|
12.11
Engineering Hall
of Fame: Henry Ford, Electrical Engineer
By Michael N.
Geselowitz, Ph.D., IEEE History Center
It is well known to readers of
Today’s Engineer that the automobile has
become, essentially, an IEEE technology. The
IEEE Vehicular
Technology Society has seen a
resurgence, and shortly IEEE will be
sponsoring its first
International Electric Vehicle Conference.
But the importance to cars of IEEE technologies
pre-dates and goes beyond the development of
all-electric or electric-internal combustion
hybrid cars. Electrical systems in cars go back
to
Charles Kettering’s
self-starter for Cadillac in 1913, and today
include a multitude of aspects, from GPS
navigation to electronic brake control systems.
Our readers are also aware—as is
the broader public—that Henry Ford did more than
any other individual to establish the modern
automobile industry and that, by perfecting mass
production, he transformed the American and,
ultimately, the world economy. But how many
people realize that Henry Ford was “one of
ours?” Of course, professional definitions were
more fluid in the 19th century than today, but
the case can be made that, despite his lack of
formal education, Henry Ford was an electrical
engineer prior to helping to invent the
profession of automotive engineer.
Henry Ford was born in 1863 in
southeastern Michigan,
near Detroit. In 1879 he was
apprenticed as a machinist in the city. He
became adept at servicing steam engines, and was
hired by Westinghouse to run steam engines for
their local power plant. This led, in 1891, to
Ford being hired as an engineer by the Edison
Illuminating Company. In this capacity, Ford
learned to service the full range of electrical
technologies, from generation to transmission
and application. So successful was he that in
1893 he was promoted to Chief Engineer.
Detroit was already becoming a
center for experimentation and innovation in
automobile technology. Ford felt that he wanted
to get involved in this very young field, and
his Edison position gave him the resources to
tinker. By 1896 he had produced a working
self-propelled vehicle that he dubbed the “Ford
Quadricycle.”
A key turning point happened
later that year. Once a year, the Edison
Illuminating Company brought together in New
York the managers and chief engineers from its
local branches around the country to discuss
business matters and to be given a pep talk by
Edison, the great man himself. Ford went to the
meeting, and at the main banquet, his manager
mentioned to Edison that Ford was inventing
automobiles in his spare time. Edison summoned
Ford to the head table and asked the younger man
about his experimentations. After listening,
Edison encouraged Ford to continue in this work
which Edison—with his usual foresight—suspected
would have great technological, economic and
social importance.
Ford returned to Detroit and, by
1898, had built an improved automobile. It so
impressed local investors that Ford was able to
resign from the Edison Illuminating Company and
found the Detroit Automobile Company. The rest
is, as they say, history of technology. Edison
might have been chagrinned that his advice had
cost him one of his best local engineers, but he
and Ford became and remained close friends, and
Ford always considered Edison to be his mentor,
just as did so many of the early members of the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the
predecessor to IEEE. And the story of Henry Ford
once again illustrates the importance of the
electrical engineer to society, even when you
least expect it. To learn more on Henry Ford,
and other figures from engineering’s past and
present, visit the
IEEE Global History
Network.
Michael N.
Geselowitz, Ph.D., is staff director at the IEEE
History Center at Rutgers University in New
Brunswick, N.J. Visit the IEEE History Center's
Web page at:
www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center.
Visit the IEEE History
Center's Web page at:
www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center.
home
|
