New Delhi, April 8 -- Henry Ford was born in Michigan in 1863, left his family farm as a teenager to work in Detroit machine shops, and later became chief engineer at Edison Illuminating Company.

In 1903, he founded Ford Motor Company, and his major turning point came with the Model T and the production system that made automobiles dramatically cheaper and more accessible to the middle class. Britannica notes that Ford's assembly-line methods cut chassis assembly time from 12.5 man-hours to 93 man-minutes by 1914, helping make the car a mass-market product rather than a luxury item.

Ford grew up on a Michigan farm but had little interest in agriculture, preferring mechanical work from a young age. He never pursued higher education; inst...