Henry Ford, 1863–1947

Henry Ford was born in Michigan. As a teenager, he left his father's farm to become an apprentice in a machine shop. Later, he became an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company. (This began a friendship with Thomas Edison that would last until the end of Edison's life. Ford and Edison vacationed together, and in later years, they had summer homes nearby one another in Florida.) Ford soon began experimenting with gasoline-powered vehicles in his spare time. In 1896, he introduced his Quadricycle, a four-wheeled cart powered by a gasoline engine. This was not, as many have suggested, the first automobile -- Ford was building on work by others -- but it was so successful that Ford, Alexander Malcomson, James Couzens, and others could start the Ford Motor Company in 1903.

An Early Supporter of Mass Production

Ford was one of the early proponents of mass production. He cut manufacturing costs, adapted a conveyor belt to the assembly line production of cars in order to create a standardized, inexpensive, vehicle. These techniques allowed the Ford company to outsell its competitors and made Detroit the automobile capital of the world. In 1908, Ford and his chief engineer Harold Wills came up with the Model T; by the time production stopped on the model, they had sold nearly seventeen million cars worldwide.

Profit Sharing

Ford was well-known for paying his workers higher than average wages. In 1914 a profit-sharing plan was put in place by which workers would receive an extra $5 for each eight hour day they worked. This worked out to a total distribution of $30 million a year.

Peace and War Efforts

In 1915, Ford was the leader of a privately sponsored peace expedition aimed to end what was later called the Great War, or World War I. Their efforts failed. After America entered the war in 1917, the Ford Company became a leading producer of ambulances, tanks, airplanes, submarine chasers, and munitions.

In his later years, Ford was criticized for his anti-Semitic views, for the private police force he employed to keep down labor unions, and for his autocratic style of management.

Philanthropy

Ford donated $7.5 million to the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and set up Greenfield Village, a museum that was a replica of an early American village, in 1933. He also established the Ford Foundation.