thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
motorista Frank Kulick. Em 1913, Ford tentou colocar um Modelo T reformulado no Indianapolis 500, mas foi informado que as regras exigiam a adicao de mais 1.000 libras (450 kg) no carro antes que ele pudesse ser aprovado. Ford saiu da corrida e logo depois deixou as corridas permanentemente, usando como argumento a insatisfacao com as regras do esporte e as exigencias de seu tempo pelo grande aumento na producao do Modelo T.Negocios internacionaisA filosofia de Ford defendia a independencia economica para os Estados Unidos. Sua fabrica em River Rouge tornou-se o maior complexo industrial do mundo, sendo ate mesmo capaz de produzir o seu proprio aco. Ford tinha por objetivo produzir um veiculo a partir do zero, sem dependencia de comercio externo. Ele acreditava na expansao global de sua companhia. Acreditava que o comercio internacional e a cooperacao internacional levariam a paz, e usou o processo de linha de montagem e producao do Modelo T para demonstrar isso.[23] Ele abriu as fabricas de montagem Ford noReino Unido e no Canada em 1911, e logo se tornou o maior produtor de automoveis nesses paises. Em 1912, Ford cooperou com Agnelli da Fiat para lancar as primeiras montadoras de automoveisitalianas. As primeiras instalacoes na Alemanha foram construidas na decada de 1920, com o encorajamento de Herbert Hoover e do Departamento de Comercio, que concordava com a teoria de Ford, que afirmava que o comercio era essencial para a paz mundial.[24]Na decada de 1920 Ford tambem construiu instalacoes na Australia, na India e na Franca, e, por volta de 1929, ele teve concessionarios de sucesso em seis continentes.Ford tentou uma plantacao comercial de seringueiras para a producao de borracha na Amazonia brasileira chamada de Fordlandia; o que foi uma de suas poucas falhas.[25] Em 1929, Ford aceitou o convite de Stalin para construir um modelo de fabrica (NNAZ, hoje GAZ), em Gorky, uma cidade mais tarde renomeada para Nizhny Novgorod, e enviou engenheiros americanos e tecnicos para ajudar a instala-la, incluindo o futuro dirigente de sindicato Walter Reuther.O acordo de assistencia tecnica entre a Ford Motor Company, a VSNH e a American Trading Organization (AMTORG), controlada pelos sovieticos[26] (como agente de compra) foi firmado por nove anos e assinado em 31 de maio de 1929por Ford, pelo vice-presidente da FMC Peter E. Martin, por V. I. Mezhlauk, e pelo presidente da Amtorg, Saul G. Bron. A Ford Motor Company trabalhou para conduzir os negocios em todas as nacoes com as quais os EUA mantinham relacoes diplomaticas pacificas: Ford da Australia Ford do Reino Unido Ford da Argentina Ford do Brasil Ford do Canada Ford da Europa Ford da India Ford da Africa do Sul Ford do Mexico Autolatina Mazda Volvo Cars desde 1999 Jaguar desde 1990Por volta de 1932, a Ford fabricava um terco de todos os automoveis do mundo.A imagem da Ford pasmou os europeus, em especial os alemaes, despertando o "medo de alguns, a obsessao de outros, e o fascinio entre todos".[27] Os alemaes que discutiam o "Fordismo" frequentemente acreditavam que ele representava algo fundamentalmente norte americano. Eles viram o tamanho, o
1901, with Ford as chief engineer.[11] However, Murphy brought in Henry M. Leland as a consultant and, as a result, Ford left the company bearing his name in 1902. With Ford gone, Murphy renamed the company the Cadillac Automobile Company.[11]Teaming up with former racing cyclist Tom Cooper, Ford also produced the 80+ horsepower racer "999" which Barney Oldfield was to drive to victory in a race in October 1902. Ford received the backing of an old acquaintance, Alexander Y. Malcomson, a Detroit-area coal dealer.[11] They formed a partnership, "Ford & Malcomson, Ltd." to manufacture automobiles. Ford went to work designing an inexpensive automobile, and the duo leased a factory and contracted with a machine shop owned by John and Horace E. Dodge to supply over $160,000 in parts.[11] Sales were slow, and a crisis arose when the Dodge brothers demanded payment for their first shipment.Ford Motor CompanyHenry Ford with Thomas Edison andHarvey Firestone. Ft. Myers, Florida, February 11, 1929.In response, Malcomson brought in another group of investors and convinced the Dodge Brothers to accept a portion of the new company.[12] Ford & Malcomson was reincorporated as the Ford Motor Company on June 16, 1903,[12] with $28,000 capital. The original investors included Ford and Malcomson, the Dodge brothers, Malcomson's uncle John S. Gray, James Couzens, and two of Malcomson's lawyers, John W. Anderson and Horace Rackham. In a newly designed car, Ford gave an exhibition on the ice of Lake St. Clair, driving 1 mile (1.6 km) in 39.4 seconds, setting a new land speed record at 91.3 miles per hour (147.0 km/h). Convinced by this success, the race driver Barney Oldfield, who named this new Ford model "999" in honor of a racing locomotive of the day, took the car around the country, making the Ford brand known throughout the United States. Ford also was one of the early backers of the Indianapolis 500.Model TThe Model T was introduced on October 1, 1908. It had the steering wheel on the left, which every other company soon copied. The entire engine and transmission were enclosed; the four cylinders were cast in a solid block; the suspension used two semi-elliptic springs. The car was very simple to drive, and easy and cheap to repair. It was so cheap at $825 in 1908 ($20,100 today) (the price fell every year) that by the 1920s, a majority of American drivers had learned to drive on the Model T.[13]Ford created a massive publicity machine in Detroit to ensure every newspaper carried stories and ads about the new product. Ford's network of local dealers made the car ubiquitous in virtually every city in North America. As independent dealers, the franchises grew rich and publicized not just the Ford but the very concept of automobiling; local motor clubs sprang up to help new drivers and to encourage exploring the countryside. Ford was always eager to sell to farmers, who looked on the vehicle as a commercial device to help their business. Sales skyrocketedseveral years posted 100% gains on the previous year. Always on the hunt for more efficiency and
lower costs, in 1913 Ford introduced the moving assembly belts into his plants, which enabled an enormous increase in production. Although Ford is often credited with the idea, contemporary sources indicate that the concept and its development came from employees Clarence Avery, Peter E. Martin, Charles E. Sorensen, and C. Harold Wills.[14] (See Piquette Plant)Ford Assembly Line, 1913Sales passed 250,000 in 1914. By 1916, as the price dropped to $360 for the basic touring car, sales reached 472,000.[15] (Using the consumer price index, this price was equivalent to $7,020 in 2008 dollars.)By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model T's. However, it was a monolithic black; as Ford wrote in his autobiography, "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black".[16] Until the development of the assembly line, which mandated black because of its quicker drying time, Model T's were available in other colors, including red. The design was fervently promoted and defended by Ford, and production continued as late as 1927; the final total production was 15,007,034. This record stood for the next 45 years. This record was achieved in just 19 years from the introduction of the first Model T (1908).President Woodrow Wilson asked Ford to run as a Democrat for the United States Senate from Michigan in 1918. Although the nation was at war, Ford ran as a peace candidate and a strong supporter of the proposed League of Nations.[17]Henry Ford turned the presidency of Ford Motor Company over to his son Edsel Ford in December 1918. Henry, however, retained final decision authority and sometimes reversed his son. Henry started another company, Henry Ford and Son, and made a show of taking himself and his best employees to the new company; the goal was to scare the remaining holdout stockholders of the Ford Motor Company to sell their stakes to him before they lost most of their value. (He was determined to have full control over strategic decisions.) The ruse worked, and Henry and Edsel purchased all remaining stock from the other investors, thus giving the family sole ownership of the company.[18]By the mid-1920s, sales of the Model T began to decline due to rising competition. Other auto makers offered payment plans through which consumers could buy their cars, which usually included more modern mechanical features and styling not available with the Model T. Despite urgings from Edsel, Henry steadfastly refused to incorporate new features into the Model T or to form a customer credit plan.[19]Model A and Ford's later careerBy 1926, flagging sales of the Model T finally convinced Henry to make a new model. He pursued the project with a great deal of technical expertise in design of the engine, chassis, and other mechanical necessities, while leaving the body design to his son. Edsel also managed to prevail over his father's initial objections in the inclusion of a sliding-shift transmission.[20]The result was the successful Ford Model A, introduced in December 1927 and produced through 1931, with a total output of more than 4 million. Subsequently, the
solidify industry and strengthen organization than will any social work on the outside. Without changing the principle we have changed the method of payment."[32]Labor unionsFord was adamantly against labor unions. He explained his views on unions in Chapter 18 of My Life and Work.[33] He thought they were too heavily influenced by some leaders who, despite their ostensible good motives, would end up doing more harm than good for workers. Most wanted to restrict productivity as a means to foster employment, but Ford saw this as self-defeating because, in his view, productivity was necessary for any economic prosperity to exist.He believed that productivity gains that obviated certain jobs would nevertheless stimulate the larger economy and thus grow new jobs elsewhere, whether within the same corporation or in others. Ford also believed that union leaders (particularly Leninist-leaning ones) had a perverse incentive to foment perpetual socio-economic crisis as a way to maintain their own power. Meanwhile, he believed that smart managers had an incentive to do right by their workers, because doing so would maximize their own profits. (Ford did acknowledge, however, that many managers were basically too bad at managing to understand this fact.) But Ford believed that eventually, if good managers such as he could fend off the attacks of misguided people from both left and right (i.e., both socialists and bad-manager reactionaries), the good managers would create a socio-economic system wherein neither bad management nor bad unions could find enough support to continue existing.To forestall union activity, Ford promoted Harry Bennett, a former Navy boxer, to head the Service Department. Bennett employed various intimidation tactics to squash union organizing.[34] The most famous incident, in 1937, was a bloody brawl between company security men and organizers that became known as The Battle of the Overpass.In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Edsel (who was president of the company) thought Ford had to come to some sort of collective bargaining agreement with the unions, because the violence, work disruptions, and bitter stalemates could not go on forever. But Henry (who still had the final veto in the company on a de facto basis even if not an official one) refused to cooperate. For several years, he kept Bennett in charge of talking to the unions that were trying to organize the Ford company. Sorensen's memoir[35] makes clear that Henry's purpose in putting Bennett in charge was to make sure no agreements were ever reached.The Ford company was the last Detroit automaker to recognize the United Auto Workers union (UAW). A sit-down strike by the UAW union in April 1941 closed the River Rouge Plant. Sorensen recounted that a distraught Henry Ford was very close to following through with a threat to break up the company rather than cooperate but that his wife Clara told him she would leave him if he destroyed the family business. She wanted to see their son and grandsons lead it into the future.[36] Henry complied with his wife's ultimatum. Overnight, the Ford Motor Co. went from the most stubborn holdout among automakers to the one with the
food supply, as well as trucks and aircraft engines. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917 the company became a major supplier of weapons, especially the Liberty engine for airplanes, and anti-submarine boats.[42]In 1918, with the war on and the League of Nations a growing issue in global politics, President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, encouraged Ford to run for a Michigan seat in the U.S. Senate. Wilson believed that Ford could tip the scales in Congress in favor of Wilson's proposed League. "You are the only man in Michigan who can be elected and help bring about the peace you so desire," the president wrote Ford. Ford wrote back: "If they want to elect me let them do so, but I won't make a penny's investment." Ford did run, however, and came within 4,500 votes of winning, out of more than 400,000 cast statewide.[43]Mental collapse and World War IIFord had long opposed war and continued to believe that international business could generate the prosperity that would head off wars; when World War II erupted in 1939 he said the people of the world had been duped.[44] Like many other businessmen of the Great Depression era, he never liked or entirely trusted the Franklin Roosevelt Administration. He was not, however, active in the isolationist movement of 193941, and he supported the American war effort and realized the need to support Britain with weapons to fight the Nazis. However, when Rolls-Royce sought a US manufacturer as an alternative source for the Merlin engine (as fitted to the Spitfire and Hurricane), Ford first agreed to do so and thenreneged. He "lined up behind the war effort" when the U.S. entered in late 1941, and the company became a major component of the "Arsenal of Democracy."[45] Following a series of strokes in the late 1930s he became increasingly senile and was more of a figurehead; other people made the decisions in his name.[46] After Edsel Ford's death, Henry Ford nominally resumed control of the company in 1943, but his mental strength was fading fast. In reality the company was controlled by a handful of senior executives led by Charles Sorensen and Harry Bennett; Sorensen was forced out in 1944.[47] Ford's incompetence led to discussions in Washington about how to restore the company, whether by wartime government fiat or by instigating some sort of coup among executives and directors.[48] Nothing happened until 1945, with bankruptcy a serious risk, Edsel's widow led an ouster and installed her son, Henry Ford II, as president; the young man fired Bennett and took full control.[49][50]The Dearborn IndependentMain article: Dearborn IndependentThe Ford publication The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem. Articles from The Dearborn Independent, 1920Ford in the early 1920s sponsored a weekly newspaper that published (among many non-controversial articles) strongly anti-semitic views. At the same time Ford had a reputation as one of the few major corporations actively hiring black workers; he was not accused of discrimination against Jewish workers or suppliers.[51]In 1918, Ford's closest aide and private secretary, Ernest G. Liebold, purchased an obscure weekly newspaper for Ford, The
My Life and Work, Ford predicted that if greed, racism, and short-sightedness could be overcome, then economic and technological development throughout the world would progress to the point that international trade would no longer be based on (what today would be called) colonial or neocolonial models and would truly benefit all peoples.[80] His ideas in this passage were vague, but they were idealistic.RacingFord (standing) launched Barney Oldfield's career in 1902Ford maintained an interest in auto racing from 1901 to 1913 and began his involvement in the sport as both a builder and a driver, later turning the wheel over to hired drivers. He entered stripped-down Model Ts in races, finishing first (although later disqualified) in an "ocean-to-ocean" (across the United States) race in 1909, and setting a one-mile (1.6 km) oval speed record at Detroit Fairgrounds in 1911 with driver Frank Kulick. In 1913, Ford attempted to enter a reworked Model T in the Indianapolis 500 but was told rules required the addition of another 1,000 pounds (450 kg) to the car before it could qualify. Ford dropped out of the race and soon thereafter dropped out of racing permanently, citing dissatisfaction with the sport's rules, demands on his time by the booming production of the Model Ts, and his low opinion of racing as a worthwhile activity.In My Life and Work Ford speaks (briefly) of racing in a rather dismissive tone, as something that is not at all a good measure of automobiles in general. He describes himself as someone who raced only because in the 1890s through 1910s, one had to race because prevailing ignorance held that racing was the way to prove the worth of an automobile. Ford did not agree. But he was determined that as long as this was the definition of success (flawed though the definition was), then his cars would be the best that there were at racing.[81] Throughout the book, he continually returns to ideals such as transportation, production efficiency, affordability, reliability, fuel efficiency, economic prosperity, and the automation of drudgery in farming and industry, but rarely mentions, and rather belittles, the idea of merely going fast from point A to point B.Nevertheless, Ford did make quite an impact on auto racing during his racing years, and he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1996.Later careerWhen Edsel, president of Ford Motor Company, died of cancer in May 1943, the elderly and ailing Henry Ford decided to assume the presidency. By this point in his life, he had had several cardiovascular events (variously cited as heart attack or stroke) and was mentally inconsistent, suspicious, and generally no longer fit for such a job.[82]Most of the directors did not want to see him as president. But for the previous 20 years, though he had long been without any official executive title, he had always had de facto control over the company; the board and the management had never seriously defied him, and this moment was not different. The directors elected him,[83] and he served until the end of the war. During
As Ford himself noted, by the 1870s, the notion of a "horseless carriage was a common idea".[90] Many people worked toward the idea, as the history of steam road vehicles and of automobiles shows. Ford was, however, more influential than any other single person in changing the paradigm of the automobile from a very expensive, heavy, hand-built toy for rich people into a lightweight, reliable, affordable, mass-produced mode of transportation for working-class people.On the idea that he invented the assembly lineBoth Ford and Ransom E. Olds are sometimes credited with the invention of the assembly line, although (as is the case with many inventions) the assembly line's development included many inventors. It combined the idea of interchangeable parts (another gradual technological development that is often mistakenly attributed to one individual or another). After 5 years of empirical development, Ford's first moving assembly line (employing conveyor belts) began mass production on or around April 1, 1913. The concept was first applied to subassemblies, and shortly after to the entire chassis. Although it is inaccurate to say that Ford personally invented the assembly line, his sponsorship of its development and use was central to its explosive success in the 20th century.[91][92]MiscellaneousFord was the winner of the award of Car Entrepreneur of the Century in 1999.Ford published a book, circulated to youth at that time, called "The Case Against the Little White Slaver" which documented many dangers of cigarette smoking attested to by many researchers and luminaries.[93]Ford dressed up as Santa Claus and gave sleigh rides to children at Christmas time on his estate.[39]A compendium of short biographies of famous Freemasons, published by a Freemason lodge, lists Ford as a member.[94]Ford was especially fond of Thomas Edison, and on Edison's deathbed, he demanded Edison's son catch his final breath in a test tube. The test tube can still be found today in Henry Ford Museum.[95]In 1923, Ford's pastor, and head of his sociology department, Episcopal minister Samuel S. Marquis, claimed that Ford believed, or "once believed" in reincarnation.[96] Though it is unclear whether or how long Ford kept such a belief, the San Francisco Examiner from August 26, 1928, published a quote which described Ford's beliefs:I adopted the theory of Reincarnation when I was twenty six. Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if we cannot utilise the experience we collect in one life in the next. When I discovered Reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan I realised that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock. Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more. The discovery of Reincarnation put my mind at ease. If you preserve a record of this conversation, write it so that it puts mens minds at ease. I would
like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us.Popular cultureMr. & Mrs. Henry Ford in his first car In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), society is organized on 'Fordist' lines and the years are dated A.F. or Anno Ford ('In the Year of our Ford') - a reference to A.D., Anno Domini ("in the year of our Lord"); and the expression 'My Ford' is used instead of 'My Lord.' Symphonic composer Ferde Grofe composed a tone poem in Henry Ford's honor (1938). Ford is treated as a character in several historical novels, notably E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime (1975), and Richard Powers' novel Three Farmers on the Way to a Dance (1985). Ford, his family, and his company were the subjects of a 1986 biography by Robert Lacey entitled Ford: The Men and the Machine. The book was adapted in 1987 into a film starring Cliff Robertson and Michael Ironside. In the 2005 alternative history novel The Plot Against America, Philip Roth features Ford as Secretary of Interior in a fictional Charles Lindbergh presidential administration. The British author Douglas Galbraith uses the event of the Ford Peace Ship as the center of his novel King Henry (2007).[97] Ford appears as a Great Builder in the 2008 strategy video game Civilization Revolution.