WGBHNarrator: It would come to be called . One of the latest enterprises of the company is the development of a rubber plantation in Brazil. In 1914, Henry Ford more than doubled his workers’ wages to $5 per day and shortened the work day from nine to eight hours. These actions, which many other. Check on the proximity of Ford dealers in your area; Learn why Ford dealers love their franchise; Discover Ford's minority-owned dealership program. There’s been a long-simmering debate here about the respective designs of the all-new downsized Chevy/GM 1977 B-Bodies and Ford’s response-imitation in 1979. Narrator: Rubber for tires was his stated purpose. But as with many things concerning Ford, there was a grander vision. In the primordial wilderness, he planned to build a modern utopia modeled on small town America. Steven Watts, Historian: He came to believe that he was not only an economic entrepreneur but a prophet of proper living. John Staudenmaier, Historian: Henry says, . And I know how you have to live in order to achieve that. Through his own fierce determination he had risen from obscurity to become one of the most famous and powerful men in the country. With the Model T - - the most successful car in history - - and the groundbreaking . Koehn, Historian: The Model T greatly expanded Americans' mobility, knitting America very close together at the same time that it opened American sense of what was possible. So he liberated, at the individual level, the human spirit. Douglas Brinkley, Historian: Henry Ford was a revolutionary. He changed all of 2. America. We're living in Henry Ford's world right now. Narrator: But no matter his success, Ford remained restless and driven, always seeking to control what lay just beyond his grasp. The creator of an urban, industrial age, he longed for the simpler era he had helped destroy. One of the nation's richest men, he despised the wealthy and feared a vast conspiracy threatened to bring him down. A hero to many ordinary Americans, he battled his workers and bullied those who looked up to him - - including his only son. John Staudenmaier, Historian: What is it like to carry around so much power, that the ordinary wear and tear of reality that most of us deal with all the time, that keeps us pretty sane, is absent? The Ford Motor Company (commonly referred to simply as Ford) is an American multinational automaker headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. We're happy to say that our dealership staff is comprised of intelligent, savvy and friendly men and women. Get to know the Elder Ford of Tampa team! Ford is inviting suppliers to help benchmark other companies' vehicles and parts before Ford launches new models -- a move that is starting to pay dividends. Ford Fund and Ford Trucks Built Ford Tough FFA Scholarship Program - Free online college scholarship search. More than 2,300 sources of college funding, totaling. Narrator: As Henry Ford liked to tell it, his was a rags- to- riches tale. He was a child genius who fled an oppressive father to become one of the most successful entrepreneurs the world has ever seen. It was a great story, but only the last part was true. Steven Watts, Historian: Since young manhood, if not childhood, Henry Ford felt a certain sense of destiny, that he was slated to do important things. He liked to picture himself to others, as a kind of heroic individual who climbed to success against the odds. Narrator: In fact, Henry Ford was the eldest son of a caring successful Michigan farm couple. His parents expected all their children to work alongside them on the land. But when Henry found the work tedious and began obsessing over the machines that might make farm life easier, his parents indulged him. They allowed him to neglect his chores, and set up a workbench for him in the kitchen. Douglas Brinkley, Historian: Not only would he take apart wrist watches and put them back together, but he would study every machine he saw. Narrator: Henry's father, William Ford, understood that his son longed to learn more about machinery. When Henry turned 1. William arranged for him to stay with an aunt in Detroit, and even found Henry a job. On a cold day in December 1. Henry walked the nine miles from his family farm to the city - - there he would reinvent himself. For more than a decade, Ford worked long hours in one shop after another, forging a career as an expert machinist. By the time he was 3. Edison Illuminating Company, the pioneer in providing electricity to American cities. As exciting as Edison was, Ford's passion lay elsewhere. ![]() As the years passed, however, he began to spend less time worrying about providing electricity to the citizens of Detroit and more on what had become his after- hours obsession. Steven Watts, Historian: The notion of horseless carriage was in the air. And he and all of his buddies, they just devoured magazines and newspaper articles. And I think that Ford just soaked that up. John Staudenmaier, Historian: Transportation in America was terrible once you got away from the railroads. It was an enormous burden. I mean if you're living on the farm, getting around on land is one of the biggest problems people have. Narrator: At the dawn of the automobile industry in the 1. Ford had a different vision. He never forgot his feelings of isolation living on the farm and imagined that others shared his longing for greater mobility. If he could build a reliable horseless carriage, Ford believed, he could change people's lives. Douglass Brinkley, Historian: He wanted to really change the tenor of his times. He is going to transform the world by building a type of cheap car that everybody could have. Narrator: All the late nights and long weekends, the hard- earned cash spent on sheet iron and gasoline, the false starts and wrong turns, none of it mattered, when on June 4, 1. Ford drove his horseless carriage through the streets of Detroit for the first time. As the rickety vehicle bounced down Grand River Avenue, a friend cycled ahead to warn pedestrians out of the way. The quadricycle, as Ford dubbed it, had 2. It couldn't go in reverse and was prone to overheating. Yet wherever he went the quadricycle drew crowds of curious bystanders. Soon he attracted the attention of more than a dozen of Detroit's most prominent leaders, including the mayor himself, all eager to invest in Ford and his machine. John Staudenmaier, Historian: There's some people, when they walk into a room, you notice them. He has an inner self- confidence that means the way he carries himself, you're going to notice it. Narrator: Within three years of the inaugural drive, Ford had quit his engineering job. In a brick building on Cass Avenue in Detroit, he assembled a team of 1. The Detroit Automobile Company, incorporated on August 5, 1. The automobile industry was exploding. Fifty- seven other firms were founded the same year - - within two years there would be more than 1. Nancy F. Koehn, Historian: There are all kinds of people that Henry Ford knows that are tinkering and playing and trying to produce a prototype. All men, all interested in machines, but all without a big picture view of what this could become. Narrator: A company spokesman hailed Ford's first model . His backers pushed for a new, luxury model that was more reliable. But Ford stalled, determined to work out engine and design problems before building another car. Nancy F. Koehn, Historian: He would move parts around. And then he would test it. And then he would go back and move some more parts. There's a kind of both breadth of vision in that kind of activity, but there's also a kind of monomaniacal focus. No detail is too small. But the overall objective, . Meanwhile, he continued to experiment. Steven Watts, Historian: His investors want to make an expensive car to sell to wealthy people. Ford disagrees fundamentally. He wants to create a car for the people. Douglass Brinkley, Historian: He's trying to perfect an invention. In order to keep doing the trial runs and get it better, it's going to take a lot of capital to keep testing, keep testing. Narrator: Finally realizing they were being duped, his backers pulled the plug. In the three years that the fledgling car industry had existed in America, Henry Ford had managed to squander his chance to be part of it. And he knew exactly who to blame: his investors. These were the scum of America, to Henry Ford. These are the people that looked down on the slang of the farm and the kinfolk of his that had worked the land for generations. He did not like these people. Narrator: While Ford was stalling his investors, he had also been working on a secret project - - a race car. Intrigued by the challenge of building an engine that could achieve high speeds, he also harbored a greater ambition - - to make a name for himself and start a new car company. In October 1. 90. Ford took on the most famous driver in America, in the first automobile race in Michigan. Interest in the event was intense. One judge adjourned his court for the afternoon. And packed streetcars ran out to the parade ground every 3. Ford had no experience driving at high speeds and no money to pay a professional. But he had faith in the superiority of his engine. Douglass Brinkley, Historian: The whole art of making it in America is about audacity. You've got to be reckless. You've got to take such risk that you can't be afraid to fail. Narrator: For the first third of the 1. Ford lagged behind, struggling to control his car on the curves. Then on the sixth lap he started to close the gap. After his opponent's engine overheated and the crowd erupted as Ford zoomed past his rival, winning the race by nearly a mile. The aspiring automaker emerged from the victory a local hero. He wasn't convinced that he had failed. It was sort of a momentary setback. It's an absolute confidence in your own talent and an absolute confidence in your own vision of doing something important. Narrator: Ford followed his first win with a string of highly publicized victories. Within months, he had attracted a new slate of investors. On June 1. 6, 1. 90. Ford Motor Company - - Ford's audacity and courage had won him another chance. Within weeks, the company's first model was unveiled - - a two- seater with a reliable eight- horsepower engine. The first order came from a Chicago dentist. And much to the delight of company shareholders, the orders kept coming. Within less than two years the Ford Motor Company was producing 2. But the man at the top wasn't satisfied. In early 1. 90. 7, Ford walled off a corner of his factory on Piquette Avenue in downtown Detroit. The room had a door wide enough for a car and a lock to keep out everyone but his top engineers and mechanics. Then he set his team to work - - he had them experiment with innovative designs for igniting the engine and a more flexible suspension system. They tried new types of steel that would be lighter but tougher. He's very loose, very participatory. And they love him. Greg Grandin, Historian: I think that mechanical intuition that he had created a kind of charisma that drew people to him, and drew other creative people to him.
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