Force

1939

Ford

is the force \vhich, acting on one gram fur one
second, will generate a velocity of one centi-
meter a second. See Dynamics: Kinetics,

Force Bill, a name popularly applied to
a bill passed by the United States Congress
for the purpose of enforcing the revenue laws,
The name is also applied to the act to en-
force the Fifteenth Amendment and others.

Forceps, a term used to designate a two-
bladed instrument of joined metal with which
objects are grasped. The principal applica-
tion of forceps is in surgery and dentistry.

Small forceps are in constant use by watch-1
makers and jewelers for placing minute por-!
tions of their work in position, and an instru-'
ment of the same class is invaluable to the j
chemist and mineralogist. j

Forcible Entry and Detainer, the of- ;
fence of unlawfully entering upon or retain- j
ing possession of real property by means of!
force or threats of violence. Under the statutes :
of practically all the States of the United!
States forcible entry upon land by one out of j
possession is prohibited as a breach of the
peace, and is a criminal offence.

Ford, Edsel Bryant (1893-1943), U. S.
industrial leader, son of Henry Ford, was
born in Detroit; was Vice-President of the
Ford Company in 1917; President in 1919.
The plant produced huge amounts of war
materials in World Wars I-II, under his
supervision. He was a noted patron of art.
Ford, Henry (1863- ), American au-
tomobile manufacturer, the son of an Irish
immigrant, born on a Michigan farm, who
became the principal individual personality
of the world's industrial civilization, one of
the richest of men in an era of giant fortunes,
and the archetypal figure of mass production.
He left school at 16 to learn the machinist
trade, became a stationary engineer and in
the early nineties was attracted by the idea
of the 'horseless carriage.' He made one, a
two-cylinder affair which annoyed his De-
troit neighbors. But, as he expressed it, *the
darn thing ran.' It was the forerunner of
millions of cheap automobiles which thronged
the continents twenty years later.

Early in his career, Ford conceived the idea
of producing a standardized car at a price low
enough to attract the vast purchasing power
of America's middle classes. The notion cap-
tured his generation and to meet the demand
for his famous model-T (planetary transmis-
sion) his factories mushroomed into enormous
proportions in the decade 1910-20. At the
outset, his partners in the Ford Motor Com-
pany included James Couzens (later U. S.

Senator1, Horace- E. Doduc. John F. Dod;:e
and John S. Gray. Years afterward. Ford
bought back their original £100 shares at
fabulous prices, leaving him and his son,
Edsel (1804-194.}», sole owners of the billion
dollar enterprise.

The parent Ford plant on the River Rouge,
Detroit, and other assemb3incr plants in the
U. S., Canada and England, developed the
movincr-belt process of mass production by

Henry Ford.
which all the operations of car fabrication
were effected along a single belt system until
the finished automobile rolled down an in-
cline ready to be driven away.
At its peak, his industry employed 200,000
or more men. He pioneered a $5 a day mini-
mum wage (1914), later raising the rate to
$7. Meanwhile, he developed a profit-shar-
ing plan.
Besides making automobiles, Ford was a
pioneer in commercial aviation, developing
airplanes and landing fields.
Ford, Henry, II (1918- ), son of Edsel
Ford and grandson of Henry Ford, was born
in Detroit. In 1943 he became President of
the Ford Motor Co.
Ford, Henry Jones (1851-1925), Ameri-
can journalist. Editor of a number of daily
newspapers; lecturer on political science at