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June 16, 2003
This is a great milestone The 10 most significant stories Stories 1 to 25 Stories 26 to 50 Stories 51 to 75 Stories 76 to 100 Introduction to Ford 100It is rare for any company to reach its 100th anniversary. Ford Motor Co.'s 100th anniversary matters to its employees, its shareholders, its dealers and everyone else in the automobile industry. View story By KEITH CRAIN Publisher and Editorial Director The Ford difference: It's personal More than any other auto company, Ford Motor Co. is an outsized person - a glamorous uncle who has made, lost and regained millions, who is generous if sometimes reckless, who learns from his mistakes. View story By PETER BROWN Executive Editor |
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Stories 1 - 25
The children of Edsel and Eleanor Ford, and their children. View story 1.Driving a dream It didn’t look like much: a primitive two-cylinder engine, a flywheel, four bicycle wheels and a bare-bones frame. Yet Henry Ford’s 1896 Quadricycle, put together in a Detroit coal shed seven years before the birth of Ford Motor Co., had one feature none of the vehicles of its time could match: a creator with the talent, vision and obsession to put the nation on wheels. View story 2.Race gave Ford a second chance Ford racing, indeed Ford Motor Co. itself, began life one Thursday afternoon in the fall of 1901 at a one-mile dirt oval on Detroit’s east side. View story Edsel Ford II seeks missing punch bowl Jim Burke Ford of Bakersfield, Calif., has issued an all-points bulletin on Henry Ford’s missing punch bowl set. The reward for returning it is a 2003 Ford Expedition. View story 3.Ford forges dealership network There are more than 4,500 Ford Motor Co. dealerships in the United States. A century ago, that number was one. The owner of that lone dealership was William Hughson, a West Coast transplant who met Henry Ford in 1902 at a bicycle show. View story  4.In the beginning, prospects were dimOn June 16, Henry Ford and 11 other investors signed the articles of incorporation with the state of Michigan for Ford Motor Co. View story 5.Ford takes control of his company The rift between Henry Ford and Alex Malcomson had become a fissure by late 1905, and the shouting and table pounding in the boardroom could be heard by eavesdropping clerks. View story   6.Tin Lizzie is bornIn a 12-by-18-foot corner on the third floor of Ford Motor Co.'s Piquette Avenue factory in Detroit, the plans to put the world on wheels were set in motion early in the 20th century. View story Driving the T keeps a novice busy Imagine never having driven a car before. Your only mode of transportation has been a horse and buggy. That's what a Ford consultant coaches me to do as we approach the shiny Ford Model T on the test track. View story Replicas: History plus modern touches Four years ago, two men - an antique car broker and a Ford engineer - set out to replicate one of the world's most famous cars: the 1914 Model T. View story 7.Dreamer, schemer couldn't agree They call Henry Ford a wheeler-dealer. But Billy Durant took the cake on wheeling and dealing. View story 8.Landmark patent case broke Selden's lock on auto industry If George Baldwin Selden had been as good at building an automobile as he was at crafting a patent, he might have become a true automotive pioneer. View story 9.Ford's global expansion ensured a long life Individuals in other countries had faith in Ford, and with their help, Ford spread rapidly over oceans and across continents, bringing the era of the automobile everywhere. View story 10.Ford, Chevy battle yearly in The Great Race The Great Race began in 1912. It's still going on, and it will continue as long as Fords and Chevrolets are built. It begins on Jan. 1 each year, and it winds up the following Dec. 31. It's the race for sales - the race for bragging rights. View story  11.When Ford wanted more, faster, cheaper, the assembly line began to move How clever the world feels today when it talks about its accomplishments in the fields of manufacturing and industrial design: efficiency, cost reduction, innovation, automation, worker incentive, job-time reduction, kaizen. Yet Henry Ford was doing it all a century ago.
View story12.Model T had many shades; black dried fastest You've heard the phrase umpteen times: "You can have any color as long as it's black." It's one of the most famous quotes attributed to Henry Ford, about his Model T. Too bad it's not true. View story  13.Henry’s $5 day stunned the worldWhat can you buy for $5 these days? Two gallons of milk and a loaf of bread? Maybe -- if they're on sale. A movie ticket? Good luck. Five bucks was a lot of money 89 years ago. View story 14.Fit for $5 a day? The company will decide How do you plan to spend your paycheck? Are you going to church? Is your house clean? It's hard to imagine employers asking such questions today. But it was standard procedure at Ford Motor Co. in 1914. View story 15.What was true then is true now: There's no sales bait like a rebate We said it 20 years ago, and it's worth saying again: "If you want to move merchandise, then a proven effective way is the good old price reduction." The first rebate program was initiated by Henry Ford on his Model T. View story  16.Noble cause becomes a farce In the grim history of warfare, World War I stands out for its use of modern weaponry to elevate the level of death and suffering. Henry Ford recoiled at the senseless slaughter. But his attempt to stop it quickly turned to farce. View story Strong currents of nationalism led to rough seas for Ford's Peace Ship Henry Ford's efforts to bring about a negotiated peace ran counter to strong nationalism among Americans and their future allies in Britain and France. View story 17.Trucks were a 'gift' from Ford customers Ford Motor Co. produced its first truck, the Model TT, on July 27, 1917. If the Model T was "the people's car," the Model TT was, almost literally, "the people's truck." View story   18.The mighty Rouge transforms America's industrial landscapeThe scale of the Rouge plant, its design (by noted architect Albert Kahn) and the ideas it embodied transformed the industrial landscape. View story 19.Henry was angry; partners had to get out Henry Ford was shocked when minority shareholders John and Horace Dodge sued in 1916, claiming that Henry Ford had cheated shareholders of potential income by pricing cars too low. View story Couzens was the biggest winner James Couzens was the last of the original Ford shareholders to sell his shares to Henry Ford. He received the biggest check. View story 20.Henry stamped his genius on more than automobiles Henry Ford, the genius of yesterday, is so much the man of today that his ideas are still printed on milk cartons in grocery stores. Not ideas about cars. Ideas about soybeans. View story Henry's vivid imagination led him to many fields A look at some of Henry Ford's far-ranging interests, from Beyond the Model T by Ford R. Bryan. View story 21.Views on Jews leave stain on Ford legacy By today's standards, Henry Ford surely would have been pilloried and left to burn in the seventh circle of public relations hell. View story Henry Ford -- warts and all Being one of the greatest visionaries of the industrial age did little to cover Henry Ford's quirky personal ideas and habits. Some of them were charming. Some of them weren't. View story 22.Ford founder mingled with the mighty Henry Ford was recognized around the world as one of the men -- like his good friend Thomas Edison -- who in a profound sense was transforming the nature of modern life. So it's not unusual that he rubbed elbows with some of the greatest industrialists, inventors and celebrities of his time. View story Q&A: PR exec watched history unfold Although he was always in the background, Stan Drall had a ringside seat to watch the people and events that made history at Ford Motor Co. for 53 years. Drall reminisced about his career with Dale Jewett. View story 23.Lincoln brought Ford sweet revenge - and a long line of luxury cars There was little love lost between Henry Ford and Henry Leland. So it may have seemed strange when Ford rescued Leland's Lincoln Automobile Co. Or maybe not. View story 24.Only 6 makes have hit Magic Million mark The skeptics were shocked and not at all pleased when, in 1916, the infant auto industry chalked up 1 million car sales for the first time. By 1923, Ford became the first automaker to sell a million. View story 25.Not just wheels, but wings Henry Ford made the automobile a mass-market product that transformed the world. He also had a profound effect on air travel. View story Ford backs re-creation of first Wright flight Ford Motor Co. has been the lead sponsor of a three-year, $6 million effort to re-enact the first flight of Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Experimental Aircraft Association of Oshkosh, Wis., organized the effort. View story |
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| Ford 100 stories 1-25 |
Ford 100 stories 26-50 |
Ford 100 stories 51-75 |
Ford 100 stories 76-100 |
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