Henry Ford: Industry Icon (The good, the bad, and the ugly)

Undeterred, Ford continued to hone his vision of a car for the masses. Oldsmobile was already churning out the Curved Dash Olds, with a substantial public acceptance. Despite a record of business failures, Ford's record of successful vehicles continued to attract investors in an increasingly difficult climate-a climate ruled by a rapidly growing number of business failures in the young industry. A third company was launched. When founded, this new company was just one of 88 independent auto producers in the U.S. On the basis of Ford's strengths rather than his weaknesses, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated on June 16, 1903.

This company's first offering was called the Model A, and they produced over 1,700 of them in the first year and a half of production. In the first five years the company produced several models, and continued to show great sales figures. But this was nothing in comparison to what would be seen after 1908.

The Model T was introduced in October of 1908. In terms of price, durability, utility, and economy of operation and repair, it was unparalleled. Today it remains without parallel. Henry Ford, himself, gets credit for the idea, and he and his engineers worked together for three years to perfect the plan. The car sold initially for under $1,000, and over the course of its production run of 19 years, that price was reduced to a low of $345 in 1916. In that same year, the one-millionth Model T was sold, and Ford production reached 2,000 cars per day. In all, over 15 million Model T automobiles took to the street.

As early as 1913, the company could brag that it had a dealership in every town in the nation with a population of 2,000 or more. By 1921, Ford Motor Company dominated auto production with 55 percent of the industry's total output.

When production first began its meteoric rise, Ford's company attracted the attention of a trade group intent on monopolizing the industry, by exacting a license fee on all automobiles produced in America. The Selden patent story is remarkable in its own right, but Henry Ford's contribution to the defeat of this trade group was a significant component in Ford's personal rise to the spotlight of America's attention.

With the Selden patent infringement episode behind him, Ford was able to

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