Ford, Henry at English => English (The Britannica Concise) Of Explained:
U.S. industrialist and pioneer automobile manufacturer. Born in Wayne Co., Mich., he worked his way up from a machinist's apprentice (at age 15) to the post of chief engineer at the Edison Co. in Detroit. He built his first experimental car in 1896. In 1903, with several partners, he formed the Ford Motor Co. In 1908 he designed the Model T; demand became was so great that Ford developed new mass-production methods, including the first moving assembly line in 1913. He developed the Model A in 1928 to replace the Model T, and in 1932 he introduced the V-8 engine. He observed an eight-hour workday and paid his workers far above the average, holding that well-paid laborers become the consumers that industrialists require, but strenuously opposed labor unions. As the first to make car ownership affordable to large numbers of Americans, he exerted an vast and permanent influence on Amer. life. See also Ford Foundation.