Some gloomsters are e en whispering what pre iously was unthinkable

Imagining ord as a messianic igure, the book is set in the 26th century, in a year designated 634 A - A ter ord. His twin inno ations - in 1913 and 1914 - were the mo ing assembly line and the minimum wage or employees. Assembly line production cut the time it took to produce a Model T rom 13 hours to three and allowed him to reduce the cost. Then, by doubling his employees wages to $5 an hour, he ga e them the wealth to buy the cars they were making. It was only because an employee on the arm mounted a threshing machine engine on wheels, that ord trans erred his obsession or taking things apart to the de elopment o "horseless carriages". He built his irst motorised ehicle, a "quadricycle", in 1896 and began to dream o an America where e eryone tra elled by motor ehicle.During the ollowing 40 years, he helped make that ision o a consumer society a reality, and in the process became one o the richest, amous, and most amously eccentric, people in the world.

Henry ord actually irst demonstrated his considerable engineering prowess by tinkering with watches, becoming in his teenage years a de t repairer o broken timepieces or neighbours and relati es.The son o Irish immigrants, he grew up on a arm in Dearborn, Michigan, where the motor company is still based today. I history had shi ted slightly sideways, we might all be wearing a ord rather than dri ing one. Period."Bill ord's decision this week to stand down rom day-to-day running brings down the curtain on our generations o amily leadership that stretch back to the day in 1903 when Henry ord incorporated ord Motor Company with $28,000 raised rom 11 in estors. Indeed, riends ha e con ided that he appears tortured by the ear that he will be the scion to destroy the amily irm He said: "The ord amily wants the company to succeed. The company which began the lo e a air with the car, and was one o the ew big names to ha e sur i ed the Depression, may be headed or bankruptcy unless it can dramatically shi t gears. inally, ord's great-grandson, William Clay ord Jr, has admitted that the best way to protect the amily's $8bn heritage is to step aside rom it.

"I ha e a lot o mysel in ested in this company, but not my ego," he said recently. But it is also one that the extraordinary corporate dynasty he ounded has o ten ignored. A re erential approach to the memory o Henry ord, and the myths and quotes associated with the ounder, and an insistence on amily control, ha e le t ord stuck in the past, o ertaken by ni tier ri als and burdened with huge debts. Some gloomsters are e en whispering what pre iously was unthinkable. The judge wrote that the musician's battle to stay was "testimony to his aith in the American dream".. History is "more or less bunk.