Henry Ford: The Father Of The Civil Rights Movement

Words: 1132
Pages: 5

Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863 in Wayne County, Michigan. His father, William, was from Ireland, and his mother, Mary, was born and raised in Michigan. Henry was the first surviving son to William and Mary, and he was also one of eight children. All of the Ford children were expected to live and work on the family farm while also attending public school in a one-room schoolhouse (“Henry Ford”). When Henry turned thirteen, his father gave him a pocket watch for his birthday. Henry was fascinated with the complexity of the watch and wanted to know how it worked. He took apart the watch piece by piece, and eventually put it back together again. Learning about the watch sparked Henry’s passion for innovation (“Henry Ford – Visionaries on …show more content…
Nearly five years later, the couple welcomed their only child, Edsel Ford. Shortly after Edsel’s birth, Henry was promoted to the chief engineering position at Edison Illuminating Company. His goal was to create a gasoline powered vehicle (“Henry Ford”). Henry’s job at Edison Illuminating allowed him to spend countless hours constructing various designs for a horseless carriage, which was called an automobile. In 1896, Henry Ford completed his project and named in the Quadricycle. The Quadricycle was composed of a metal frame, four large wheels, and a gasoline engine (History.com Staff 2). Although many people were impressed with the Quadricycle, Henry was not satisfied enough. He wanted to change and perfect many aspects of it. In order to afford new parts for his potential vehicles, Henry sold the Quadricycle (“Henry …show more content…
Henry’s innovative techniques are so crucial to how the society functions that the citizens worship him. They refer to Henry as “Our Ford” because he is the father of the assembly line. There are even Solidarity Services and Ford’s Day, which are to honor and worship Henry Ford. In fact, the setting of the book takes place in 632 A.F., which means 632 years after Ford’s death (roughly 2532). Ford’s ability to revolutionize the assembly line allowed for mass manufacturing to occur. The assembly line makes tasks efficient and more productive. Instead of cars being mass manufactured, babies are being created through the processes of bokanovsky and podsnap. As they children age, they eventually get different jobs. Each person has a specialized job to perform, which is similar to how an assembly line functions. The Model T is also prevalent in the society of Brave New World. The people in the world state refer to it as a flivver, which was a very common nickname for a Model