1920's Science and Technology | My Life and Work

Autobiography

By: Henry Ford

Date: 1922

Source: Ford, Henry, and Samuel Crowther. My Life and Work. Garden City, N.Y.: Garden City Publishing, 1922, 33–35.

About the Author: Henry Ford (1863–1947) was born on a farm near Dearborn, Michigan. During his late teens he began tinkering with the internal-combustion engine and in 1899 formed the Detroit Automobile Company, which later became the Cadillac Motor Car Company. In 1903 he founded the Ford Motor Company, which he eventually transformed into a multinational conglomerate in thirty-three countries.

Introduction

The development of the steam engine in England in the eighteenth century led to the locomotive in the early nineteenth century and the automobile later in the century. Although the steam engine powered the first cars, it was too large and did not generate sufficient power. These shortcomings...