36 Henry Ford Entrepreneur Interesting Fun Facts

(Last Updated On: April 16, 2021)

Henry Ford (1863 – 1947) was an American industrialist who is without doubt one of the most famed business magnates of the 20th century. Ford started his profession as an engineer however later give up his job to develop into an entrepreneur.

Henry Ford facts

His Ford Motor Company went on to grew to become the dominant vehicle producer with its Model T car capturing 50% of the American market.

There are many attention-grabbing particulars from Ford’s life. He as soon regained the trust of the market by constructing a race automobile and he ran for a place within the United States Senate within the 1918 elections.

Of course, everyone knows him because he the inventor of the meeting line, the person behind the motorcar, the holder of 161 patents, as a neo-Renaissance Man of the 20th century who impressed one of many nation’s biggest historic museums, The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village.

He’s an interesting determine, characterized as certainly one of history’s great innovators, a wild idealist, a champion of the common particular person. He’s additionally been labeled “semi-literate,” and, sure, an inspiration for Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, Henry Ford facts.

He infamously printed antisemitic materials and was talked about by Adolf Hitler in his guide Mein Kampf. Moreover, the infamous legal Clyde Barrow allegedly thanked Ford for his vehicles as they helped Clyde escape pursuing policemen. Here are some attention-grabbing details about Henry Ford.

1. He patented a car constructed nearly solely of agricultural plastic

Henry Ford had a long curiosity in supplies science and engineering. He in actual fact labored as an engineer in his early profession. Later, Ford grew to become particularly fascinated by plastics developed from agricultural merchandise, particularly soybeans, Henry Ford facts.

For this goal, he established a relationship with American agricultural scientist George Washington Carver. Soybean-based plastics had been utilized in Ford vehicles all through the 1930s in plastic components similar to automobile horns, in paint, and so on.

On August 13, 1941, Ford launched to the general public the soybean car, a prototype car constructed nearly solely of agricultural plastic.

Made by way of the work of Carver, it was 30% lighter than a metal car and thus more fuel-efficient. Moreover, it ran on grain alcohol (ethanol) as an alternative to gasoline. In 1942, Henry Ford patented the soybean automobile. However, it by no means caught on.

2. He grew up on a farm – and hated it

This was the catalyst for his meeting line thought. Ford grew up on a Greenfield Township farm, and detested the work, prompting him to provide you with more efficient technique of getting issues accomplished –

“while he was still in his teens Ford was experimenting with ways to shift to machines tasks that men and women had performed since biblical times,” writes one Ford biographer.

3. He constructed a complete city smack in the course of the Amazon

And named it Fordlandia. Perhaps it goes without saying that this was certainly one of his wackiest, most idealistic tasks, and it wound up being his personal “Burden of Dreams.”

The city was an 18-hour riverboat journey from the closest city and meant to be a Utopia within the jungle. In 1927, he purchased a piece of property the size of Connecticut with the intention of constructing civilization across the business of harvesting rubber for automobile tires and ended up dropping his hind finish.

There was a riot, resistance to the meeting line by native staff, and devastation of the rubber crop by bugs. “More Deadwood than ‘Our Town’,” is the outline of 1 author.

3. Ford was allegedly thanked for his V-Eight vehicles by legal Clyde Barrow

Clyde Barrow and his feminine companion Bonnie Parker, popularly generally known as Bonnie and Clyde, had been notorious American criminals who had a two-year-long spree from 1932 to 1934 throughout which they engaged in a string of robberies in Texas and surrounding states.

Clyde Barrow had the flexibility to evade policemen even when he was surrounded. This was partly as a result of his being an extremely expert driver and secondly as a result of his alternative of vehicles: the Ford V-8 automobiles, Henry Ford facts.

Barrow repeatedly stole Ford V8s at each alternative because the vehicles’ highly effective engines allowed him to evade seize. Allegedly Clyde even wrote a letter to Henry Ford by which he thanked Ford for the fantastic car he had constructed.

4. Ford grew to become Chief Engineer of the Edison Illuminating Company

Ford grew to become Chief Engineer of the Edison Illuminating Company’s primary plant in 1893 and was on-call 24 hours a day to maintain Detroit’s electrical energy operating. He left the place 6 years later, with Edison’s encouragement, to work on his plans for a gasoline vehicle.

5. President Woodrow Wilson satisfied Ford

In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson satisfied Ford to run for a seat on the Senate as a Democrat. Ford obliged, sending a letter to the President saying, “If they wish to elect me allow them to accomplish that, however, I will not make a penny’s funding.” He didn’t spend a cent campaigning and nonetheless solely lost by 4500 votes.

6. He wasn’t precisely Father of the Year

Ford famously clung to the Model T for this long, by the mid-’20s the corporate ceased being innovative and competitive, and gross sales dropped considerably. Henry’s solely little one, Edsel Ford succeeded his father as president of Ford Motor Co. in 1926 – but the 2 clashed, generally publicly.

Edsel’s makes an attempt to salvage the corporate within the wake of declining gross sales had been steadily debated by Henry, who would veto his son’s rule.

Despite this, Edsel was by many accounts a shrewd businessman and all-around good particular person. He efficiently launched the Mercury line, and was key within the firm’s acquisition of the posh Lincoln brand; he additionally was a major supporter of the humanities in Detroit and financed exploratory expeditions, certainly one of which resulted in an Antarctic mountain range being named after him.

7. $5-a-day

In 1914 Ford supplied its employees double the present market common, creating Henry Ford’s “$5-a-day.” The new wage, accompanied by a shorter working day and firm revenue sharing, minimized employee turnover and was important in raising the center class and truthful wages motion. Henry Ford was quoted saying he wished to assist his staff to a “life” not only a “living.”

8. His Florida property can be a museum

In 1911, Ford bought the property adjoining to the southwest Flordia trip retreat of his idol, Thomas Alva Edison, and constructed his personal winter dwelling. You can tour the 2 estates now – they’re dwelling to a botanical backyard and museum, rehabbed within the 2000s, and now listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, Henry Ford interesting facts.

9. Ford ran for election as a Democrat however lost by a slim margin

In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson requested Henry Ford to run from the Democrat celebration for the place within the United States Senate from Michigan, Henry Ford fun facts.

At the time, the First World War was concerning the finish, and the League of Nations, a worldwide intergovernmental organization to keep up peace, had developed into a right away political chance.

Woodrow Wilson believed that Ford, who was recognized to be anti-war, might tip the scales in Congress in favor of Wilson’s proposed League. The president wrote to Ford: “You are the only man in Michigan who can be elected and help bring about the peace you so desire”.

To this Ford replied: “If they want to elect me let them do so, but I won’t make a penny’s investment”. Ultimately Ford did struggle the election however was defeated by his Republican counterpart, Truman Newberry. However, the margin of defeat was lower than 4,500 votes out of more than 400,000 solid.

10. He as soon as gained 6 cents in a newspaper libel case

Put six pennies atop the multibillion-dollar Ford fortune. Henry gained them in a 1919 libel go well with he pursued in opposition to the Chicago Tribune – which dragged on for 3 months and was one of many longest fits on file on the time.

He sued for $1 million after the paper labeled him an “ignorant idealist” and an anarchist. It gets wackier: The defense tried to prove the “ignorant” declare by firing fundamental history-class questions at him, and Ford didn’t appropriately reply what year the American Revolution occurred. Actually, overlook these six cents – the Tribune by no means paid the damages.

11. He invented the weekend

Well, a form of, possibly. Ford is steadily credited for pioneering the five-day, 40-hour workweek – diminished from six days and 48 hours – believing leisure time was not solely useful and worthwhile for his staff, but additionally one thing to be loved by all social and economic lessons.

(Of course, he additionally believed giving people more time to spend their cash stimulated the economy.) There’s some debate about who did it first, however, he undoubtedly popularized the motion, mockingly saved alive by the identical labor unions Ford battled his complete life, resulting in the federal normal and regulation.

12. He bullied present shareholders of Ford Motors to promote their shares to him

Henry Ford based the Ford Motor Company, which was integrated on June 16, 1903. The firm was launched with a capital of $28,000, which got here from twelve traders.

Henry Ford and Alexander Y. Malcomson collectively owned 51% of the brand new firm. The Ford Motor Company would go on to develop into one of the crucial worthwhile corporations within the nation. In 1918, Henry Ford stepped down from the presidency of the corporate and went on to ascertain one other firm, Henry Ford and Son.

He made positive to get this announcement caught in a media frenzy by selling the truth that he was taking himself and his greatest employees to this new firm.

The final goal was to bully the present stockholders of Ford Motor Company to promote their stakes to him before they lost their profitable worth. The trick labored wonders and Ford was in a position to take over 100% of the possession of the Ford Motor Company.

13. Ford backed up his claims

Ford backed up his claims that the varsity home was the true deal by publishing a guide: The Story of Mary and Her Little Lamb and Ford Ideals. Ford transformed the construction, which was getting used for storage, back into a correct faculty: Classes had been taught on the Redstone School House till 1951.

14. During a 1928 interview with the Detroit Times

During a 1928 interview with the Detroit Times’ George Sylvester Viereck, Ford expanded on his religious ideas, owing to his strokes of brilliance to a “Master Mind”:

“Somewhere is a Master Mind sending brain wave messages to us. There is a Great Spirit. I never did anything by my own volition. I was pushed by invisible forces within and without me.”

15. His Model T gained a transcontinental race however was later disqualified

In June 1909, a number of months after Ford’s iconic Model T was launched, the Ocean to Ocean Automobile Endurance Contest, a transcontinental vehicle race, was held.

During the publicity of the race, Ford introduced that it could “give Americans an opportunity to appreciate the vast possibilities of the motor car”. The Model T of Ford appeared fragile at the start of the race as in comparison with its heavier and more highly effective opponents.

However, because the race progressed its benefits grew to become obvious and the Ford No. 2 car, a stripped-down Model T, was the first to cross the end line after 23 days on the street.

The Ford’s car was later disqualified as a result of it had an engine modified in the course of the race, in violation of the principles. Nonetheless, the Model T went on to be one of the best-promoting cars within the first half of the 20th century.

16. He spearheaded the ill-fated Peace Ship to ‘finish World War I’

In 1915, Ford gathered up a lot of fellow pacifists and sailed to Europe, hoping to encourage troopers on all sides to go on strike and derail leaders who he believed had been financing the War to End All Wars.

He was roundly ridiculed, and he deserted the endeavor after a less-than-lukewarm reception upon landing in Denmark. By the time the U.S. entered the warfare in 1917, Ford crops started producing weapons, airplane engines, and boats for the hassle.

17. Ford tried to show Sudbury

Long before Colonial Williamsburg, Ford tried to show Sudbury, Massachusetts’ Wayside Inn—the place Longfellow penned Tales of a Wayside Inn—right into a dwelling museum of American history. He bought the Inn, and 3000 surrounding acres, in 1923, and constructed eight buildings on it together with a working grist mill.

18. Henry Ford purchased the Redstone School House in Sterling

In 1926, Henry Ford purchased the Redstone School House in Sterling, Massachusetts. Ford claimed the varsity home was the one talked about within the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” and moved the construction to his property in Sudbury.

19. Henry Ford printed antisemitic booklets titled The International Jew

The Dearborn Independent was a weekly newspaper printed by Henry Ford from 1919 to 1927. Soon after it began, the Dearborn Independent started operating a collection of articles that claimed an enormous Jewish conspiracy was infecting America. For 91 points, the paper introduced a lot of main tales in its headlines that portrayed Jews as evil.

The hottest and aggressive of those tales had been then compiled and printed in a four-volume set of booklets titled The International Jew.

Ford then distributed half a million copies of the booklets to his huge network of dealerships and subscribers. San Francisco lawyer and activist Aaron Sapiro introduced a lawsuit in opposition to Ford within the federal courts. Due to the ensuing controversy, Henry Ford closed the Dearborn Independent and supplied an apology for the content.

He even claimed that he was shocked by the content and was unaware of it. However, this can be very unlikely that such controversial materials were printed without Ford’s express directions.

20. He was very almost a politician

In 1918, inspired by President Woodrow Wilson, Ford ran for the U.S. Senate, however, refused to spend any cash on the marketing campaign. Amazingly, he lost by solely 4,500 votes.

21. His pro-worker repute was tarnished because of the Battle of the Overpass

Though Henry Ford is thought for the $ 5-day wage and the five-day, 40-hour workweek, he was in opposition to labor unions. Ford thought-about labor unions being too closely influenced by sure leaders who in the end ended up doing more hurt than good for the employees.

He believed that they restricted productiveness with a view to improving employment and infrequently instigated strikes in a bid to keep up their energy. Harry Bennett, a former Navy boxer, was promoted by Ford to move the Service Department.

Bennett was notorious for his intimidation ways in opposition to unions. On May 26, 1937, Bennett and the Ford Motor Company safety guards clashed with members of the United Auto Workers (UAW), an American labor union.

The following day, images of the injured UAW members had been printed in newspapers and the conflict grew to become notorious because of the Battle of the Overpass. The incident significantly elevated help for the UAW and damage Ford’s repute

22. Empire State Building

In 1965, a Ford Mustang was transported in Four separate items to the remark deck of the Empire State Building, utilizing resident elevators, the place it was reassembled and photographed by helicopter. The automobile was later reassembled contained in the construction, till it was finally taken aside and far away from the construction 5 months later.

23. He’s a deity in a well-known novel

Aldous Huxley’s 1932 satirical basic “Brave New World” is set on a timeline before or after Ford, with 1908 – the year the first Model T rolled off the assembly line – acting as a year zero.

In Huxley’s dystopian society, the phrase “My Lord” is replaced with “My Ford,” and the Christian cross has been changed with a T, after the Model T. It’s not essentially the most flattering use of the name, contemplating Huxley was vital of mass manufacturing and its effect on individuality.

24. When he was a younger man

When he was a younger man, Ford repaired watches for his associates and family—and he made his personal instruments to do it. He used a filed shingle nail as a screwdriver and a corset keep as tweezers.

25. He might have fathered one other son

Biographer Richard Snow says the proof “is circumstantial, however fairly robust” that Ford maintained a 30-year extramarital relationship with a woman named Evangeline Cote, giving her a mansion – and a son, John Cote Dahlinger, who wrote a book titled “The Secret Life of Henry Ford.”

26. He additionally held curiosity in aviation

Ford’s success within the auto trade overshadowed his work with issues that left the ground. Ford produced airplanes throughout World War I and finally established the Ford Airplane Division in 1924 after buying the Stout Metal Airplane Company.

The aviation line shut down in the course of the Great Depression, though manufacturing would begin up once more throughout World War II. Ford’s curiosity in flying led to 2 extra improvements, one successful, the opposite an enormous flop, Henry Ford facts.

27. He constructed the first airport hotel

This was a success. Ford welcomed travelers-by-air to the Dearborn Inn, in-built 1931 close to the Ford Airport, which he established seven years prior. The luxurious resort featured Colonial structure and design and remains to be in operation, owned by Marriott.

28. Using wooden scraps from his crops

Using wooden scraps from his crops, Ford discovered he might make charcoal briquettes. When Ford’s brother-in-law E.G. Kingsford brokered the location choice for Ford’s charcoal manufacturing plant, Ford named the corporate Kingsford Charcoal in his honor, Henry Ford interesting facts.

29. During World War I

During World War I, Ford tried his hand within the aviation business and began the Ford Airplane Company. The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission acknowledged Ford as a pioneer of aviation in 2002, however, the Ford Airplane Division shut down in 1933 as a result of lackluster gross sales.

30. In Aldous Huxley’s dystopian society

In Aldous Huxley’s dystopian society of Brave New World, the world dates its years as Annum Fordum, or “Year of Our Ford.” Huxley’s characters also use Henry’s name as “Our Ford” instead of “Our Lord.”

31. He is the one American talked about in Hitler’s Mein Kampf

As Ford was one of the crucial famed and influential Americans of the time, his antisemitic views gave legitimacy to many concepts that will have been given little authority in any other case.

The International Jew was translated into German in 1922 and went on to affect a number of people together with Baldur von Schirach, who went on to develop into national youth leader of the Nazi Party. Schirach said:

“I read it and became antisemitic. In those days this book made such a deep impression on my friends and myself because we saw in Henry Ford the representative of success”.

Also, Henry Ford was the one American to be talked about in Mein Kampf, the autobiographical guide by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. Hitler wrote in his guide:

“Every year makes them (American Jews) more and more the controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions; only a single great man, Ford, to their fury still maintains full independence.”

32. “I’m a Ford, not a Lincoln”

When former President Gerald Ford was describing his no-nonsense, model of governing, he was quoted as saying, “I’m a Ford, not a Lincoln,” evaluating President Lincoln’s eloquence with Lincoln, the posh car firm owned by Ford Motor Company.

33. He had a lifelong friendship with Thomas Edison

In 1891, Henry Ford grew to become an engineer within the Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit. In 1896, whereas attending a meeting of Edison executives, Ford met the well-known inventor and businessman Thomas Edison.

During the temporary encounter, Edison informed Ford to “keep at it”; referring to Ford’s experimentation to provide an electric vehicle. With time, as Ford grew to become well-known and profitable, the 2 males began a lifelong friendship.

In 1916, they grew to become vacating neighbors as Ford bought a property next to Edison’s winter dwelling in Fort Myers, Florida. Also, between 1914 and 1924, Ford and Edison toured the eastern U.S. in Ford vehicles for a collection of tenting journeys.

The journeys additionally served as ads for Ford vehicles and Firestone tires, producing headlines like “Millions of Dollars Worth of Brains off on a Vacation”.

34. He as soon as regained the trust of the market by constructing a race car

On August 5, 1899, Henry Ford established the Detroit Automobile Company. Ford was in a position to appeal to the financial backing of twelve traders, together with Detroit Mayor William Maybury and lumber baron William H. Murphy.

However, the ensuing vehicles had been nowhere near what Ford had in thoughts, with inferior high quality and high worth. The firm failed and Ford was pressured to dissolve it by January 1901.

During its operation, a complete of solely 20 automobiles might be constructed and about $86000 price of investments (equal to $2.61 million in 2019) was lost. Interestingly, Ford regained the trust of traders by designing, constructing, and racing a 26 horsepower vehicle in October 1901.

After witnessing this success, Murphy and different stockholders within the earlier firm bought collectively to kind the Henry Ford Company on November 30, 1901. However, Ford finally left this firm too and it was renamed Cadillac Automobile Company.

35. He designed a flying car

Ford wished to place everybody behind the wheel of a car – after which he wished to place everybody within the air. In the 1920s, he developed a 350-lb. one-seater mini-plane with a 23-foot wingspan, operating on a 35-horsepower Ford engine, calling it the Ford Flivver.

During a 1928 Florida Flivver flight, check pilot Harry Brooks crashed into the ocean, and his body was by no means discovered, formally ending the mission.

36. He was an anti-Semite

No doubt, Ford was an advanced man, and that is his ugly underbelly. From 1920-27, Ford owned the Dearborn Independent newspaper, which ran anti-Semitic articles dictated by and credited to the industrialist, Henry Ford interesting facts.

The articles grew to become a guide titled “The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem,” an infamous tome that grew to become affiliated with the Reichstag.

Ford was reportedly admired by none aside from Adolf Hitler, and in 1938, Ford accepted the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, a Nazi medal. Ford finally renounced his writings.