less than 1 minute read

Henry Ford



Ford, Henry (1863–1947), U.S. automobile production pioneer. He produced his first automobile in 1896 and established the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Mich., in 1903. By adopting mass-assembly methods, and introducing the moving assembly line in 1913, Ford revolutionized automobile production. Ford saw that mass-produced cars could sell at a price within reach of the average U.S. family. Between 1908 and 1926 he sold 15 million Model T's. Ford was a paradoxical and often controversial character. Al-though a proud anti-intellectual, he set up several museums and the famous Ford Foundation. A violent antiunionist, he reduced the average working week, and introduced profit sharing and the highest minimum daily wage of his time. In 1938 he accepted a Nazi decoration and became a leading isolationist. At the outbreak of war, however, he built the world's largest assembly plant, to produce B-24 bombers.



Additional topics

21st Century Webster's Family Encyclopedia21st Century Webster's Family Encyclopedia - Federalist, The to Forensic science