Young Henry Ford And the Horseless Carriage

August 21st, 2009 by admin

Throughout Henry Ford’s entire life, he had always been interested in mechanics despite his father’s efforts to get him interested in farming and become a farmer just like he was. Henry Ford knew he would not have made history being a farmer.

After three years of working his double shifts in Detroit, Henry Ford completed his apprenticeship and returned to the farm to help his father for a while.

Ford’s first exposure to machines that operated by its own power instead of horses was actually with a steam engine. He discovered one of his father’s neighbors had purchased a steam engine but couldn’t find anyone who knew how to drive it. Henry Ford dashed over and volunteered for the job, of course.

Shortly after, the manufacturer of the engine itself heard about Henry’s skill in driving and repairing the machine, and he hired Henry Ford to sell and repair steam engines throughout southern Michigan. Henry was also sent to Detroit occasionally to repair other machines.

Henry Ford and Internal Combustion, horseless carriage

On one of his trips into Detroit at that time, Henry Ford was introduced to an internal combustion engine. It was love at first sight. Immediately, Henry saw the possibilities. This engine relied on gasoline instead of coal or steam, and it was smaller and lighter than a steam engine.

Henry set to work to find out all he could about the engine. He learned to repair it, to take it apart, even to build a new one. All along, the question on his mind was whether this engine could someday be the key to his dream of building a horseless carriage. Finally, Henry Ford decided to build his own internal combustion engine, and try it out.

It took him several years to build his first fully working 1-Cylinder engine, which arrived just days after the birth of his only son, Edsel.