Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1836 in present-day Dearborn, Michigan on a farm. His parents were William and Mary Ford. When he was little, he would fix his neighbors watches & clocks. One day he opened a broken clock, and looked at all the gears and springs inside. When he placed it back together it worked. Something that made Henry’s imagination grow was: machines, how things worked and making things.

Henry learned two things in a college in Detroit: how to keep track of money in a business and how to type. He also learned how to dance. At a dance (when he was twenty-one years old), he met a girl named Clara Bryant and married her in 1888. After they were married, they lived on a farm. Later Clara and Henry decided move to Detroit. Their only son Edsel was born in 1893. In 1896 Henry made his first car, the Quadricycle. He nicknamed it “the baby carriage”. Henry tried to make a factory but it failed. Later Henry built racecars in 1901.One of his racecars was named 999. When Henry was 38 years old, he drove the 999 in a race and he won!

Henry started the Ford Motor Company in 1903. His cars were named models A, B, C and so on. But Henry really wanted to build a car that was sturdy and affordable. When he was making model T, he had an idea, he put a long conveyor belt with pieces on it.  The workers would do the same job again and again. For example,: a worker might put in a tire or he might screw in a screw, but he would not do both jobs. This is called an assembly line.

When Henry made the assembly line, it saved money and time because a car could be built in 3 hours. Henry was selling the model T for $550 in 1913. Before he made the assembly line, a car cost $825 - which was a lot of money back then. The model T was nicknamed “Tin Lizzie” and the “ Flivver”. Henry broke records for making cars.
Henry spent time and money to make foundations and museums. He also took time to do research and help education. Henry died when he was 83 years old in 1947.

Bibliography

• http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/ford.htm
• http://library.thinkquest.org/5847/ford.htm
• http://www.willamette.edu/~fthompso/MgmtCon/Henry_Ford.html