H enry Ford's parents left Ireland and settled in the Detroit area in the 1840s. Henry was born in 1863 in what is now Dearborn, Michigan.
His formal education was limited, but even as a youngster, he was handy with machinery. He worked for the Detroit Edison company, advancing from machine-shop apprentice to chief engineer.
In 1893, he built a gasoline engine, and within a few years, an automobile, still a novelty item of the rich or do-it-yourself engineers.
In 1899 he left Edison to help run the Detroit Automobile Company. Cars were still built essentially one at a time. He hoped to incorporate ideas from other industries, like standardized parts to make the process more efficient.
This idea struck others in his field as nutty, so before long, Ford quite Detroit Automobile Company and began to build his own cars. They were good enough to attract backers and even partners, and in 1903, he set up the Ford Motor Company.
He still met resistance to his ideas for mass production of a car, the average worker could afford. But he stuck to his goal and finally in 1908, began production of the Model T. Ford gradually adapted the production line until in 1913, when his plant incorporated the first moving assembly line. Demand for the affordable car soared even as production went up: before he stopped making the model T in 1927, 15 million had been sold, and Henry Ford had become the leading auto manufacturer in the USA. In june 1927 the new Ford model A was intruduced.
In addition to the moving assembly line, Henry Ford also revolutionized the auto industry by increasing the pay and decreasing the hours of his employees, ensuring he could get enough, and the best workers.

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