The famous automaker Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863, on his family's farm in Wayne County, near Dearborn, Michigan. When Ford was 13, his father gave him pocket watch, which the little boy was constantly dismantling and reassembling. Friends and neighbors were very surprised and often asked to have their watches repaired.

Unimpressed with farm work, Ford left home at the age of 16 to train as a machinist in Detroit. Over the following years, he learned to skillfully operate and maintain steam engines, and also studied accounting.

Early career

In 1888, Ford married Clara Ala Bryant and temporarily returned to agriculture to support his wife and son, Edsel. But three years later, he was hired as an engineer by the Edison Illuminating Company. In 1893 his natural talents enabled him to rise to the rank of chief engineer.

All the while Ford nurtured his plans for a horseless carriage, and in 1896, he built his first model, the Ford Quadricycle. In the same year, he met with the leaders of the Edison Company and presented his automotive developments personally to Thomas Edison, who encouraged Ford to build a second, improved model.

Ford Motor Company

After several tests on the design of the car, in 1903, Henry Ford established Ford motor company. Ford introduced the Model T in October 1908, and over the next few years, the company achieved a 100 percent profit.

More more Ford became known for his revolutionary vision of manufacturing inexpensive car made by skilled workers who earn steady wages.

In 1914 he sponsored the development of the traveling tape assembly line for mass production. At the same time, he introduced a wage of $5 a day (equivalent to $110 in 2011) as a result of which he sought to keep the best workers loyal to his company. Easy to drive and cheap to repair, which is why half of all cars in America in 1918 were Ford Model T.

Philosophy, philanthropy and antisemitism

From a social point of view, Henry Ford had seemingly contradictory points of view. Ford has set aside a portion of the company's profits for employees who have been with the company for more than six months and, most important topics who spent their lives in a respectable way.

The “social department of the company” studied bad habits, gambling cravings and other negative sides candidates when making a hiring decision. Ford was an ardent pacifist and opponent of the First World War, even financed peaceful ships to Europe. Later, in 1936, Ford and his family founded the Ford Foundation to provide grants for research, education, and development. But despite these philanthropic tendencies, Ford was also a devout anti-Semite, in every way supporting the weekly newspaper The Dearborn Independent, which held the same views.

Henry Ford died on April 7, 1947, at the age of 83, of a cerebral hemorrhage, near his Dearborn estate, Fair Lane. Henry Ford is one of America's greatest businessmen. It is very difficult to overestimate his contribution to the development of the American economy during its formation. His legacy will live on for decades to come.

Biography score

New Feature! The average rating this biography received. Show rating

Henry Ford was born in 1863 in the USA, on a farm in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Henry somehow completed the eighth grade, showing good aptitude for mathematics. At the age of 16, he left for Detroit, with difficulty, not the first time, found a job as a mechanic in the Thomas Alva Edison Electric Company. Henry, having inherited the land after the death of his father, built a sawmill, which brought him income, which allowed him to marry his beloved Clara, and also to engage in inventions.

In June 1893, in a brick shed behind his house, Henry Ford finished building the first experimental car. The inventor called his creation "ATV". He weighed only five hundred pounds and moved on four bicycle tires. "I made a carriage that moves without a horse!" Henry Ford said.

At Thomas Alva Edison's Electric Company, Henry's career took off. But when he was offered the position of manager and demanded to quit his inventions, Henry quit. And he continued to create his dream.

A few years later, entrepreneur Henry Ford demonstrated a second prototype, driving it from Detroit to Pontiac. In 1901, with $15,000 raised by shareholders, Henry Ford opened his first business, the Detroit Automobile Company. But the company lasted only two years. Henry had very little business experience, in contrast to the ideas that he continued to implement.

Malcomson, a friend from the days of the Electric Company who had made his fortune in the coal trade, suggested to Henry Ford that he form the Ford Motor Company. They divided fifty-one percent of its shares among themselves, which gave the friends control of the company. Soon they recruited more shareholders. The Ford Motor Company started with a capital of $28,000 and opened in 1908 in a small workshop. A year later, the profit was almost 400,000, with a revenue of 1,500,000 dollars. The first car cost $850.

Henry raised the price of every new model car. Shareholders were very unhappy with this policy. Gradually, Ford bought shares until he acquired a controlling stake. He asked everyone dissatisfied with his policy to leave the company immediately.

Later, the company began to produce cars cheaper, the most expensive of which cost $750. Profits rose sharply, because at such a price, innovations, vehicles without a horse, were sold more cheerfully. Henry began to get really rich.

Cars were in demand, Henry day and night thought about how to improve the quality of products. He organized courses for mechanics right at the Ford Motor Company. A real breakthrough was the introduction of a lighter alloy into the production of spare parts - vanadium steel.

Despite the crisis of 1907, which left millions of unemployed on the streets of America, the Ford company managed to stay afloat. The range has even been expanded. The cars were spelled out: model A, F, N, etc.

Over time, Henry Ford built a real empire, consisting of a steel mill, his own forges, mines, railways and much more. And one owner of it all was Henry.

In early 1912, the Ford Automobile Company was already turning out over two hundred cars a day. Production was now conveyor. Henry surrounded himself good specialists and always "kept his nose to the wind" in order not to miss various technical and entrepreneurial innovations, which was so rich in the 20th century, especially its beginning.

The company raised wages and established control over workers. There was almost no staff turnover at the Ford factories. And this brought its additional fruits into the pockets of the creator. They also monitored the moral character of the workers. The work was hard, with little break.

Henry was approaching the goal of 2,000,000 cars a year. Now 45 thousand various machines worked manufacturing Ford cars at sixty factories that were scattered across the United States. Ford's own steamboats transported individual parts across assembly plants located in twenty-eight foreign countries. Ford's "Model T" was assembled in Yokohama and Buenos Aires, and its parts were interchangeable. Wherever you drove this car, there was a person everywhere who knew how to service and fix it. This was taken care of by the founder of the megaconcern, Henry Ford.

Henry was aging and in the 1940s handed over the company to his son Edzel. But the son failed to lead the father's business. Firstly, he died, and secondly, a cunning man named Harry Bennett, who served with the boss for many years, gained more and more influence on the old Ford and alienated him from the family. The Ford Motor Company almost fell into the wrong hands. But nevertheless, the grandson and namesake of the creator, Henry, became president.

Ford was aging, acquiring many oddities and quirks. He died on April 7, 1947 at the age of 84.

“If I had to start all over again, then I would again find some urgent need of people that has not yet been satisfied and the satisfaction of which could be put on a wide stream. And rest assured, I would satisfy her much better than others and in a short time (five to ten years) I would again become a millionaire. Henry Ford.

Talented people always have a different way of thinking. Henry Ford, whose biography is known to everyone, was no exception. A great engineer, a talented boss, an inventor with vegetarian preferences.

Henry Ford: a short biography. Childhood

On a hot day on June 30, 1863, the future founder of the Ford company was born in Michigan. He studied at a regular school, had many friends. On his thirteenth birthday, his father gave him a watch. The boy was so interested in the mechanism that, unable to stand it, he dismantled them, later easily put them back together. He repeated the process more than once. Friends, seeing the natural talent of the master with a scrupulous approach to repairs, began to turn to the farmer's son for help in repairing wall and wrist clocks. There were not enough tools at that time, I had to use improvised means in the form of a penknife, an old screwdriver with knocked down teeth.

Young Henry felt that housekeeping was not his way. In July 1876 he was in Detroit with his father. Past him on the road slowly moved vehicle driven by a steam engine. According to his own recollections, it was a locomobile.

Youth

Henry Ford leaves his father's farm at the age of 16. He never found any use in agricultural work. After moving to Detroit, he gets a job at Drydock's workshop as an apprentice mechanic. All subsequent time he studied accounting and emphasized the study steam engines, because from the first memorable meeting he knew what he wanted to change in this car. His parents never shared his passion for mechanics, they firmly stood on the intention of transferring the farming skill to the only heir. Having settled down after training as an apprentice machinist in Detroit, Henry worked part time repairing watch mechanisms. Thus, this occupation turned into a kind of hobby that Ford carried with him throughout his life.

Henry Ford: biography and personal life

Having met Clara Ale Bryant in 1888, Ford briefly forgets about his plans, marries a young beauty and returns to agriculture in order to feed his family. But a few years later he was invited on the recommendations of the Edison Illuminating Company. In 1893, he was appointed chief engineer due to his technical literacy, responsibility and labor discipline. But the thought of creating his own horseless carriage did not leave him.

Henry Ford said more than once that the best companion for him is his wife. Son Edsel - the sole heir to Ford Motor in the future - will disappoint an active father with his indifference to the automobile business. A close circle said that the early death of his son was not a strong tragedy for the elderly Ford. But Clara, as a mother, got out of depression for a long time. Henry Ford himself will never understand that his son repeated his fate as a farm boy who dreams of racing on his own. passenger car rather than plodding along on a harnessed mule.

First model

In 1896 he designed his first ford model quadricycle. Then in the same year he personally met with Thomas Edison and showed him his drawings. automotive technology. The leaders and founders of the Edison Company were inspired by Ford's drawings and gave the green light to build an improved model.

Many years later, Henry and Thomas would become best friends and neighbors, discussing not only political and social issues, but also innovative implementations in the auto industry

Achievements

Henry Ford, whose biography and achievements inspire great respect, never stopped halfway. Through numerous tests, in 1899 he already had a stake in a small car company. In 1903, at the age of 40, he founded the Ford Motor Company. The fledgling production was attacked by a major car syndicate. Litigation continued for about seven years, in the end the Ford company won and was released from charges of plagiarism.

Launch of an industrial conveyor

Henry Ford, whose biography is described in the book "My Life, My Achievements", took the methodology developed for Samuel Colt as the basis of his work. The production steps include separate assembly for each item.

Ford introduced the standardization of the parts used, thereby reducing the time general assembly and also reduced the number of workers in the skilled worker belt. Now the assembly could be controlled by ordinary hard workers.

Each workshop was engaged in its own work, which was actively modernized. Having calculated how to combine the work of the entire assembly mechanism, Ford created a single line in his production, passing through most of the shops. Additional lines were connected to the main conveyor for the timely supply of the necessary elements during assembly.

By polishing the assembly process thanks to a single pipeline, Ford achieved an amazing result. Every 10 seconds at the exit stood finished car on your way. Thus, the company managed to make a profit, reduce the final cost of a car, allowing the average resident to purchase an iron horse.

In the fall of 1908, the first model of the legendary engineer, the Model T, rolled off the assembly line. Ford employees affectionately called it "Tin Lisey." American farmers give such a nickname to their workhorses, and the Irish, for example, give this name to naughty and wayward mares. The price of the car was just over $200 at the time. This model made it possible to occupy a niche in the market, covering the circle of people with an average monthly income in the country.

By introducing mass production at his factory, Ford was able to achieve an increase in daily wages for workers. All those who drink, play, have problems with the payment of alimony, have been convicted, and are on the wanted list could not get into the team. Later, the owner of the company changes his mind, changing his attitude towards people who have problems with the family and the law, believing that this is not his concern. For order on the assembly lines, Ford often resorted to the services of crime bosses, appointing them to look at the sites. The reputation-damaging method worked flawlessly. There were no fights and squabbles, the workers were engaged exclusively in the affairs that were part of their duties.

The next step was the division of the working day into three shifts, the transfer of production to a round-the-clock mode of operation. The eight-hour day was introduced by Henry Ford. His biography tells that he organized thereby several hundred jobs, so necessary for local residents.

A lot of interesting things happened in the life of such a person as Henry Ford. Biography, summary which cannot convey all the details, includes many interesting facts from his life. By the way, the inventor described his life in his writings.

No one expected that the book written by Henry Ford himself (biography on English language), will be distributed in such a circulation. It will become a kind of automotive bible.

Henry Ford would become America's first registered driver. Although at that moment the rules traffic didn't exist yet.

The first car sold by Ford cost $200.

The great designer firmly believed in the reincarnation of man. Answering questions, Henry Ford, whose biography is set out in the book, will talk about the soldier he was in a past life.

On his famous factory in wartime, equipment was collected for the Germans, who idolized Ford.

The first car was black. Not for the love of color, the shade was chosen, it just dries faster.

The first model is included in the top ten man-made items that have changed the world, according to Forbes magazine.

Coal in briquettes is another innovation invented by a bright and talented engineer.

Takeover of Ford Motor

In 1909, the brand with the trademark "Ford" had a registration record in the patent office. The image has changed slightly over the years, as Henry Ford himself wrote. A biography in English tells about a triangle with spread wings, denoting lightness and the desire for speed. The colors - blue and orange - did not change until the end of the 20th century.

In 1919, Ford and his son buy out the remaining shares, and the company is completely taken over by the family. Ford Jr. becomes the head of production.

Crisis of Ford Motor Company

While Henry Ford, whose biography had not yet been completed, was resting in retirement, his son was undergoing a crisis. Outdated production, Model T was inferior to competitors in terms of technical specifications. It was decided to close all Ford factories for restructuring and reconstruction production capacity. However, at this time, in the leadership race, General Motors came out on top, which a little earlier took care of expanding the range of cars - for any budget and status.

The released Model A was a failure as a result, the sales figure was low. Consumers want to see fast engine, more modern design. In 1932, Ford launched the first monolithic eight-cylinder engine in history. It will take many years for other companies to implement their ideas for safe launch such an engine. Henry Ford himself did not stay away from the implementation of the project, the biography of that period indicates his indirect involvement in a grandiose breakthrough.

War time

The discoverer of briquette coal was always negatively inclined towards military operations, therefore he openly declared his pacifist sentiments. What was the surprise of society when it became known about the beginning of military production at the Ford Motor base.

In 1942, the production of cars for civilians was stopped due to martial law. The massive campaign launched by Ford's son designed more than 50,000 military items in less than three years.

In 1943, Edsel Ford, his only son, died of cancer. This was the reason for the return to the post of head of Henry Ford.

Last years

The first automobile tycoon Henry Ford met his old age with dignity. Biography, a description of his life in his declining years confirm this.

Having transferred authority to his grandson, the brilliant engineer calmly retired and lived on his estate with his wife. He was awarded several honorary awards for his contribution to the automotive industry, received a medal of the highest standard for his contribution to the development of society. Ford died in 1947 at the age of 83.

His grandson, after the death of the founder of the Ford Motor brand, continued the business and in a few years raised production to high level able to compete to this day.

Childhood with bolts and nuts in hand. Youth spent with dirty hands always smelling of fuel oil. Not every boy dreams of such a life, but not Henry Ford. The originality of thinking, a peculiar analytical mindset, natural talent and golden hands made his person recognizable in every corner of the world. The biography of Henry Ford is a book that has become for many a hope for their future. With faith in himself and the Vedic spiritual powers, he stubbornly built his ladder of glory. The Ford Motor company he created is today one of the leaders in the automotive industry.

Henry Ford - amazing story. Brief biography, quotes, outlook on life.

Henry Ford: short biography

An inventor, a major industrialist, an ideological inspirer and creator of the Ford Motor Company - this is how a poor guy from Detroit will be remembered. Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863 in the family of an Irish native in the vicinity of Detroit, the village of Springfield. WITH younger age helped his father and mother with the housework, being the eldest of 6 children in the family. He received his first education in a rural school. At the age of 12, he got a job as an apprentice in a workshop to occupy his hands in his spare time. During this period, the first engineering and design inclinations of the future entrepreneur appeared - he made a steam engine.

At the age of 16, in 1876, he moved to Detroit in search of work.. Henry Ford managed to get a job as a mechanical engineer under the hand of the chief machinist at the Edison Electric Company. Indefatigable work led Henry Ford in 1887 to a convention in Atlantic City, where personal meeting with Thomas Edison with whom he shared his ideas. Henry Ford voiced ideas about engines internal combustion, expecting that Edison would only laugh at the young dreamer, but the scientist replied: “Keep working on your idea and you will achieve the goal you set. I predict a great future for you."

After such a powerful incentive, Henry Ford continues to work at the plant, soon receiving a managerial position, and in 1893 to become chief engineer. Now he was subject to the entire cycle of work and, although in 1899, after his dismissal from the company and an unsuccessful start - Henry Ford case went bankrupt– the inventor had a clear idea of ​​his future work.

1903 - the time of birth "Ford Motor. WITH light hand author and 12 Michigan businessmen, an enterprise was opened headed by Henry Ford, vice president of the company and Alexander Malcolms, the main investor. In 1905, he became the sole owner due to differences of opinion with his partners, who did not want to invest in the development of cheap car models.

In 1913 it was opened conveyor production first car models, which turned not only the life of one person, but also marked a new world era. The main work of Henry Ford "My Life, My Achievements" became the source of philosophical research and a new political economy trend - Fordism.

After many years of cooperation with the Soviet Bureau in New York, he concluded a deal to sell the Fordson. In 1919 son Henry Ford, Edsel Bryan Ford, bought out part of the shares of other shareholders, after which the enterprise became family business. Son Henry died in 1943. ford, after which the company remained in the care of his father, and in September 1945 he handed it over to his grandson, Henry Ford II. The famous entrepreneur died on April 7, 1947 in own house in Dearborn.

Merit and memory:

• The book "My life, my work" (1922);
• "Tomorrow and Today" (1926);
• "Moving Forward" (1931);
• Ford Foundation - jointly with his son;
• Automotive Industry Achievement Award (May 1946);
• Gold Medal for Public Service from the American Petroleum Institute;

Henry Ford quotes:

• “Everything can be done better than it has been done so far”
• “Nothing seems impossible if you break it into small parts”
• "The only moment when business man can borrow money with some certainty is when he doesn't need it."

“Think that you are capable of this or that accomplishment, or think that you are not capable - in any case, you will be right”

(No ratings yet)

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American engineer, industrialist, and inventor. One of the founders automotive industry USA, founder of Ford Motor Company, organizer of conveyor production.

Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863 to a Michigan farmer, an immigrant from Ireland. The father was dissatisfied with him, considering him a lazy and sissy - the son behaved like a prince who accidentally found himself on a farm. Everything he was told, Henry did reluctantly. He hated chickens and cows and hated milk. "Already in my early youth, I thought that many things could be done differently - in some other way." For example, he, Henry, has to climb steep stairs every morning, carrying buckets of water. Why do this every day when you can just lay two meters of water pipes underground?

When his son was twelve, his father gave him a pocket watch. He could not stand it - he pryed off the lid with a screwdriver, and something wonderful opened up to his eyes. The parts of the mechanism interacted with each other, one wheel moved the other, each screw was important here. Having disassembled and reassembled the watch, the boy thought for a long time. What is the world but one big mechanism? One movement is generated by another, everything has its leverage. To succeed, you just need to know which levers to push. Henry quickly learned how to repair clocks and even worked part-time for a while, going around the surrounding farms and taking broken chronometers for repair. The second shock was the meeting with the locomobile. Henry and his father were returning in a cart from the city when they met a huge, steam-shrouded self-propelled machine. Having overtaken the cart and frightened the horses, the smoking and hissing monster rushed past. At that moment, Henry would have given half his life to be there in the cab.

At the age of 15, G. Ford left school and walked at night, without telling anyone, went to Detroit: he would never become a farmer, as his father wants.

At the factory where he got a job, they made horse-drawn wagons. Here he did not last long. Ford only needed to touch the broken mechanism to understand what the problem was. The gifted novice became the envy of other workers. They did everything to survive the upstart from the factory, and succeeded in this - Ford was fired. Later, Henry got a job at the shipyard of the Flower brothers. And at night he worked part time repairing watches so that he could pay for the room.

Meanwhile, William Ford decided to make one last attempt to return his son to the farming business: he offered 40 acres of land on the condition that he would never utter the word “car” again in his life. Unexpectedly, Henry agreed. The father was pleased, the son too. Gullible William did not even suspect that his son was simply fooling him. For Henry, this case served as a lesson: if you want to become a king, be prepared to lie.

Soon Henry Ford decided to marry. Clara Bryant was three years younger than him. They met at a village dance. Ford was a brilliant dancer and impressed the girl by showing her his pocket watch and claiming he had made it himself. They were connected by many things - just like Henry, Clara was born into a farmer's family, did not shun any work. The girl's parents are pious and strict people, of course, they would not have given her away for young man without a penny for the soul, without land and home. Having hastily built a cozy house on his site, Henry settled in it with his young wife. Many years later, the automotive monarch will say: “My wife believed in my success even stronger than I did. That's how she's always been." Clara could spend hours listening to her husband's reasoning about the idea of ​​creating a self-propelled carriage. Throughout her long family life, she always knew how to maintain an elegant balance - she was interested in her husband's affairs, but never interfered in them.
As time went. And one day, Ford Sr. found the cozy house of the newlyweds abandoned - Henry and Clara unexpectedly moved to Detroit, where Ford went to work in the Detroit electric company engineer.

In November 1893, Clara gave Ford a son. The boy was named Edsel.
In the same year, in a brick shed behind the semi-detached house where he lived with his wife Clara, Ford finished building his first experimental car. The inventor worked for two days without rest and sleep, and at two in the morning on June 4 he came to inform his wife that the car was ready and he was now going to test it. Called the "Quad" and weighing only five hundred pounds, the car ran on four bicycle tires.

And in the same 1893, Ford became the chief engineer of the Edison Company, which specialized in lighting Detroit, and then - in 1899 - the chief engineer of the Detroit Automobile Company. But after a while, they began to notice that Ford was spending all his mental and physical strength on a gasoline cart, and not at all on office work. Henry was offered a leadership position on the condition that he give up his invention. Ford hesitated. The arguments of reason were as follows: the family must be supported, there are no savings - everything went to the construction of the cart. Clara, seeing his hesitation, said that no matter what Henry did, she would approve of his decision. After quitting, Ford began to "sell himself." He was looking for wealthy partners, because Henry himself did not have money, as such, and in his new enterprise he assigned himself the role of a supplier of ideas. But no one wanted to buy these ideas. Eventually, after giving a Detroit businessman a ride at breakneck speed, Henry agreed to work with the inventor. The Detroit Automotive Company did not last long. “There was no demand for cars, just as there is no demand for any new product. I left my post determined never to be dependent again,” Ford recalled. And the "trading of ideas" began again, the search for partners. Refusals rained down on him like from a cornucopia, he was almost taken out of one office by force. Finally, in 1903, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated. Henry became General Manager. Being a self-taught mechanic himself, Ford willingly hired the same nuggets at the plant: “Specialists are so smart and experienced that they know exactly why this and that cannot be done, they see limits and obstacles everywhere. If I wanted to destroy competitors, I would provide them with hordes of specialists.
The automobile king never learned to read blueprints in his entire life: the engineers simply made a wooden model for the boss and gave it to him for judgment.

In 1905, Ford's financial partners did not agree with his intention to produce cheap cars, because. were in demand expensive models, the main shareholder Alexander Malcolmson sold his share to Ford, after which Henry Ford became the owner of the controlling stake and the president of the company (he was the president of the company in 1905 - 1919 and in 1943 - 1945).

The real triumph of Ford was the introduction of the “T” model, which meant a change in all landmarks in the concept of the automotive industry. He created it as a sculptor, cutting off everything superfluous, creating not a luxurious toy for the elite, but an affordable product for thousands and thousands of “average Americans”. The success exceeded all expectations. During the years of production of the “T” model, over 15 million cars were sold, which easily won consumer market.

Mass production demanded standardization and unification of all technological processes. "The terror of the machine" - this is how Ford characterized the control system he introduced. A clear control and planning system, conveyor production, continuous technological chains - all this contributed to the fact that the Ford empire worked in automatic mode.

Ford was the first to establish a minimum level in its enterprises wages and 8 hour work day. However, going to improve the social situation of workers, Ford preferred to do this solely on his own initiative. Therefore, in the future, he stubbornly ignored the pressure of the trade unions, which eventually led to a protracted conflict with them in 1937-1941. At its factories, a sociological service was created with a staff of 60 people, which at that time was a major innovation.

Ford was literally obsessed with diet and a healthy lifestyle, was fond of the history of American culture, and was not alien to philanthropy. However, his public activities - active anti-Jewish interventions, a peace cruise during the First World War, an attempt to become a senator - were mostly scandalous.

Believing in his own genius, Ford began to lose flexibility and innovator's flair. In the 30s, there were serious changes in consumer demand, and Ford, devoted to his previous concept, did not take them into account. As a result, the leading positions in the automotive industry had to be ceded to another big company- General Motors.

In September 1945, Ford handed over the leadership of the company (formerly formally owned by his only son Edsel) to his grandson and namesake Henry Ford 2 and retired. Two years later, on April 7, 1947, Ford died at the age of 83.