Henry T. Ford Essay -- essays research papers

Henry T. Ford (1863-1947) Henry Ford once said: “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether this happens at twenty or at eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young';. - Henry Ford Henry T. Ford, pioneering automotive engineer, is mostly credited forinventing the automobile. The fact is he did not, he used what was developed and studied in the automobile industry to develop his own ideas and revolutionized the automotive industry. His creativity made possible for him to develop the assembly line that sparked the auto production. Henry Ford Henry Ford was born near Dearborn, Michigan, on July 30, 1863. His family had nothing to do with the automobile, they were simple farmers. Henry lived on the farm that was run by his father who was an Irish man, and his mother who was Dutch, his mother died when he was 12. After his mother death he helped out around the family farm in summer and in winter attended a one-room school. From the young age he was fascinating my moving mechanical things. Form the young age he was fascinated by watches and clocks. He went around the countryside doing repair work without pay, for him all mattered was to play with the machinery of the watch. From his personal experience on the farm he was fascinated my farm machines that reduced the drudgery of farm chores. We can notice there was a lot of a kid in him, and to go around or making his chores easier he invented his own farm machines. His fascination with machines grew as he grew older. At the age of thirteen, for the first time he saw a coal-fi red steam engine that was rolling along a long rural road. From that point he grew more fascinated about machines that moved about a roads without any manpower. At the age of sixteen, and against the wishes of his father, he left the home farm for Detroit, where he found work as a mechanic’s apprentice. He was faced with low paying jobs. Working for $2.50 in mechanics shop then moved to watchmaker were he worked for four hours and was paid $2 a week. Steadily he worked him self up in Edison Illuminating Company, and became a chief engineer there. In 1884 he took charge of a farm his father gave him. At twenty-four he married Clara Bryant and settled at his farm. But Ford did not stay long at the farm after two years he went back to Detroit and worked as a n... ... a 1941 ford company became the only major manufacturer of automobiles in the Detroit area that had not recognized any labor unions. At hearings before the National Labor Board ford was found guilty of repeated violations of the National Labor Relations Act. Ford was forced to negotiate a labor contract with a union after a strike was successfully held at the main plant at river Rouge, Michigan, in April 1941.During the W.W.II era Ford was granted government contracts for which he manufactured war materials like: parts for the bombers and later, the entire airplane. By the end of W.W.II (1945) one of his plants manufactured more than 8,000 planes. Henry ford died on April 7,1947, in Dearborn. Ford left a personal fortune at $500 to $700 million, giving large shares of the money to Ford Foundation, a nonprofit organization. The Ford Motor Company was taken over by grandson of Henry Ford, Henry Ford II who carried his ownership until his death in 1987. “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether this happens at twenty or at eighty. Anyone who keeps on learning not only remains young but becomes constantly more valuable, regardless of physical capacity.'; -Henry T. Ford