prentice. After a decade of toil and advance, he was promoted to Chief Engineer of the Edison Illuminating Company, “At twenty-four, Ford married Clara Bryant, a friend of his sister’s; he called her ‘The Believer,’ because she encouraged his plans to build a horseless carriage from their earliest days together” (Model T 1).
Ford was in charge of the steam engines and turbines that manufactured electricity for Detroit Edison. While he worked during the 1880s, men like Karl Benz and Charles and Frank Duryea were successfully applying prototype gas-fueled engines to smaller passenger vehicles. By 1893, the Duryea’s had built the first gas-operated vehicle in the United States. Like the beginnings of the computer era in the U.S. when any electronics buff with a garage and electronic parts had a chance to become a titan in the computer industry, so in the late 1800s, any mechanic with some tools and a workbench had the potential to become a titan in the new automobile industry. Ford toiled to create a prototype internal combustion engine and vehicle and did so by 1896. He was encouraged to continue his endeavor by his idol, Thomas Edison who ironically cautioned him against trying to design a feasible electric vehicle. Most cars were being imported from Europe at this point in U.S. history, but Ford was asked to become part owner and executive of the Detroit Automobile Co., when a bicycle slump forced that industry to turn to automobile manufacture in an effort to survive economically. The company would fail, but Ford continued to pursue his dream. Through designing cars to compete in auto racing, Ford attracted the attention of potential automobile manufacturing investors, “Because of the victory, the coal merchant Alexander Malcomson agreed to back Ford in a new business venture. In 1903, they formed the Ford Motor Company, in association with about a dozen other investors. Capitalized at $100,000, the company...