Building an Empire: Ford Motor Company, Built Tough
Founded in 1903, the Ford Motor Company follows the history of America.
From the city to the countryside, the Model T first connected the country, and revolutions in manufacturing churned out popular, affordable cars across America.
Now developing electric vehicles and looking ahead to a season of F1 racing, this is the story of the Ford Motor Company.
Henry Ford
Henry Ford had a passion for cars running through his blood. Ford walked out of school and into the Michigan Car Company at age sixteen.
His father's anger soon gave way to support, and Ford stepped out of the Car Company again and became an apprentice mechanic at the James Flower and Brothers Machine Shop.
Still living and working near his Minnesota home, it was clear that Henry Ford's first shot at entrepreneurship would begin in Detroit, and in June 1903, the Ford Motor Company was founded.
Flickr/Roger W
Part of the company's objective was to create a reliable automobile accessible to the vast majority of the American public.
The Model T was the company's first effort to do this. A self-starting vehicle with a four-cylinder engine, the $850 vehicle flew off the production line.
By 1927, most middle-class Americans owned a Model T Ford, and it began connecting communities across rural America.
The Moving Assembly Line
Did Ford invent the assembly line?
Certain myths surround the rise of the Ford company, one of which claims Henry Ford made the first automobile.
Whilst this is untrue, he revolutionized the way they were made ten years into the company's formation.
The moving assembly line positioned workers around a rolling conveyor belt - the work would come to the workers rather than the other way around.
As the vehicle progressed, it would become ever more built-up. It became so fast that the Model T could be made within 90 minutes.
Ford Corporate
While the moving assembly line increased the speed of the production process, many workers found it dull work and hard to perform all the necessary tasks on the vehicle before it was transported further down the line. Employees began to leave the conveyor belt for work in other automobile companies.
This led to perhaps the most interesting of Ford's initiatives: the $5 day.
Henry Ford decreased the time in shifts while increasing their wages.
This allowed Ford to hire another group of workers, thus making a 24-hour working warehouse, which increased rather than lessened the overall profits of the Ford company.
Ford vs Ferrari
Perhaps the most famous of Ford's rivalries was that with Ferrari.
Did Ford try to buy Ferrari?
It all began when Enzo Ferrari turned down an offer from Ford to buy his company.
The American company had reportedly offered Ferrari an eight-figure sum for the company, but they were turned down.