Biography: Henry Ford

Biography: Henry Ford

Henry Ford was the American founder of Ford Motors Company. He born on 30 July 1863 and died in 1947 at the age of 84 years.
As the owner of the Ford Motors Company, he was one of the richest person in the world and he transformed american transportation Industry into modern automobile industry.

Henry Ford was a Billionaire. His Net worth in the year 1920 was $ 1 Billion and according to Forbes, if we calculate GDP and Inflation adjusted Dollar tha today his net worth would be $ 194 Billion….Making him world’s 7th richest person in the history of mankind.

Ford began his career as an apprentice machinist in 1879, then returned to his family farm in 1882 before starting work with the Westinghouse company to service their steam engines. Ford then went to work at the Edison Illuminating Company where he became chief engineer in 1893.

Henry Ford had always enjoyed mechanical things and was always trying to improve or create more useful machinery. In 1893 he created his first gasoline driven buggy or Quadricycle that was completely self propelled. He then started the Detroit Automobile Company with several other investors to improve on his design, but the company went bankrupt soon after. Ford then started the Henry Ford Company, which he also left, before eventually starting the Ford Motor Company in 1903.

The Ford Motor Company released the successful Model T car in 1908. Generally cars were built one at a time and were only accessible to the very wealthy, but Ford continued to improve the way the cars were manufactured. In 1913 the cars were being mass produced by one of the first moving assembly lines. In 1918, half of the total amount of cars in the United States were Model T's, 15 million cars were sold, and production of the Model T was finally stopped in 1927.

Ford also had interests in politics but was never successful as a politician, and unsuccessfully ran for Senate as a Democrat. He also had strong views on labor and how the workforce should be treated. He paid his workers more money for less working days and made the 5 day 40 hour working week a normal part of working life.

Henry Ford created the Ford Foundation in 1936 to promote human welfare through research grants, educational grants and development.In 1947, at the age 83 Henry Ford died of a cerebral hemorrhage and was buried in the Ford Cemetery in Detroit.