Henry Ford’s Own Story

Ford, 1896 Ford Quadricycle, Ford's first car, image released to public domain by its author Neiltopaz

Summary:  Rose Wilder Lane was a newspaper reporter, free-lance writer, political activist, and the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the “Little House” series of popular children’s books. In this biography of Henry Ford, Ms. Lane worked directly with Ford to tell his story from his birth to his founding of the Ford Motor Company and his use of modern assembly lines to mass produce his cars. (Summary by Lee Ann Howlett.)

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Henry Ford on the cover of Time Magazine, January 14, 1935, copyrights on this issue were not renewed, public domain image

Total running time:  4 hours and 27 minutes

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Ford, Henry Ford, standing, and Barney Oldfield in 1902 with the 999 racing automobile

00 – Foreword

01 – One Summer’s Day

02 – Mending a Watch

03 – The First Job

04 – An Exacting Routine

05 – Getting The Machine Idea

06 – Back To The Farm

07 – The Road To Hymen

08 – Making A Farm Efficient

09 – The Lure Of The Machine Shops

Ford, Model T Ford, 1913, being used for fishing, public domain image

10 – “Why Not Use Gasoline?”

11 – Back To Detroit

12 – Learning About Electricity

13 – Eight Hours, But Not For Himself

Ford Mr. and Mrs. Ford in his first car, which he sold but afterwards bought back; it became his most prized possession.  Notice the old fashioned bicycle wheels and the bell on the dash, public domain image

14 – Struggling With The First Car

15 – A Ride In The Rain

16 – Enter Cofffee

17 – Another Eight Years

Ford, Thomas Edison, John Burroughs and Henry Ford, standing portrait, at Edison's home in Ft. Myers, FL, March 16, 1914, public domain image from U.S. Library of Congress

18 – Winning A Race

19 – Raising Capital

20 – Clinging To A Principle

Ford assembly line, 1913, public domain image

21 – Early Manufacturing Trials

22 – Automobiles For The Masses

23 – Fighting The Seldon Patent

24 – “The Greatest Good To The Greatest Number”

25 – Five Dollars A Day Minimum

26 – Making It Pay

Ford, 1910 Model T Ford, commercial photo for advertisement by Harry Shipler, public domain image

27 – The Importance Of A Job

28 – A Great Educational Institution

29 – The European War

30 – The Best Preparedness

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