Henry Ford:

Revolutionary inventor

When we talk about transportation and motorcars, one name that immediately springs to mind is Henry Ford.

He was the father of the modern assembly lines used in the mass production of motorvehicles (this assembly line could finish a car in 98 minutes, at a lower cost than was possible then). His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionised not only the transportation sector, but also American industry.

Not only that, he was an inventor of many other products and was awarded 161 US patents (sole right to invention or process) . Ford was the founder of the Ford Motor Company of USA, which is synonymous with the motoring industry, and through his inventions, became one of the richest and best-known people in the world.

Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863 on a farm in Michigan. His father was William Ford and his mother was Mary Litogot Ford. His siblings were Margaret, Jane, William and Robert.

Henry's passion(strong enthusiasn or interest) for mechanics started very early in life with the pocket watch his father had gifted to him in his early teens. At 15, he had earned a reputation as a watch repairman, having dismantled and reassembled timepieces for many of his friends and neighbours.

His mother's death in 1876 devastated the young boy. Although his father expected him to eventually take over the family farm, Henry didn't like farm work. In 1879, he left home for the nearby city of Detroit, Michigan, to work as a trainee machinist.

He married Clara Ala Bryant in 1888, and supported himself by farming and running a sawmill. They had a child, Edsel Bryant Ford and also adopted another one from China.

In 1891, Ford became an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company, and after being promoted chief engineer in 1893, it was possible for him to spend time and money on his experiments on gasoline engines. These experiments resulted in the completion of his self-propelled vehicle named the Quadricycle in 1896.

Ford incorporated the Ford Motor Company in 1903 with 11 other inventors and started offering higher wages, which resulted in the best mechanics in Detroit flocking to the company, bringing in their expertise, raising productivity, and lowering training costs.

With these Ford built a huge factory that shipped in raw materials and shipped out finished automobiles.

The Model T was introduced on October 1, 1908. It had many important innovations which were soon copied by other manufacturers. The car was simple to drive, and easy and cheap to repair.

The network of local dealers made the car available in virtually every city in North America. Always on the lookout for higher efficiency and lower costs, Ford introduced the moving assembly belts into his plants in 1913, which resulted in a rapid increase in production. By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model Ts. In 1918, he turned over the presidency of the company to his son Edsel.

By the mid-1920s, sales of the Model Ts had begun to decline due to rising competition and by 1926, despite initial

 reluctance, Henry decided to make a new model car - which was the successful Ford Model A, introduced in December 1927 and produced through 1931, with a total output of over four million automobiles.

Despite being an industrialist, Ford treated his workers well and introduced many measures to improve their lot such as reducing the daily working hours from nine to eight hours, a five-day work week, and a raised minimum daily pay. Some of these measures were heavily criticised by other industrialists of the era.

Ford, like all other automobile companies, entered the aviation business during World War I, building Liberty engines and played a major role in the Allied victory although he was always against war. After the war, the company returned to auto manufacturing until 1925, when it acquired the Stout Metal Airplane Company.

Ford believed in economic independence for the United States and also that international trade and cooperation led to international peace. He opened Ford assembly plants in Britain and Canada in 1911, and soon became the biggest automotive producer in those countries. Italy, Australia, India and France were some of the other countries where Ford factories were opened. By 1932, Ford was manufacturing one third of all the world's automobiles.

Not being satisfied just producing commercial cars, Ford began a career as a race car driver in 1901. In 1913, he dropped out of racing permanently, citing dissatisfaction with the sport's rules and the demands on his time by the booming production of the Model Ts. After Edsel's death in 1943, Henry re-assumed day-to-day control of the Ford Motor Company.

Ill health prompted him to give up the presidency of the company to his grandson Henry Ford II in 1945 and go into retirement. He died in April 7, 1947 of cerebral(brain) haemorrhage at age 83 in Fair Lane, his Dearborn estate, and was buried in the Ford Cemetery in Detroit.