was strict on his employees. He refused to enter any kind of union, and even hired spies to make sure the employees weren’t forming one. Ford single handedly changed the way things were produced, and how goods are still produced till this current day. His schedules allowed the plant to remain open 24 hours a day. He invented 8 hour work days for employees, but not to give them a better work environment, but to increase productivity. This allowed three different shifts per day, and a non stop car making machine.

In 1938 Ford had a heart attack and passed the company on to Edsel. However, five years later Edsel died which forced Ford to run the company for another two years. Eventually it was passed on to Henry Ford II in 1945, which lead to the death of Ford in 1947. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 83 in his home town of Dearborn.