Henry ford biography essay outlines

Henry Ford was born in 1863 in Michigan to become one of the greatest men in the history of America and the entire world (Gelderman par. 1-2). His visionary approach to the automobile industry promoted the innovations of cars and assembly lines and contributed greatly to the modern concepts of mass production and personal transport.

Early Life

Ford was the son of farmers, but he did not want to follow his father’s steps; instead, he demonstrated talents for other things. When telling his story, the Henry Ford museum emphasizes that Henry showed interest in building and engineering since childhood. For example, he constructed “rudimentary” water wheels and steam engines (“Henry Ford” par. 2).

Moreover, Ford engaged other youngsters in these activities and managed to organize their work. Apart from that, he learned to fix watches himself. In fact, it might be more accurate to state that he taught himself to do it, and it was another talent of Henry Ford: he wanted knowledge, and he learned to find it by exploring, investigating, making mistakes, and fixing them. Watches became his “textbook,” and he learned about the “rudiments of machine design” with their help (“Henry Ford” par. 2).

Early Career

In 1879, young Ford went to work as an apprentice at the Michigan Car Company in Detroit, which started his quest for jobs that could provide him with more knowledge of mechanics. He always sought for the jobs that offered the opportunity to learn something new (“Henry Ford” par. 4). In 1882, he came back to his family farm but kept working with machinery: the steam engines that the farmers used or odd jobs at Detroit factories took up his time. However, it was also clear that he did not really enjoy working for someone else.

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1. Early Life and Education

Henry Ford was born on a prosperous farm near Dearborn, Michigan, on July 30, 1863, but he grew up on the family's farm in nearby Springwells Township. He was the oldest of six children born to William and Mary Ford. William Ford, the son of Irish immigrants, was born in County Cork and immigrated to America in 1847, when he was 21. Mary Ford was born in Michigan to Belgian immigrants; her mother died when she was a young girl. Ford later said that his love for America was "a heritage from my father." Ford attended a one-room school for eight years, during which he showed an early mechanical aptitude, repairing the watches of friends and neighbors. At the age of 16, Ford walked to Detroit in search of employment. Although he did occasionally return to help on the farm, he spent the next three years living and working in Detroit. As a youth, Ford enjoyed a good relationship with his father, who always encouraged him to think for himself and find his own way. According to Steven Watts, "While Henry worked with tools on the farm, William preferred repairing the people who used the tools." Ford later reminisced, "I never had any particular love for the farm—it was the mother on it I was in love with." In 1879, Ford left home for the nearby city of Detroit to work as an apprentice machinist, despite his own feelings of reluctance and resistance. In Detroit, Ford was introduced to the trade of machinist through a chance to learn the skills of the trade as an apprentice (Apprenticeship: a person who works for another in order to learn a trade). Ford returned to the farm after three years of apprenticeship, fully certified as a machinist. He experimented with a gasoline engine at his mother's farm in 1892 and while he was not the first to build a self-propelled vehicle, he was the first to create a successful, affordable one and start an automobile company.

1.1 Childhood and Family Backg

Henry Ford: Early Life & Engineering Career

Born in 1863, Henry Ford was the first surviving son of William and Mary Ford, who owned a prosperous farm in Dearborn, Michigan. At 16, he left home for the nearby city of Detroit, where he found apprentice work as a machinist. He returned to Dearborn and work on the family farm after three years, but continued to operate and service steam engines and work occasional stints in Detroit factories. In 1888, he married Clara Bryant, who had grown up on a nearby farm.

In the first several years of their marriage, Ford supported himself and his new wife by running a sawmill. In 1891, he returned with Clara to Detroit, where he was hired as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company. Rising quickly through the ranks, he was promoted to chief engineer two years later. Around the same time, Clara gave birth to the couple’s only son, Edsel Bryant Ford. On call 24 hours a day for his job at Edison, Ford spent his irregular hours on his efforts to build a gasoline-powered horseless carriage, or automobile. In 1896, he completed what he called the “Quadricycle,” which consisted of a light metal frame fitted with four bicycle wheels and powered by a two-cylinder, four-horsepower gasoline engine.

Henry Ford: Birth of Ford Motor Company and the Model T

Determined to improve upon his prototype, Ford sold the Quadricycle in order to continue building other vehicles. He received backing from various investors over the next seven years, some of whom formed the Detroit Automobile Company (later the Henry Ford Company) in 1899. His partners, eager to put a passenger car on the market, grew frustrated with Ford’s constant need to improve, and Ford left his namesake company in 1902. (After his departure, it was reorganized as th