A chance meeting with an old co-worker led to a job for Henry as an engineer at the Edison Detroit Electricity Company, the leading force in another new industry. Power stations were being built and cables being laid in all of the United States’ major cities; the age of electricity had dawned. But although Henry quickly learned the ropes of his new job— so quickly that within four years he was chief engineer at the Detroit power plant — his interest in fuel engines had come to dominate his life. At first in the kitchen of his and Clara’s home, and later in a shed at the back of their house, he spent his spare time in the evenings trying to build an engine to his own design.

Meanwhile, Henry’s domestic responsibilities had increased. In November 1893, Clara gave birth to their first and only child, Edsel.

 Henry learned the hard way what a slow, painstaking business it was to build an engine by hand from scratch. Every piece of every component had to be fashioned individually, checked and rechecked, and tested. Every problem had to be worried over and solved by the builder. To ease the burden, Henry joined forces with another mechanic, Jim Bishop, Even so, it was two years before they had succeeded in building a working car. It was an ungainly-looking vehicle, mounted on bicycle wheels and driven by a rubber belt that connected the engine to the rear wheels. Henry called it the “Quadricycle”.  

亨利·福特虽然生长在偏远的密执安农场，但他对农事知之甚少——他很早便显露出新一代美国人的特点，比起农业的过去来，他们对工业的未来更感兴趣。他的父亲威廉姆，如同大多数早期的农场主一样，希望长子能随他务农，扩展农场并继承他的衣钵。而亨利令他感到失望。他厌恶农活并想方设法予以逃避。这并不是说他懒惰。绝对不是。倘若让他干点儿机械活，从修门的合叶到磨农具，他都干劲。使他感到沮丧的是农场的日常生活和单调重复和劳动。后来他在回忆他的这段农庄生活时写道：“一个人整天跟在一群慢腾腾的马后，这是多么大的浪费呀。”

亨利对技术发展可能开创的未来兴奋不已，这能使像他父亲一样的农夫从费时和枯燥的辛劳中解脱出来。但在亨利的童年，这些发展几乎根本触及不到农业，而农民们一直延续着由来已久的务农方式。收益低、变化无常的天气和农民们对改变现状的本能抵制都妨碍农民们（早富有和最有远见者除外）充分利用新型机械。

因此亨利将注意力专向其它方面。当他十二岁时就对钟表异常着迷。与在此前后的大多数孩子一样，他痴迷于探查计时器的工作方式及观察棘轮、车轮、弹簧和钟摆的运动。不久他就能在卧室里自己做的长凳上给朋友们修理钟表了。liuxuepaper.com