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Research Paper Henry Ford

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Daniel Rodriguez

English 10

Mrs. Toman

March 29, 2011

Research Paper: Henry Ford

Imagine how life would be if our society did not have cars. Today, our society is dependent on cars for our daily routines. From transporting our food, clothes, and technology to just going to the store across the street, cars are a very important part of our society. In the 19th century, only the wealthy and upper middle class had access to automobiles, and they only used cars for fancy transportation and to show off their money. This was due to the extreme prices of cars in the 19th century. With these high prices not many people could afford them, especially not the working class. Henry Ford revolutionized the automotive industry in the …show more content…

He had his workers work less, with more breaks, and he also payed them almost twice as much as other jobs. As Eric Foner states, “Ford paid the assembly line workers $5 a day when prevailing wages were about $2.50...he also reduced working hours to 8.” With this, workers were more likely to work harder and better, which led to more productivity. The productivity was not done alone, the infrastructure of the assembly line is very critical to the production process. This was done by, as Robert Sobel states,” ...conveyor belts in the assembly line that brought parts to the workers to perform their specific task.” All this improved the production rate and it satisfied the workers. Many may say the assembly line removed individuality, however it brought faster, better, and cheaper production to the Ford Motor Company.

With the success of the assembly line, Ford was very please however he had a bigger goal set. Ford wanted to produce cheap cars for the common people to use. Ford made many different types of cars and experimented with each of them. They were all good but not good enough. After many different models, Ford achieved his goal with his invention of the Ford Model T. The Model T was a fully functional compact automobile with a good transmission and torque as well as comfort and size. Apart from that, the most important aspect of the Model T was that is was extremely cheap. As Sobel states,”...the model T was only worth $290 in 1924.” This was a huge

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