Edison Ford Wright Brothers And Bell Essay

, Research Paper

Hundreds of individuals have had a great impact on American society in the 20th century but only few are considered by my standards to be the most influential people of the 20th century. The five people I am about to list in the following paragraphs are what I have concluded to be the people who have made the biggest impression on American life in the 20th century. These men have contributed a great deal in making this century the progressive century it was and still is.

The first person I chose to place on my list is Henry Ford because of his many great accomplishments that change America forever. Henry grew up in Dearborn, MI and almost all his life he had an interest in engineering and mathematics. He had several jobs and opportunities as a young man; being a machinist’s apprentice at the age of 16, working as a mechanical engineer and working as the chief engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company. While Henry was working for the Edison company he spent most of his spare time tinkering with the construction of an automobile and in 1893 Henry’s first automobile was up and running. Then in 1903 Henry began his own company known as the Ford Motor Company. This company would become one of the top three car automobile producers in America and revolutionize the entire industry. By 1914 the company was showing great signs of progress and achievement. Henry began to use standardized interchangeable parts in his cars and he began to use the assembly-line approach in producing these cars. Although Henry was not the first to use these techniques he was certainly the most successful at it of his time. Also Ford was responsible the adoption of these practices into American industry and as a result raising the standard of living. Soon cars became affordable to almost everybody, which meant that they were no longer just toys used by the rich. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment Henry had ever made was the creation of the Ford Model-T. This was the first car to be put into wide production and sold at a reasonable price. The Model-T was first put into production in 1908 and up too 1927 over 15 million were produced and sold. In 1927, however, the Model-T was discontinued because the car market had changed and people wanted new models each year. The Ford Motor Company was late to realize this and it cost them dearly. They did adopt the yearly change over though and they regained some power but Ford will never regain the position it once had.

All these achievements led up to great influences on American society. To begin, since Henry made the automobile affordable, several million Americans were purchasing one each year. This meant that roads had to be developed to meet the demands of the automobilist wanting to travel. As automobile owners pushed for roads the Federal Government as well as local governments recognized the need and roads began to spring up all over the country. By the 1950’s highways that stretched from one end of the US to other were up and running as part of a new infrastructure that served the public in two ways. One, by providing fast routes to almost any where in the US with no stops and two, by providing a path which military supplies and troops could travel in case of a foreign attack. These roads not only connected Americans with the rest of their country, but also they inspired the suburbia movement as well as the construction of thousands of shopping malls. Ironically the first shopping mall, NorthLand was constructed not to far from the original ford plant in MI. Also, with Henry’s adaptation of the assembly line industry in the US became infinitely more efficient. Henry Ford taught American industry how to assemble and create products with less time and less money, making the end product cheaper to the consumer. Henry did not invent the assembly line he was just the first person to use it in such a constructive manner. This change America because even today the assembly line is used as the most cost efficient and effective way to build products such as cars, planes and several other industrial items. This lowers the cost of the product and makes it available to a wide range of economic classes. Moving on, Henry’s invention of the automobile started one of the largest industries in America, the production of cars. This industry alone supplies millions of Americans with jobs today, especially here in Detroit. Along with the factories that produced cars other businesses began to spring up as a result of the automobile. Some of these businesses include gas stations, repair shops and car washes. Henry Ford, in my opinion is the most influential man on America in the 20th century due to his monstrous achievements listed above.

The next persons I put on my list of the top five influential people in the US during the 20th century are the Wright Brothers, Wilbur and Orville. They were born in Millville, Indiana where they both built mechanical toys as children. In later years the boys built a large printing press and published the Dayton, Ohio West Side News, Orville ran the paper and Wilbur edited it. After being successful printers the two boys opened up a bicycle repair shop and showroom. It was here that the Wright Brothers became interested in the idea of flight and they enjoyed reading the works of Otto Lilienthal and Octave Chanute, both of whom experimented with gliders and flight. After studying the work of these two men Or