The name Henry Ford is synonymous with the automobile and the automobile is synonymous with Detroit. Yet Henry Ford neither invented the automobile nor built his cars in Detroit.

Henry Ford was born on the family farm in Dearborn, Michigan, a town eight miles west of Detroit, on July 30, 1863. It was in Dearborn that Henry Ford set up his manufacturing complex and built the cars that carried his name, making `Ford' a household word the world over.

Ford was ever the tinkerer; while still a young man, he built his own steam engine, coupled it to an old mowing machine and built his own tractor. While working for the Detroit Edison Company , he built several gasoline-powered carriages in his home workshop, selling them to finance his next " horseless carriage." In 1899, he formed the Detroit Automobile Company, which was later renamed the Henry Ford Company. He left the Henry...