Mass production is a way of manufacturing things en masse (and for the masses) that takes the initiative for choosing products out of the hands of the consumer and puts it into the hands of the manufacturer. Before mass-production methods were introduced, producers made things to order. They did not, by and large, manufacture things…
In the 1920s the motorcar came to represent the American dream, by offering independence and adventure. Cars fell in price dramatically, so that many Americans could afford them. They could be sold to a mass market because they could be made more cheaply, using assembly line methods. Henry Ford’s Assembly line brought the average price…
The name Henry Ford stands among the giants of the giants in American industrial history, alongside figures like Getty, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt. Names lost to history, known now mostly by the companies and institutions they founded. But history shows us, time and again, that people are so much more than just the images they project…
DETROIT, April 7-Henry Ford, noted automotive pioneer, died at 11:40 tonight at the age of 83. He had retired a little more than a year and a half ago from active direction of the great industrial empire he founded in 1903. When he retired Mr. Ford was in excellent health, but turned over the management…
Grants: Henry Ford Innovation Institute, Innovation Institute Grant Amount: $2, 700, 000 Grant Purpose: – Leverage the Henry Ford Health System’s intellectual assets to solidify an entrepreneurial ecosystem and brand in Detroit and Southeast Michigan. It is really powerful to use design as a means to creatively solve problems in such a serious field like…
The Henry Ford Early College is a unique five year early college program that began in fall of 2007. Students will have the opportunity to attain both a high school diploma and a two-year Associate Degree in five years with little or no cost to the student or parent. The Henry Ford Early College program…
There’s perhaps no single person more associated with the automobile than Henry Ford. Ford is credited with bringing the car to the masses, which transformed driving from a pastime for the rich into an integral part of daily life for millions of people. Just imagine what the world would look like without the mass adoption…
Build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so…
C.R Patterson, Born Slave, Built Automobiles Before Henry Ford Some of the finest buggies made in the late 1800s came out of a small, black-owned company in Ohio. Charles Rich Patterson’s Company later made motor vehicles, and history, by founding the country’s only African-American-owned automobile manufacturing company. To hear Tom Smith tell it, had Patterson…
Henry Ford Fact File Biography: Lifespan: 1863 – 1947 *** Full Name: Henry Ford *** Occupation: American Industrialist *** Date of Birth: He was born on July 30, 1863 *** Place of Birth: Henry Ford was born in Greenfield Township, Michigan, America *** Family background: His father was William Ford and he was born in…
More than half the world’s cars were nearly identical Model T’s during the mid 1920s. The car was introduced with a price tag of $850. The Model T later sold for as little as $260, because Ford passed along the savings from his production innovations. The car that established a mass market for automobiles, the…
The gig: Alessandro F. Uzielli is the head of Ford Motor Co.’s Global Brand and Entertainment division. At 47, this great-great-grandson of Henry Ford is responsible for ensuring Ford vehicles a high profile in Hollywood movies and TV shows. (That’s why James Bond drove a Ford Mondeo in “Casino Royale” and a Ford Edge in…
The Early Years: Ford was born the first of six children July 30, 1863, to prosperous farmers in Dearborn, Michigan. Not liking his farming life and his studies in school, Ford set off at the young age of sixteen to the nearby town of Detroit to work three years as a machinist’s apprentice. After his…
SANIBEL, Fla. — Mayor Randy Henderson of nearby Fort Myers recently had to withdraw a proposal to rename a local bridge in honor of Henry Ford. In 1915, Ford built a winter residence next door to Thomas Edison’s house, and today the two homes are a popular tourist attraction. But Alan Isaacs, the director of…
This may have originated as a 3rd person statement like: ” If Henry Ford had asked his customers, they would have told him they want a faster horse…” – and may even be the ‘brainchild’ of someone famous (like Steve Jobs, who doesn’t believe in asking customers and knows better what they want, or someone…
So I went as close to the source as I could without calling the Henry Ford Museum: Period Newspapers. Turns out that Henry Ford loved the farmers, and wanted to help them during the Great Depression. He knew that cars were always increasing in popularity, and if he could make plastic cars out of farm…
Contrary to popular belief, Henry Ford did not invent the automobile. While his Ford Motor Company did produce the vehicle that initiated a new era in personal transportation (the Model T), the invention of the first automobile is generally credited to Karl Benz of Germany. In fact, Henry Ford’s most important contribution was actually the…
As I went through the tours, thinking about cars in general and how we are on the cusp of a future of driverless cars becoming reality for everyone, I was impressed with how relevant Henry Ford still is. I find this very impressive considering that in many ways he wasn’t an “idea person.” For me,…
MAKE IT POSSIBLEWork has begun to bring the Henry Ford Estate back to life! Through a comprehensive program of restoration and reinterpretation, the Estate is being transformed from a house to a home – a home that strongly reflects the lives of Clara and Henry Ford. Join us in making it possible! Become involved in…
Henry Ford was thirty-six when a diminutive outfit grandly called the Detroit Automobile Company was founded to manufacture motor cars in the city. The first venture of its kind in Detroit, it had a paid-up capital of $15, 000, with Ford himself getting his shares free. The greatest mogul the emerging automobile industry would produce…