henry ford
... over-hauled his fathers farming equipment, and helped out with any other farming chores (Henry Ford Museum). In 1885 Ford he met Clara Jane Bryant at a party. They became very close and great companions so they got married on April 11, 1888. On November 6, 1893 their first and only child was born, they named him after a childhood friend, Edsel. In 1891 he and Clara moved to back to Detroit and Ford began working for Detroit Edison Illuminating Company as an engineer. In 1893 he was promoted to Chief Engineer, which gave him enough time and money to continue his dream. This was his idea of a car (History Project). At a convention for Detroit Edison Illuminating Company Ford met Thomas Edison. He was introduced as "the young fellow who's made a gas car." After talking with an inventor himself he had a renewed ambition to work on his car. Edison told him, "Young man, you have it, a self-contained unit carrying its own fuel. Keep at it!" (Henry Ford Museum). Then in 1896 Ford's Quadricycle was completed. It was a box sitting on what looked like heavy-duty bicycle wheels; it had to speeds and no reverse. It was steered like a boat with a rotor like tiller. It had a 4-horse power engine. He sold this car for $200. He may not of been the first to complete this task but it was still a very important part of his life (Willamette). In 1899, the mayor of Detroit became interested in Fords work and got a group of friends together and raised $15,000 to start a company called the Detroit Automobile Company with Henry as the chief engineer. This was a major conflict with his job at Edison so he had to quit the Edison job. But only 9 months latter after the investors weren’t seeing the return on their money that they expected they withdrew leaving the company to become bankrupt (History Project). Although Henry quit the Edison position Henry and Tomas became great friends. In fact Henry bought the house next door to Edison’s vacation house so that they could vacation together. They vacationed there together for about 25 years until Edison passed away (Henry Ford Museum). In 1903, after many unsuccessful attempts, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated with Henry ford as chief engineer and vice-president. The company only produced 2-3 cars a day. There were about 3-4 men working on every car. These cars were the Model A’s and sold for around $850. In 1908 ford introduced the Model T, which was a reliable, low priced, and efficient car. This was the birth of personal transportation by car. This car became very popular one in every 800 people had this car (Langwosth, 67). Due to the success Ford opened a new plant at Highland Park, Michigan. In 1913 he introduced the moving assembly line where one person had a task and...