Henry Ford

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The birth of the automobile was truly something special. Once a far fetched dream is now what many people believe to be the back bone of the American economy. When people think about the automobile the name that comes to mind is most usually Henry Ford. Although he is not credited with the invention of the automobile, Henry Ford played a crucial role in the development of mass production. The automobile was first invented Europe in 1771 with a top speed of 2.3 miles per hour. A man by the name of Gottliech Daimler produced what was known as the milestone car in 1889, this vehicle traveled at 10 miles per hour (Brown, 105). Not more then a handful of these cars were produced over seas. Not many people had ever seen one, let alone had one. It wasn’t until Henry Ford invented the assembly line, that anyone knew what a car was. Henry Ford and the invention of the assembly line altered the American economy and revolutionized travel everywhere. Henry Ford was born in Michigan and was the first of William and Mary Ford's six children. With his great imagination, he was fascinated by technology and spent lots of time inspecting watches and trinkets to see how things worked. (Auto 2). Henry began constructing things at a very young age since he did not have much interest in school. Ford learned at a young age the importance of money but since he was so young he failed to understand that staying in school and getting a degree would get you a good job and in turn get you money. Ford thought that if he did not attend school during the day he could work and make more money. Although this is different from what many people think when they hear one of the biggest and most largely known entrepreneurs but it is true. Ford dropped out of the school at the age of fifteen and began working at a relative’s farm. In 1879, sixteen-year-old Ford left home for the nearby city of Detroit to work as an apprentice machinist, although he did occasionally return to help on the farm. He remained an apprentice for three years and then returned to Dearborn. During the next few years, Henry divided his time between operating and repairing steam engines, finding occasional work in a Detroit factory, and over-hauling his father's farm implements, as well as lending a reluctant hand with other farm work. Upon his marriage to Clara Bry... ... middle of paper ... ...sed for the mass production of cars but it was also used for many of the products today. It is still the most famous and most reliable system of work. Henry Ford died in 1942 at the age of 83, a happy man still with the ambition to do more. He blessed the world with his famous ability to invent and impacted America for the better. Think about what life would be like with out the automobile, transportation would barley exist. My definition of an entrepreneur is one who has the drive and ambition to work, and make success from something that they created. “If not for his drive to create a mass amount of automobiles the United States would not have its middle class today” (Laccoce, 200). Works Cited Brown, Allen E. “Automobile” Academic American Encyclopedia 100th Anniversary Edition 1995 (volume 2) Douglas, Brian. “The Auto” Inventions of the Future. Random House Publishing 2000. Laccoce, Lee. “The Automobile”. 10/26/2003. (www.time.com/time/time100/builderprofile/Ford.html) No Author. “Auto” 10/26/2003. (www.ideafinder.com/inventions) Parks, Wally. “The Future of Cars.” The Fast Lane. Regan Books. New York, New York. 1995 * Note Class Notes as well as Class Videos.

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