Henry Ford

Henry Ford did not invent the automobile but he was the first man to mass-produce it and thus make it available to the ordinary man. Many automobiles were being built by hand at the turn of the century and were much too expensive for all but the wealthy. In 1903 Henry Ford's first mass- produced Model T cars cost 850 dollars. By the early 1920s he was able to reduce the price to 350 dollars. Between 1903 and 1927 Ford manufactured 15 000 000 Model T Fords and earned a profit of 700 000 000 dollars.

Henry Ford was himself a born mechanic and could build a car with his own hands. So he respected his workers and treated them well. He built them a special town on the outskirts of the city.

Ford's basic wage of five dollars a day caused not only a wages explosion in the city it also caused a population explosion. Blacks from the south poured into the city until there were almost as many blacks in Detroit as whites.

Tags: persons, ford, automobile