Fascinate; repair; apprentice; set up; settle down; fit; withdraw

Henry Ford was born in Michigan in 1863. His mother died when he was 12 and his green years were full of tension and hardship. He helped on the family farm in summer and in winter attended a one-room school. Watches and clocks fascinated the boy. He went around the countryside doing repair work without pay, merely for the chance to play with machinery.

At 16 Ford walked to Detroit and apprenticed himself to a mechanic for $2.50 a week. His board was $3.50, so he worked four hours every night for a watchmaker for $2 a week. Later he worked in an engine shop and set up steam engines used on farms. In 1884 he took charge of a farm his father gave him. He married and seemed settled down, but after two years he went back to Detroit and worked as night engineer for the Detroit Edison Company.

Ford built his first car in a little shed behind his home. It had a two-cylinder engine over the rear axle that developed four horsepower, a single seat fitted in a box like body, an electric bell for a horn, and a steering lever instead of a wheel. In 1899 Ford helped organize the Detroit Automobile Company, which built cars to order. Ford wanted to build in quantity at a price within the reach of many. His partners objected, and Ford withdrew.

In 1903 he organized the Ford Motor Company with only $28, 000 raised in cash. This money came from 11 other stockholders. One investor put just $2, 500 into Ford's venture (only $1, 000 of it in cash). He drew more than $5, 000, 000 in dividends, and he received more than $30, 000, 000 when he sold all of his holdings to Ford in 1919.

Early automobile manufacturers merely bought automobile parts and assembled the cars. Ford's objective was to make every part that went into his cars. He acquired iron and coal mines, forests, mills, and factories to produce and shape his steel and alloys, his fuel, wood, glass, and leather. He built railroad and steamship lines and an airplane freight service in order to transport his products.

Mass production was Ford's main idea, and he replaced men with machines wherever possible. Each man was given only one task, which he did repeatedly until it became automatic. Conveyors brought the job to the man instead of having the man waste time going to the job. To cut shipping costs, parts were shipped from the main plants in the Detroit area and assembled into cars at branch plants.

Ford also won fame as a philanthropist and pacifist. He established an eight-hour day, a minimum wage of $5 daily, and a five-day week. He built a hospital in Detroit with fixed rates for service and physicians and nurses on salary. He created the Edison Institute, which includes Greenfield Village and the Edison Institute Museum and trade schools. Independence Hall, Thomas Edison's early laboratory, and other famous old buildings were reproduced in the village, which is open to the public. During World War I Ford headed a party of pacifists to Norway in a failed attempt to end the war, but during both World War I and World War II his company was a major producer of war materials.

In 1945 Ford yielded the presidency of the company to his 28-year-old grandson, Henry Ford II. Ford died on April 7, 1947, at the age of 83. Most of his personal estate, valued at about $205, 000, 000, was left to the Ford Foundation, one of the world's largest public trusts.

Exercise № 69. Read the text about Henry Ford once again and answer the questions below.

1. What other famous American people lived at the time of Henry Ford? What had they invented and how it influenced on the United States as a whole?

2. When do you think Henry Ford started his business activities?

3. Why do we call Henry Ford a philanthropist and pacifist?

4. What was the main idea of Henry Ford?

5. When did he found the Ford Motor Company?

6. What do you think is the Ford Motor Company?

7. What other famous Americans do you know and how they influenced on American economic development?

Exercise № 70. Write out the following paragraph, adding connectives to make chronological development clearer.

When the radio reported that the hurricane was about to reach us, we sprang into action. We bought all the garden furniture inside the house. We looked in the yard for our two dogs and let them in. Alan drove the automobile into the garage, and Paul closed all the storm windows of the house. The sky was growing darker. The trees were beginning to toss in the wind. My sister wanted to run next door and ask her friend Janet to stay with us. Dad said that we had to remain inside. I was growing more and more excited, for I had ever seen a hurricane before. We heard a rattling and a crash outside. The hurricane broke with full force.

Exercise № 71. Word game.

For each pair of words below give another word which has the same meaning as both words.

Example: volume/reserve book

1. not left/correct

2. busy/to be married

3. expensive/beloved

4. secure/strong-box

5. write name/notice