Untitled Document
 Henry
Ford was an American inventor and successful businessman. He was the founder of the Ford Motor
Company. Ford revolutionized the way cars
were built. He introduced assembly line factories to
mass produce cars. This allowed
people to buy cars at lower prices. Thanks to Ford, hundreds
and thousands of Americans could own cars. His company was very successful
and it is still producing a lot of cars today.
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863 in Michigan, U.S. He was the
eldest of 6 children. Henry grew up on a small farm. As a child, he had
always enjoyed mechanical things. He was
always trying to improve or create more useful machinery. He was also very
interested in finding out exactly how things work.
As a teenager, Henry helped his
father on the farm and often repaired farm tools. When
his neighbors needed his help,
he fixed their farming tools
for free, too. One day, the
young boy saw a steam engine powering a farming machine.
Since then, he dreamed that one day he would build a smaller engine
that would power a vehicle. He thought the vehicle
could do the job that horses once did.
 When
he was 16, Henry moved to Detroit and worked hard at a machine shop. After spending
3 years in Detroit, he moved back to his father’s farm and helped
him, while operating and repairing farm machines. In 1885, at a dance
party on New Year’s Eve, Henry met a woman named Clara Bryant and
fell in love with her. They were married in 1885 and the couple moved
to Detroit.
In Detroit, he started the Detroit Automobile Company, but the company
went bankrupt soon after. Then in 1903, Henry started the Ford Motor
Company. The company released a car called “Model
T” in 1908 and it was a great success!
Back then, only the very wealthy could buy cars. But
Henry wanted to produce cheaper cars for ordinary people, too. He
continued to improve the way the cars were made. Finally, he introduced moving
assembly lines and his company could mass produce cars. People
could buy cars at a cheaper price. In 1918, half
of the total number of cars in the U.S. were Model Ts!
 Later, his
son Edsel became the president of the company.
He wanted to produce a new model. In 1927, he unveiled the Model A to the
public. Again, it was a great
success and sales increased sharply.
Sadly, however, Edsel died of cancer in 1942. Henry Ford
felt very sad, but he made himself president of the Ford Motor Company
once more. Then, in 1945, Edsel’s son Harry II became the new president.
In 1947, Henry Ford fell ill and died at age 84. After his death, a foundation was formed to
operate his vast fortune. The foundation gave
strong support to various projects in the arts, medicine and other important
areas of American life. |
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