Henry Ford

Henry Ford was the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and the driving force behind the firm and its products, who made an extraordinary impact on the American industry. Henry made many accomplishments, which include the Quadricycle and the Model-T car. As a young kid Henry was really into the mechanical industry, which helped him in life to develop all of the cars that he created during his years at the head of Ford and as he worked in his younger days at a Detroit factory. (2:23) Also when Henry was married to Clara Bryant in 1888, he ran a sawmill, which helped him make some money to get his family started. (6:1) The Model-T car was very cheap and this made it available for every man or woman who wanted to get a car. This vehicle initiated a new era in personal transportation. The Model-T was easy to operate, maintain, and handle on almost any road conditions, which immediately made it a huge success. Henry Ford was a huge success in the boom of the economy in the early 1900's. (4:2)

Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863 and he was the first of William and Mary Ford's six children. (2:3) He was born on a farm near what is now called Dearborn, Michigan. As a young boy Henry Ford enjoyed a normal young life of the rural nineteenth century. (3:4) He spent most of his youthful days in a very small school and doing chores on his family's small farm. When Henry was in the early stages of childhood, he showed a lot of interest in mechanical things because he did not like doing farm work. (5:8) In 1879, when Henry Ford was sixteen years old, he left home to the city of Detroit to go to work as a mechanic's helper. Even though he left home for Detroit, since the cities were close together, he often came home to help out on the farm. Henry worked as a mechanics apprentice for three years then he returned back home to Dearborn. (2:25) The next couple years of his life Henry was dedicated to dividing his time between using many different types of machines, otherwise he spent his time fixing up steam engines and he occasionally worked in a Detroit factory. (5:2) Henry also spent a lot of his time helping on his dad's farm apparatuses, in addition to doing other hands on farm work. In 1891, Ford became an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit, Michigan. (6:1) This was a very important role in Fords life that signified a choice for the quest of his industrial life. He received a promotion in 1893 to Chief Engineer, which left him with enough time to work on his personal engines. (4:3) With all of this time off Henry Ford was able to complete his first self-propelled vehicle he called the Quadricycle. He also offered each of his workers a wage of a least $5.00 per day, which was a lot of money for a worker to make back then. (3:2)

This vehicle that Henry Ford developed, which was Quadricycle was a gasoline-powered automobile. The Quadricycle was made on June 4, 1896 in a very small shop in the back of his house. (2:35) Henry named it the Quadricycle because it had four wheels. This car also had a steel frame, no body. It had a little bit of wood and a box seat. There was also a bell and a light. The back of the seat had a special plate that said: (3:25)

U.S.& FOREIGN

PATENTS PENDING

ON THE WORKING

PART & DESIGN

OF THIS MACHINE The only thing wrong with this car was that it looked like a big bike and it steered like a giant boat. Another bad thing was the car had only two speeds. The problem with this was that they were both forward speeds so; if you needed to go into reverse you had to push it. (2:3) This car helped Ford start the Ford Motor Company in 1903 because it was self-propelled and very easy to work with.

The most important car that Henry Ford built was the Model-T automobile. Henry Ford was once heard saying that, "You can paint it any color just as long as it's black." This quote has survived for over 75 years. (6:4) This was a car that had a lot of speed for those times, which were 20-horse power and four cylinders. It could reach top speeds of 35-40 mph. This bad boy had reverse and two sets of brakes. Last it consisted of a 10-gallon tank of gas and side oil lamps, tail lamp and a horn. (6:4) Another feature that this car had was a steering apparatus on the left side of the vehicle. He also had a three-point engine mounting, which was an important feature because it avoided distortion in the engine base, which was common for vehicles back then. A few glitches that they had with this car back then were in the transmission because the linings in the bands came out a lot. Another bad thing was that the bearings in the rear axel were not made very well so you had to replace them a lot. The last problem with the Model-T was that the wheels were different sizes so you had to carry extra of both sizes of you had a flat. (5:22) A great feature that Ford made on this car was that it was almost unbreakable because you could hit it with anything and it will just bounce off. The last problem that you could have with this automobile would be going up hills. The problem with this is that if you didn't have enough speed the forward gears didn't have enough power so you couldn't make it up the hill. A way to get up the hill would be to go in reverse because it had a higher gear and if you were low on gas, going into reverse would place the gas higher in the carburetor,