Henry Ford was born in 1863 on a farm in rural Michigan, near Detroit. From an early age, he expressed an interest in mechanical devices. He was given a pocket watch at the age of 15, and he developed a reputation for being an experienced watchmaker. Henry Ford was an industrialist who changed the face of automobile manufacture in America, becoming the epitome of American Capitalism. He lent his name to ‘Fordism’ – efficient mass production.