The film, The Men Who Built America, demonstrates how five excellent innovators engaged in the betterment of America with their invention skills. The five characters that the film concentrates on for dissimilar industrial involvements encompass Henry Ford, John Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie. The character of Henry Ford in the film is evident after 1896. It is during this time that President Theodore Roosevelt disbanded the extent monopolies that had gained his predecessor’s support.
William McKinley had suffered assassination in 1901. Henry Ford, an engineer, devised an automobile before venturing into the automobile trade. The rest of the group had ventured into other sectors such as transport, petroleum, steel, and electric power. The film ends with a section where Henry is extending his automobile firm and setting a good example for other businesses.
Andrew Carnegie was Scottish by birth. He became an American Industrialist by choice. He worked for the railroad and made a couple of investments. He later sold the steel company he had started to a banker. The sale made him approximately half a million richer. He became one of the world’s richest men and devoted his wealth to philanthropy work.
John Pierpont Morgan was a powerful banker who helped to reorganize the U.S steel industry, General Electric, and other major corporations. John, together with a fellow banker, formed the J.P. Morgan Company. It would become the predecessor of the current financial giant, JP Morgan Chase. He used his influence to help stabilize American financial markets during various economic crises in the 19th and 20th centuries.
John Davison Rockefeller started investing in the lucrative oil business in the year 1863. Several years later, he started his company, Standard Oil. Towards the end of the 19th century, he had gained over three-quarters of the refineries and pipelines in the US. He became one of the greatest philanthropists. His donations brought about major changes in the world.
Henry Ford plays a major role in the film because of his astounding work in the automobile industry. As a teenager, he was showing doing things that made him look unique. For instance, he dismantled a watch and managed to reassemble it. He also did this with his friends’ and neighbors’ watches. They nicknamed him the repairperson. Such zeal in engineering is apparent through the progression of the film.
Henry, along with his colleague trailblazers, saved America from a dwindling political situation. It was after the civil war. He helped it to become a triumphant entrepreneurial country. The undertakings of Henry are dissimilar from that of the others. He got into the trade at a time when the nation was facing out monopoly. Even though Henry encountered some difficulties while seeking the registration of the firm, he later found a way of campaigning for a free market in the automobile industry.
Henry had a vision for a secure and inexpensive mode of transport for the people of America. He dedicated all his efforts to the experimentation and research. His zeal was to engineer the most viable transportation means for the middle class and low-income individuals in America. Being an engineer, Henry designed and experimented on his initial automobile, the Ford Quadricycle, in 1893 at Edison Illuminating Company. Attributable to the motivation from his employers and his determination to offer a cheap way of transport for the Americans, he designed another automobile in 1898.
In 1899, Henry joined Detroit Automobile Company. He left because the types of automobiles the company concentrated on were very expensive and that could have hindered him from actualizing his dream. The market policies of that time permitted a free market where any trader or customer could enter and leave at will. Henry ventured into the automobile sector fully in 1901. He joined hands with some stakeholders from Detroit Automobile Company to form the Henry Ford Company. From 1903 to 1908, Henry Ford Company designed nine dissimilar models of automobiles, where model N emerged as the most suitable of all. It led to the designing of Model T, also called Tin Lizzie.
In the final section of the film, Henry made the most reasonably priced vehicle and founded the Ford Motor Company. The automobile gained the market very fast due to its low price and good design. The market for the Tin Lizzie had expanded considerably by 1918. His target market was the middle-class residents of America, and he did everything possible to reduce the production prices of the automobile such as having his assembly line. Attributable to the great demand for Model T, the vehicle assembly line of Henry turned into the initial moving assembly in the United States. Ford’s assembly line generated many employment opportunities for the Americans and even more than doubled the existing compensation for the workers.
The plan attracted and maintained highly skilled labor. The creation of more jobs contributed constructively to the national revenue. The actualization of Henry’s ideas played a key role in boosting the Gross Domestic Product of the United States. Henry’s industrial ideas helped American citizens to pay taxes, decreased the nation’s overdependence, and improved the living conditions of the residents.
The Model T became the most influential automobile across the globe in the twentieth century because of its availability and low-cost. The triumph of Ford in the transport industry was due to his approach to business. He encouraged competition among automobile businesses. It resulted in Ford being the most conspicuous of all players in the sector. In the starting sections of the film, there are other innovators seen doing everything within their means to predominate the sector. It is evident when some of the businesspersons finance the presidential campaigns to benefit from monopoly trade. While working in other automobile businesses, Ford had not been pleased with the way his partners and employers targeted high profits irrespective of the orders they could receive. His zeal for innovation enabled him to resign and form his company.
America had a great demand for electric power, steel, petroleum products, and employment opportunities. The rates of production in every sector improved and innovative methods of production improved after Ford set the trend for them. To American citizens, transportation was no longer a problem since Ford offered the most excellent and affordable automobiles. Their endeavors cut across every sector. Ford became a great builder of America since transportation is a major aspect of development for any nation.
The affordability of automobiles offered American citizens ease in traveling, transporting their products, and carrying out businesses. Ford generated job opportunities for many American citizens in his company. He solved a great problem of movement and transportation for the American residents as portrayed in the film since transportation greatly aids development. The inspiration for the efforts of the five innovators has made America the present superpower. The lesson learned is that it is not merely the responsibility of the government to develop a nation as the efforts and determinations of the citizenry have greater reaching positive impacts. Building America was possible because of the efforts of the five innovators.