He had experience with equipment when he was younger

Henry Ford was born on a farm in Springwells Township, Michigan, on July 30, 1863. His father, William Ford (1826-1905), was from a family that left Somerset, England in the 16th century and was born in County Cork, Ireland. His mother, Mary Ford (née Litogot; 1839–1876), was adopted by neighbors, the O'Herns after her parents passed away when she was a little kid. She was born in Michigan as the youngest child of Belgian immigrants. Margaret Ford (1867–1938), Jane Ford (about 1868–1945), William Ford (1871–1917), and Robert Ford (1873–1934) were Henry Ford's siblings. Ford completed the eighth grade at Springwells Middle School, a one-room school. He didn't go to high school but took an accounting course at a business college. When he was 12 years old, his father handed him a pocket watch. Ford began disassembling and reassembling friends' and neighbors' watches when he was 15 years old, earning him the title of a watch repairman.

Ford claimed that in 1875 when he was 12 years old, two important incidents happened. He was given the watch and saw a Nichols and Shepard road engine in action, which he described as "the first vehicle I had ever seen that wasn't horse-drawn." Ford created a "steam wagon or tractor" and a steam automobile in his farm workshop, but he felt that "steam was not ideal for light vehicles" because "the boiler was unsafe." Ford said that he "could not see the value of experimenting with electricity" owing to the high cost of trolley wires and the lack of any storage batteries that could hold a meaningful amount of weight.