Welcome to Slow American English, the podcast for learners of American English.
I'm your host, Karen Tolliver.
This is Episode number 71, Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company.
Before we begin, let me say thank you to my Patreon patrons for pledging a little money every month to keep the podcast going.
Your contributions help pay for web hosting and other expenses.
Without you, I could not help English learners all over the world.
If you are not yet a patron, would you please visit patreon .com slash slow American English and become one today?
Buy Slow American English workbooks on Amazon.
You can use all the workbooks either with the podcast or without it.
Teachers can use the pre -planned lessons for listening, reading, speaking, and writing.
Students can use each lesson for self -study.
Get yours in print or Kindle versions now.
Now for the podcast. Henry Ford, considered a giant of industry, founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903, which is today the fifth largest automaker in the world.
Ford factories operate on six of the seven continents.
Henry Ford was born in 1863 near Detroit, Michigan.
Even though his father was a farmer, As a boy, Henry was more interested in mechanics and he created his own machine shop.
At age fifteen, he built his first steam engine.
Although Henry Ford did not have a formal education in mechanics or engineering, he became a machinist's apprentice in Detroit.
He later worked with steam engines and he joined Thomas Edison's company as an engineer around age 28.
He soon became chief engineer.
In fact, Thomas Edison became his mentor and friend.
Later that year, he built his first gasoline -powered engine and built his first car three years after that.
At age 36, he left Edison's company and started his first automobile company with business partners.
That company failed, but Henry Ford did not give up.
He built several successful race cars and founded a second auto company, which he later sold.
A year later, he founded the Ford Motor Company, which is the automaker that exists today.
The first car made there was the Model T.
It was not the first car sold in the U .S., but it was the first one to be affordable to most people.
It was easy to drive and repairs were cheap.
Language note In the early days, people called automobiles horseless carriages.
The Model T's nickname was Tin Lizzy.
Henry Ford's success was due to his business ideas.
Although he did not invent these ideas, he was the first to use them so successfully.
The most important idea was the moving assembly line, which is used in most auto factories today.
Another good idea was that he paid workers very well and they only had to work 40 -hours a week.
Therefore, he kept the best workers.
He believed that business people had a responsibility to make life better for workers.
By 1918 about half of all cars in the US were Model Ts.
All model Ts were black.
In his autobiography, Ford said you could have any color so long as it is black.
The reason was that black paint dried quickly and kept the assembly line moving.
When Model Ts stopped being built in 1927, over 15 million of them had been made.
A second model, the model A, was introduced in 1927.
Ford's son Edsel had the idea for this car.
It was much more luxurious than the Model T, which competed with General Motors cars.
With these two models, the Ford Motor company became a huge industrial giant.
Henry Ford was a pacifist, which means he was against war.
He believed that a good economy would make war unnecessary.
But despite all his good ideas, Ford was also a firm anti -Semite, which means he didn't like Jewish people.
He blamed them for the World Wars and other problems. In fact, Adolf Hitler gave Ford the highest award Nazis gave to a foreigner.
Ford also ran an anti -Semitic newspaper called the Dearborn Independent.
Ford's son, Edsel ran the company from 1919 to 1943 when he died.
Henry Ford came back to run the company for another two years, although he had bad health problems and was not a good leader.
Then his grandson, Henry Ford II, took over.
Henry Ford died in 1947, age 83.
The Ford family still has control of the company, although it is now public.
You can visit the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
It has items that Henry Ford himself collected, as well as other Americana, such as a copy of Edison's Lab.
That's the podcast for this time.
Slow American English is written and produced by Karen Tolliver.
Copyright 2020. All rights reserved.
For a free transcript and to subscribe to the podcast, visit slowamericanenglish .net.
You can also subscribe wherever podcasts are downloaded.
Theme music is written and performed by S.
W. Campbell and used by permission.
Find more music by this artist at soundclick .com slash swcampbell.
This has been Slow American English.
I'm Karen Toliver. Thank you for listening.
