Henry Ford - Jolly Phonics Level 4 Readers

 Henry Ford was born in 1863 in

Michigan, America. He lived on a farm

with his five brothers and sisters.

Everyone expected Henry to become a

farmer too, but Henry was not

interested in farming.

Instead, Henry liked to see how things

were made and what made them go.

He would sit in his bedroom and take

things apart.

He liked to take apart anything with

a mechanism, such as things from the

kitchen, things from the farm, and even

his brothers'

and sisters' toys!

When Henry was sixteen, he went to

Detroit. Detroit was very big and lots of

things were made there. Henry had to

walk nine miles to get to Detroit and he

lived there for three years.

In that time, he became very interested

in a new mechanical thing called a

motor car.

Motor cars had only just been invented.

If you wanted to travel somewhere, you

had to walk or go by horse or, possibly,

go by steam train or boat. Motor cars

were very, very expensive and only the

very rich could afford one.

In 1888, Henry married a girl called

Clara. Clara lived on a farm not far

from Henry's family. Henry and Clara

set up home in Detroit and soon had a

boy, whom they named Edsel.

Henry still dreamed about motor cars

and planned to build his own one day.

Henry started to build his car. He built

it in his shed at home. It took him a

long time.

When he had finished, Henry was very

pleased with the car, but when he tried

to test-drive it, there was a problem.

As he tried to drive his car outside, he

found that it was too big for the shed

doors. So, to get it out of the shed

Henry knocked a hole in the walls.

Henry started to make cars to sell. They

were all made by hand, which took a

long time. They were very expensive

and still only the very rich could afford

them. Henry wanted to make a car that

everyone could afford.

So Henry started to make different sorts

of cars. Instead of calling them names,

he gave each sort, or model, a different

letter.

In 1908, he sold his first Model T Ford.

It cost 825 dollars, which was very

cheap for a car at that time. Now it

was not only the very rich who could

afford a car.

The Model T Ford was given the

nickname of the "Tin Lizzie", and

everyone wanted a Tin Lizzie.

Henry could sell cars that cost so little

because he had found a new way to

build them.

Before, cars had been made one at a

time by a team of men. This took a

long time.

Henry Ford set up the first "assembly

line". Each man made only one little bit

of the car. The car would then go on to

the next man in the line, who would do

a different bit. The car would continue

along the line until everything was

fitted onto it.

Henry's new assembly line meant that

cars could be made more quickly and

more cheaply than before.

The men did not need to know how to

build a whole car. They only needed to

know how to build their little bit of it.

Henry built a big factory at Highland

Park in Michigan. He paid his men well

and tried to treat them well. In return,

he wanted them to be good and stay

out of trouble.

Edsel Ford helped his dad to make the

cars and then to run the factory. At

first, all was well and Henry Ford

became a very rich man. But other

factories started to use assembly lines,

and all cars became cheaper.

Henry and Edsel had to try hard to

keep the factory going. Edsel Ford died

when he was only forty-nine.

Before there were lots of cars, there

were very few roads. As more cars were

made, more roads were needed so that

the cars could drive along smoothly.

No one wanted to be rattled around in

a car as it drove across bumpy tracks.

More and more roads were built for the

cars to drive on.

If there were no cars, you would have

to walk to school and back. You would

have to carry your shopping home. Just

try and think what your life would be

like without cars!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cgYxjxke-3-ZkyGjY25X3HPACiHs-ew-/view?usp=drivesdk You can download this PDF there👆