Here are some facts about Henry Ford.
- Henry Ford was an American industrialist. He is most famous for founding the Ford motor company and for introducing the concept of the assembly line to improve production.
- He was born in Michigan in 1863 on a farm.
- Henry hated farm work and, at 14, he became an apprentice machinist and later worked for a company started by Thomas Edison.
- Ford experimented with gasoline engines, building the Quadricycle, his first car in his tool shed.
- After building a 26 horsepower car in 1901, the Henry Ford company was formed.
- The Ford Model T was introduced in 1908 and was so affordable that most American drivers learned to drive in one. It was only manufactured in black at first, as black paint at the time dried the fastest.
- He was also an enthusiastic car racer. He set a speed record for a 1.6 km track in 1911 and also finished first in a race across America in 1909.
- Henry Ford wanted his workers to be happy and paid them double the regular rate. He was against trade unions and insisted his employees did not gamble or drink a lot.
- By 1916, about 55 percent of all the cars on American roads were Ford Model Ts. When production of the car stopped in 1927, 15,007,034 Model Ts had been sold.
- Henry Ford never had a driving licence. He also fired any of his workers who drove any car which was manufactured by any of his competitors.
- Henry Ford was an enthusiastic inventor and was awarded over 160 patents. He helped to invent a plastic car, as well as the charcoal bricks used to start fires.
- Ford died in 1947 from complications caused by a brain tumour and his grandson took over the company.
- His image appeared on stamps featuring famous Americans, in the 1960s and 70s.
