The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Empire

In 1919, Henry Ford made a shocking decision to replace his son Edsel as president of the Ford Motor Company. This move was met with skepticism by shareholders, who had come to trust Edsel's leadership. They agreed to support Henry, but only if he could prove that he was committed to improving the company. Unbeknownst to them, Henry had no such plans. Instead, he sought to increase his own power and control over the company.

As it turned out, Henry's plan worked. The Ford Motor Company continued to thrive under his leadership, and Edsel soon realized that he had been tricked into becoming president without any real intention of taking on the role. Henry Leland, a former employee who had once worked for Ford but was later fired, took advantage of this situation by using some of Ford's designs in his own company, Lincoln Motor Company. When the war ended, Ford purchased Lincoln and fired Leland and his son from their positions.

Meanwhile, Edsel Petzl continued to develop new cars at Ford, including the Lincoln Zephyr and Continental. However, sales were dwindling, and other car manufacturers, such as Chevy, which was now part of General Motors, were eating into the Model T market. The Ford-Chvy rivalry began, with Chevy promoting a six-cylinder model that was priced lower than the Model A. The Model A, styled by Edsel, became a huge success, thanks in part to its safety glass windshield.

In 1927, Henry launched the Model A, which marked a significant turning point for Ford. The car's design was more fashionable and desirable than previous models, and it quickly regained market share. However, Henry knew that he needed to innovate again to stay ahead of the competition. He experimented with an eight-cylinder engine but ultimately failed.

Undeterred, Henry turned his attention to creating a low-price car with a V8 engine. The breakthrough came when he developed a single-block mold engine, which made it affordable for ordinary people. This innovation was a major success, and Ford cars became popular among American gangsters, including the notorious Bonnie and Clyde.

However, Henry's focus on profits came at the cost of worker relations. He refused to sign with labor unions, even after his wife Clara threatened to leave him unless he did so. When the government asked Ford to produce parts for the B-24 Liberator military aircraft during World War II, Henry responded with a counter proposal. The company began building complete airplanes at Willow Run in Michigan, achieving an impressive production rate of one plane every hour.

The war effort was a turning point for Ford, and Edsel's successor, Henry Ford II, served in the Navy during the conflict. However, when the war ended, Henry returned to the company management but struggled to keep up with changing times. His grandfather, Henry Ford Sr., refused to give control of the company to his grandson, leading to a power struggle.

In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt considered a government takeover of the company to ensure wartime production. However, this plan was never implemented. Two years later, in 1943, Henry Ford Sr. passed away, leaving behind a company that was still struggling to adapt to changing times. His grandson, Henry Ford II, eventually took over as president and set about reviving the company.

In his final days, Henry Ford realized too late the importance of innovation and change. The company he founded had produced more than 31 million vehicles and had impacted millions of lives around the world. His legacy would live on through his family and the companies that succeeded him.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwould it surprise you to know that Henry Ford is working on an electric car all the way back in 1914 how fast did it take forward to build the plane during the Second World War and how did Ford manage to bring out an affordable v8 car we'll answer these questions and more as we look at how Ford changed the world let's get moving 1914 is a busy year for Henry Ford his assembly line is rolling and his company is making hundreds of thousands of cars a year he buys his wife Clara an electric car it's a 1914 Detroit electric which she prefers to the Model T it runs 80 miles on a single charge and reaches a top speed of 20 miles an hour word spreads that Henry is looking at manufacturing an electric vehicle the New York Times reports he's building experimental electric cars other rumors report that he's bought an electricity generating plant in Niagara Falls my hometown specifically for the production of the edison ford power henry confirms these rumors saying that he and thomas edison you remember him the guy ran under the light bob had been working on an electric car that will be practical and affordable the problem is building a lightweight battery that can operate for long distances without recharging Edison tells automobile topics that the edison ford car is coming along it will sell between five hundred and seven hundred and fifty dollars edison believes eventually the electric car will be universally used everywhere well it turns out he's right it just takes a lot longer than he expected in fact at the turn of the century there are more electric cars and gas cars on the road in the United States forty percent of the cars are powered by steam 38 percent by electricity and only 22 percent by gasoline electric vehicles are better than gas-powered cars in many ways they don't vibrate or smell they don't make noise they also don't need a hand crank to start the engine but electric cars are much more expensive than gas cars by 1912 Edison has built three cops he drives one from Scotland to London he achieves top speeds of 25 miles an hour with 215 volt batteries and a 30 volt electric motor but it's cars twice as expensive as a gasoline car this is where Henry comes in he made gas Park cars affordable can he do the same with electric cars we'll never know because by 1914 the project falls apart some say it's because Henry insists on powering the car with Edison's nickel-iron batteries which are not suitable there are rumors that the oil cartels are involved these rumors are filled further when Edison's workshop in West Orange is destroyed by a fire the only outcome from the edison ford project seems to be his electric starter and electric lighting systems which are added to the Model T in 1919 let's fast-forward for a moment to 2020 this is year Ford is planning to have 10 to 25% of their fleet electric it takes over a hundred years for Henry and Edison's vision of a mainstream electric vehicle to materialize now back to 1917 America endures World War one Henry is a pacifist he even went on a peace mission to Europe two years prior to protest the war now he has commandeered to assist with production of vehicles for develops the 3-ton m1918 Ford tank the contract is to produce 10,000 of these lighter cheaper tanks they initially built 15 and 1a sent to France for testing it is found to be inferior to the Renault FTS cancelled one wonders how disappointed Henry is with all this he likes things to work but he disapproves of the war with Henry you never know after all a year later he tricks the Cheryl dish into selling their shares in the Ford Motor Company it is 1918 he makes a son Edsel president then he starts a new company called Henry Ford and son makes the big show or taking himself and his top people to the new company he offers to buy back the shareholder shares and Ford and company the shareholders agreed because they think their shares will decrease with Henry gone once they do they realize they've been tricked he never had any plans to start a new company he just wants complete control over the Ford Motor Company even a son who is not president doesn't get to make decisions Henry overturns those decisions he disagrees with now it's 1922 Henry gets revenge on Henry Leland for using his designs all those years ago the war has not been kind to Leland and Lincoln has gone bankrupt Henry purchases Lincoln and he has Leland and his son escorted out of the building it's not just revenge Ford needs a separate luxury division Hetzel came to develop cars more exciting the Model T and pushes his father into making cars that aren't just practical Petzl is responsible for Lincoln Zephyr and Lincoln Continental he introduces important features such as hydraulic brakes but by 1927 sales are dwindling other car manufacturers are eating into the Model T sales especially Chevy who's going after the Model T market the Chevy Ford rivalry begins Chevy now part of General Motors overtakes Ford and sales hen realises that Edsel is right a new design is necessary he shuts down the factory to tool up for the new model its 1927 and Ford releases the Model A it's styled by Edsel and is beautiful and fashionable it's the first car with safety glass in the windshield Ford retakes the lead two years later Chevy introduces a six cylinder model they promote the six cylinder model for the same price you pay for a four it's priced at five hundred and fifty five dollars to six hundred and seventy five dollars the Model A Ford costs from three hundred and eighty-five dollars to five hundred and fifty dollars the large and more powerful Chevy car is preferred by customers Henry think it's all over for four-cylinder cars he calls his twenty five is thirty six plants and lays off seventy five thousand men but he has a trick up his sleeve he's been experimenting with eight cylinders he tries an X 8 configuration but without success it's too heavy and fails repeatedly now he's secretly working on something else one year later he launches the first low price car with a v8 engine once again he brings innovation to the ordinary people the breakthrough occurs because he develops a single block mold engine up until now v8 engines have been made with multiple parts the v8 flathead makes it affordable it isn't just ordinary people who couldn't go faster the car is also favored amongst American gangsters in 1934 Ford receives a letter from or supposedly from Clyde Barrow endorsing the Ford v8 Clyde barrel of the notorious Bonnie and Clyde gang the next few years Ford is badly not only the competition but also the union's Henry doesn't believe in unions that's all attempts to reason with them eventually his wife Clara threatens to leave him if he doesn't sign with the unions he signs and gives workers better terms than both GM and Chrysler now it's 1941 it seems that America will enter World War two the government asks Ford to produce parts for the b-24 liberator military aircraft Ford goes back to the government with a counter proposal they will build complete airplanes in march construction starts on the Willow Run plan in Michigan by September they begin partial production next to the plant they construct an airport with six runways and three aircraft hangars the plan is formally dedicated on October 22nd 1941 45 days later Pearl Harbor is bound America enters the war that's all sets of gold producing one plane every hour they achieved that goal Edsel doesn't live to see the end of the war he dies from stomach cancer in 1943 it's just forty-nine years old his son henry ford ii is serving in the Navy and cannot take over the presidency of the Ford Motor Company so Henry reassumed the presidency buddy's aging inconsistent and suspicious and no longer fit for the task the company begins to decline President Franklin Roosevelt considers a government takeover to protect the wartime production but this doesn't happen Henry Ford the second leaves the Navy and joins the company management a few weeks later but his grandfather won't give them control eventually Henry's wife Clara puts pressure on them to let go sounds like my wife and add souls widow threatens the seller shares unless her son is given control finally two years in nineteen days after the war ends Henry Ford steps down Henry the second will have the task of turning the ailing company around twelve months later Henry Ford passes away by this time the company he founded us produced more than 31 million vehicles his cars have impacted the lives of millions around the world his innovations in the assembly line have impacted even more in the next video we'll look at the car model that is responsible for turning the company around plus two of the most iconic cars of all time the Thunderbird and the Mustang will ask why car makers named their models after horses and we'll see how improvements in these you youwould it surprise you to know that Henry Ford is working on an electric car all the way back in 1914 how fast did it take forward to build the plane during the Second World War and how did Ford manage to bring out an affordable v8 car we'll answer these questions and more as we look at how Ford changed the world let's get moving 1914 is a busy year for Henry Ford his assembly line is rolling and his company is making hundreds of thousands of cars a year he buys his wife Clara an electric car it's a 1914 Detroit electric which she prefers to the Model T it runs 80 miles on a single charge and reaches a top speed of 20 miles an hour word spreads that Henry is looking at manufacturing an electric vehicle the New York Times reports he's building experimental electric cars other rumors report that he's bought an electricity generating plant in Niagara Falls my hometown specifically for the production of the edison ford power henry confirms these rumors saying that he and thomas edison you remember him the guy ran under the light bob had been working on an electric car that will be practical and affordable the problem is building a lightweight battery that can operate for long distances without recharging Edison tells automobile topics that the edison ford car is coming along it will sell between five hundred and seven hundred and fifty dollars edison believes eventually the electric car will be universally used everywhere well it turns out he's right it just takes a lot longer than he expected in fact at the turn of the century there are more electric cars and gas cars on the road in the United States forty percent of the cars are powered by steam 38 percent by electricity and only 22 percent by gasoline electric vehicles are better than gas-powered cars in many ways they don't vibrate or smell they don't make noise they also don't need a hand crank to start the engine but electric cars are much more expensive than gas cars by 1912 Edison has built three cops he drives one from Scotland to London he achieves top speeds of 25 miles an hour with 215 volt batteries and a 30 volt electric motor but it's cars twice as expensive as a gasoline car this is where Henry comes in he made gas Park cars affordable can he do the same with electric cars we'll never know because by 1914 the project falls apart some say it's because Henry insists on powering the car with Edison's nickel-iron batteries which are not suitable there are rumors that the oil cartels are involved these rumors are filled further when Edison's workshop in West Orange is destroyed by a fire the only outcome from the edison ford project seems to be his electric starter and electric lighting systems which are added to the Model T in 1919 let's fast-forward for a moment to 2020 this is year Ford is planning to have 10 to 25% of their fleet electric it takes over a hundred years for Henry and Edison's vision of a mainstream electric vehicle to materialize now back to 1917 America endures World War one Henry is a pacifist he even went on a peace mission to Europe two years prior to protest the war now he has commandeered to assist with production of vehicles for develops the 3-ton m1918 Ford tank the contract is to produce 10,000 of these lighter cheaper tanks they initially built 15 and 1a sent to France for testing it is found to be inferior to the Renault FTS cancelled one wonders how disappointed Henry is with all this he likes things to work but he disapproves of the war with Henry you never know after all a year later he tricks the Cheryl dish into selling their shares in the Ford Motor Company it is 1918 he makes a son Edsel president then he starts a new company called Henry Ford and son makes the big show or taking himself and his top people to the new company he offers to buy back the shareholder shares and Ford and company the shareholders agreed because they think their shares will decrease with Henry gone once they do they realize they've been tricked he never had any plans to start a new company he just wants complete control over the Ford Motor Company even a son who is not president doesn't get to make decisions Henry overturns those decisions he disagrees with now it's 1922 Henry gets revenge on Henry Leland for using his designs all those years ago the war has not been kind to Leland and Lincoln has gone bankrupt Henry purchases Lincoln and he has Leland and his son escorted out of the building it's not just revenge Ford needs a separate luxury division Hetzel came to develop cars more exciting the Model T and pushes his father into making cars that aren't just practical Petzl is responsible for Lincoln Zephyr and Lincoln Continental he introduces important features such as hydraulic brakes but by 1927 sales are dwindling other car manufacturers are eating into the Model T sales especially Chevy who's going after the Model T market the Chevy Ford rivalry begins Chevy now part of General Motors overtakes Ford and sales hen realises that Edsel is right a new design is necessary he shuts down the factory to tool up for the new model its 1927 and Ford releases the Model A it's styled by Edsel and is beautiful and fashionable it's the first car with safety glass in the windshield Ford retakes the lead two years later Chevy introduces a six cylinder model they promote the six cylinder model for the same price you pay for a four it's priced at five hundred and fifty five dollars to six hundred and seventy five dollars the Model A Ford costs from three hundred and eighty-five dollars to five hundred and fifty dollars the large and more powerful Chevy car is preferred by customers Henry think it's all over for four-cylinder cars he calls his twenty five is thirty six plants and lays off seventy five thousand men but he has a trick up his sleeve he's been experimenting with eight cylinders he tries an X 8 configuration but without success it's too heavy and fails repeatedly now he's secretly working on something else one year later he launches the first low price car with a v8 engine once again he brings innovation to the ordinary people the breakthrough occurs because he develops a single block mold engine up until now v8 engines have been made with multiple parts the v8 flathead makes it affordable it isn't just ordinary people who couldn't go faster the car is also favored amongst American gangsters in 1934 Ford receives a letter from or supposedly from Clyde Barrow endorsing the Ford v8 Clyde barrel of the notorious Bonnie and Clyde gang the next few years Ford is badly not only the competition but also the union's Henry doesn't believe in unions that's all attempts to reason with them eventually his wife Clara threatens to leave him if he doesn't sign with the unions he signs and gives workers better terms than both GM and Chrysler now it's 1941 it seems that America will enter World War two the government asks Ford to produce parts for the b-24 liberator military aircraft Ford goes back to the government with a counter proposal they will build complete airplanes in march construction starts on the Willow Run plan in Michigan by September they begin partial production next to the plant they construct an airport with six runways and three aircraft hangars the plan is formally dedicated on October 22nd 1941 45 days later Pearl Harbor is bound America enters the war that's all sets of gold producing one plane every hour they achieved that goal Edsel doesn't live to see the end of the war he dies from stomach cancer in 1943 it's just forty-nine years old his son henry ford ii is serving in the Navy and cannot take over the presidency of the Ford Motor Company so Henry reassumed the presidency buddy's aging inconsistent and suspicious and no longer fit for the task the company begins to decline President Franklin Roosevelt considers a government takeover to protect the wartime production but this doesn't happen Henry Ford the second leaves the Navy and joins the company management a few weeks later but his grandfather won't give them control eventually Henry's wife Clara puts pressure on them to let go sounds like my wife and add souls widow threatens the seller shares unless her son is given control finally two years in nineteen days after the war ends Henry Ford steps down Henry the second will have the task of turning the ailing company around twelve months later Henry Ford passes away by this time the company he founded us produced more than 31 million vehicles his cars have impacted the lives of millions around the world his innovations in the assembly line have impacted even more in the next video we'll look at the car model that is responsible for turning the company around plus two of the most iconic cars of all time the Thunderbird and the Mustang will ask why car makers named their models after horses and we'll see how improvements in these you you\n"