Book 30

Henry Ford

by Peter Kent

Published 28 October 1999
Famous People, Famous Lives is a series of books for Key Stages 1 and 2 which outline the lives of famous people throughout history, but focus on one particular event in each instance.'

Book 60

Each title in this series tells the story of a man or woman whose dedication to their chosen cause led to changes that affect all our lives today. Each includes a vivid description of the world in which the famous person lived. This book describes how Henry Ford, born in 1863 the son of an lrish immigrant who settled on a farm in Michigan, USA, enjoyed tinkering with machinery, particularly trying our ways of making a 'horseless carriage', then a brand new invention. His life as an inventor, then a successful racing driver and finally a factory owner is told in exciting detail. The narrative explains how cars then were made individually - therefore very expensive and only affordable by the very rich - until, in 1908, Ford began building his Model T on the first-ever moving assembly line, thus introducing mass-production and bringing the motor car within the reach of ordinary people.