Henry Ford’s Innovations
Ford’s Early Life
Born Near Detroit, MI
in 1863
 Attended school until
he was 15.
 Secretly worked on
mechanical projects
at night after his
chores.
 Ran away at 16 to
become an apprentice
in a Detroit machine
shop

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Picture from www.americaslibrary.gov
You Can Go Home Again

After years of earning $2.50 per week at
one job and $2 per week at another (to
make ends meet), Ford returned to his
father’s farm and built a one-cylinder
tractor.
Moving Back to the City


Ford eventually got a
job as an engineer
and machinist and
moved back to
Detroit.
Detroit image fromwww.cityyear.org
Ford sells his first car


Ford sold his first
“gasoline buggy” for
$200 in 1896.
Engine image from www.first-to-fly.com
Chief Engineer
Ford became chief engineer of an electric
company, earning $125 per month.
 Ford later quit because he refused to give
up working on gasoline cars and focus on
electricity.

Detroit Automobile Company
Ford persuades a group of men to help
him manufacture his car.
 He quits after two years because his
backers wanted to produce small
quantities at large profits.

999

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Ford built a racing car
in a one-story brick
shed that won every
race that it entered.
Image of Barney Oldfield from
www.rumbledrome.com
Ford Motor Company
Publicity from his racing car helped Ford
start the Ford Motor Company.
 He received $100,000 in capital.
 He and his son became sole owners in
1919.

Ford Concentrates on One Car


Ford concentrated his
efforts on developing
a single chassis, the
Model T
Model T image from www.uh.edu

“any customer can have a car painted any
color he wants, so long as it is black”
 Henry Ford
$850
The Model T sold for $850 in 1908.
 By 1925, mass production cut the cost to
$290.

Ford Changes the Workday
Ford developed mass production
techniques.
 This made workers’ jobs very
monotonous.
 In order to fix this, for raised wages to $5
per day, shortened the work week, and
shortened the workday from 9 hours to 8
hours.


Next image from www.loc.gov
Assembly Line


Conveyor belts and the assembly line
reduced the amount of time need to
produce a Model T from 12.5 hours in
1912 to 1.5 hours in 1914.
Previous image from www.nps.gov
The Logic of Mass Production
Ford reasoned that increased production
allows manufacturers to reduce costs and
increase the # of products sold.
 Another big result of this was that higher
wages allowed workers to buy more
products (the worker as consumer belief)

Different Models?
Other manufacturers
such as Albert Sloan
(General Motors)
worked on producing
new models and
changing the looks of
cars.
 Ford finally developed
the Model A in 1927.

www.d

Model A image from www.xyz.net
Vertical Integration
Ford bought all his own coal mines, iron
mines and forests, railways, and his own
lake and ocean steamships.
 Buying everything that he needed to
produce cars (all aspects of the production
process) became known as vertical
integration.

NO Labor Unions


Ford remained
strongly aligned
against labor unions
throughout his life.
Labor Union image from
www.library.ohiou.edu
B-24’s

Ford’s plants
produced bombers
during World War II.

Ford passed away in
1947 at the age of
83.

B-24 image from www.collingsfoundation.org

Information in PowerPoint from:
– www.digitalhistory.uh.edu
– www.nytimes.com