jun 16, 1903 - Ford Motor Company founded
Description:
The Ford Motor Company was founded by Henry Ford. Ford made large contributions to the automobile and assembly line, allowing them to be used much more practically. In 1908, he invented the Model-T, which was durable enough to drive over the country's bumpy roads. Ford made a niche in the automobile market by focusing on low prices and quick and reliable output, in contrast to the slow but superior craftsmanship of the Mercedes in Europe. The difference was much like how factory-produced goods began to take over from ones made by artisans. In 1913, Ford adopted the moving assembly line, in which automobiles were assembled by workers that placed individual parts onto the car as it traveled along a conveyor belt. This greatly sped up production of cars, making him so much money that he raised the wages of his factory workers to five dollars a day in 1914, over double what most factory workers were paid. However, workers were discontented with working at the company, as they found the work on assembly lines to be much too tedious. Ford also made frequent use of armed detectives and spies to discourage unions from forming. Ford's idea of mass producing goods for mass consumption was named Fordism.
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