Which family does Henry Ford live in?

1863 On the evening of July 30th, a baby was born with a crisp cry in a small village in Greenfield, Michigan, USA. His father named him Henry Ford.

Looking at the sturdy little body of the eldest son, little Henry, his father was beaming, and he felt that the dream of building a big farm was followed.

Father William Ford, an Irish immigrant, came to the United States with almost no money and only a set of hand tools. He quickly found a job as a railway sleeper and soon had some savings. However, William, who is full of the blood of simple Irish farmers, is still deeply attracted by the infinite fertile soil of Michigan, and he decided to settle down here.

For William Ford, the biggest opportunity offered by the United States is that ordinary people can buy and own land. In just a few years, he not only owned a land and a home, but also had an heir to realize his dream-Henry Ford. All this made him feel extremely honored and surprised.

When little Ford was seven years old, he began to go to school. After school, his father often takes him to the fields to watch him work, so as to cultivate his interest in land and planting crops. But every time his father secretly observed little Ford's actions, he was very sad.

Because little Ford seldom looks at the seedlings in the field and doesn't pick the small wild flowers beside the ridge, he often plays with the extra farm tools brought by his father alone, sometimes for hours at a time. Without these farm tools, he ran to the waterwheel in the field and watched how the squeaky waterwheel watered the land.

William thinks that maybe little Ford is too young, and his interest in some things is only out of curiosity, but maybe it will be better when he is older.

When little Ford grew into a teenager, his father began to do farm work for him after school every day. Out of desperation, little Ford always finishes his farm work hastily, so he dives into his hut, designs and makes his favorite mechanical gadgets such as trolleys and cranes, and sometimes even has to be called to dinner by his mother. Later, he designed a set of equipment so that his father could close the gate of the yard without getting off the carriage. However, instead of praising Ford's actions, his father became more and more disgusted. He often reprimands his son for not cherishing today's good luck, leaving such a good field without planting, but doing some crooked ways. He often shakes his head and sighs, "I really don't know what young people think now."

Ford always refused to explain his father's reprimand, so he went his own way. When Ford 16 years old, his interest in machinery made him unwilling to be a farmer with his face facing the loess like his father. He decided to work as a worker in the city, playing with the big machines that fascinated him.

Looking at Henry Ford's firm eyes, my father's dream of the eldest son was completely shattered, so I had to pin my hopes on other sons.

In this way, at the age of 16, Ford went to Detroit alone, entered the machinery factory and became an apprentice.

A restless person

1879, Detroit was a city with a population of1160,000. It is the center of foundry, machinery factory and carriage workshop. It is an industrial city in the process of formation, and it is also a city that attracts young people who like machines. With more and more small factories, smart young people can always find jobs.

Henry Ford got a job repairing machines at Michigan Motor Company. The salary is $65,438 a day, and he works six days a week. But this job didn't give full play to his talents, and he left soon. There are two reasons for this: one reason is that some old workers are jealous because they can't repair machines; The other is the work that another worker took six hours to finish, and it took him half an hour to finish.

So he went to work in James flowers Brothers Company, which is a machine factory with high quality and many varieties. He earns $25 a week, lives in a house with $35 a week, and walks to and from work, so he still has a deficit of 1 dollar a week. As an entrepreneurial young man, he began to find ways to make up for this deficit.

He heard that a jewelry store had just bought a large number of old clocks, so he offered to clean and repair these clocks for the store at a price of 50 cents per night. He did a good job and soon began to repair his watch. The shopkeeper insisted that he repair the watch in the back room because he was afraid that customers would not be at ease when they saw him so young. This job has increased his weekly salary by $2, so he has a weekly savings of $65,438+0.

His fascination with watches gave him a good idea. He wants to invent a watch with a very simple structure and mass production. A simple assembly line can produce 2000 pieces a day, and the cost of each piece is only 30 cents. He is sure that he can design and produce this kind of watch. The only problem is how to sell 600,000 watches produced in a year. He was not interested in it, so he gave up the plan. But the basic idea of simplifying the product structure and making it mass-produced remains in his mind.

After that, he came out of flowers Brothers Company and entered a shipyard. This factory makes new boats and repairs steamboats, barges, tugboats and ferries. His job is to repair the engine. He felt the job was glorious and worked there for two years.

1886, 23-year-old Ford returned to the countryside under the temptation of his father's promise to give him 40 acres of forest farm. William Ford made such a promise to save his disobedient son from the city and his damn machine; Henry Ford agreed to come back because he needed a quiet life and because he was going to marry Clara Bryant. The monotony of doing farm work in his hometown strengthened his love for machines. He still knocks, invents and reads every technical magazine he can get.

Ford can't stay in the countryside for several years. He will go back to Detroit with Clara. Father is still worried about him. "He just can't settle down," William Ford said to his friend. "I don't know what kind of person he will become."

Henry Ford's ultimate goal is being determined. He told his wife that he wanted to invent a horse-drawn car. But first, he needs a lot of electrical knowledge. So he got a job in Detroit Edison Company with a monthly salary of $45. Thomas Edison is a great man in his mind. Ford thought he could learn more about the electrical system of internal combustion engine here, which was something that many young inventors were fiddling with at that time. He did well in Edison Company and soon became the most skilled technician in this company, with a monthly salary of $ 100. But even this would not be enough To build a new car, you must pay for the materials. Therefore, in the evening, he gave a lecture to the mechanic training class of Detroit YMCA.

In just a few years after his first visit to Detroit, the city has made great progress, with a population of over 2.05 million. Railways began to extend to the whole country, and street lamps were installed in urban streets. There are more machines than before. All these changes have inspired Ford's creative enthusiasm, because the era of coal and steam engines will end in this city.