The evening world., 1920-09-30
How They Started
By Appleton Street.
No. HENRY FORD
ID mHAPs II II had not bs.uu En-
i an accident that InterrupAs6

ID HRHAPs II II had not bssr eu-
II an accident that lntefrupapN
young Henry Ford's early Ifea
as a mechanic in Detroit the -Ford-
would be q watch instead Of an ante
mobile.
II happened this way. wben h
was a sixteen-year-old boy on an
farm at Dearborn. Mich, younr
Henry played hockey from school one
DAY and ran away TO Detroit. He va
tired OF the country and wanted
loo In the big city. Being interested
In mechanical things, he tried IN,
machine shops frat and soon lapded
with a steam engine works AZ A. "a
a weak This was hardly enough y
i've on even In 1879. 30 ne got spare
time work with a jewefler that DslS
~ week. IL meant fifteen bour- ,
day-from Z A. M. 20 6 =. M Al tbe
engine works and from 7 10 Al ~
night. az the jewellers-but a also
meant the sort or experience he vas
I nungry TOT and besides be needed the
Soon he shifted 20 a better tob. IN.
wages were doubled and he quit ME III
work. But that experience AZ fbs
jewellers had done more than nleco
out his living. II had given him An
Idea. Watches were costly; only peo-
! pie OF means could own them. Young
ford pondered this. lie reasoned that
watches were expensive because thov
| were largely made by hand. IN a fac
Tory were equipped on a large scale.
pought It's raw material In Quantities
/ ana manufactured by labor vine
machinery watches could be turned
out at low cost. He inquired that with
an output OF 1000 watches a day hla
costs would be but 81 cents per watch.
which he could probably sell at 80
Just az his fellow workers in the
engine works were getting stirred up
over the prospect OF Joining Hen" In
! 2 watch factory an accident occurred
In Dearborn. His father and an older
! brother we're suddenly laid up, and
the young machinist was called home
/ 70 take charge. He threw UP his Job
/ in Detroit and went back 10 the old
farm. He married the daughter OF a
neighborlng farmer. they built a little
home, and apparently Henry Ford had
settled down He plodded along for a
time. then
one day he read Of a Frenchman's
experiments with horsoleia car
rage. Inc luea NIT Henry ORD IKE
lightning. IL appealed TO his imagin-
alton. IL stirred his mechanical in
stlncts. The first thing Dearborn
folks know he had quit the farm
again and was back In Detroit. He
got a job at the electric power plant
But his real work came at night. In q
little workshed no had fitted up back
OF his house. There he tinkered away
night after night on this idea OF a
buggy without horses. He worked at
the thing for months. Then, early
one morning. In a rain. a queer little
vehicle chugged down a back street
self-propelled. with Henry Ford At
the throttle. When Il had gone sov-
eral blocks be stopped, got out. and
lifted u around-there was no steer
ing apparatus. II ohugged back 20
the little worlSshed In triumph-the
first Ford"
And IL wasn't q watch But ne
central idea OF his youthful watch
making scheme stuck In his mind.
and years later, whom the Ford was
developed, large-scale machine pro-
ductlon was the basis OF It's manu-
faeture and OF Ford's amazing nnan-
cial success.