Ford grew up on a rural un-electrified farm, and as a young man he followed Edison’s meteoric career as the inventor rose to become a national icon.1 Edison was Ford’s role model and as a young man Ford took a job at the Edison Illuminating Company working his way up to chief engineer.
In 1896 Ford was thirty-three and, though still working for Edison Co., had created his first experimental automobile the Ford Quadricycle2 during his off-time. At an Edison company party in New York Ford had his first chance to meet his hero Edison, and even able to explain his new automobile to the prolific3 inventor. Edison was impressed. Edison is said to have slammed his fist down and shouted “Young man, that’s the thing! You have it! Your car is self-contained and carries its own power plant.”4 Edison himself had been working on the idea, but had only been considering electricity as the power source, so the idea of a gas engine was a new and somewhat novel5 one.
The words comforted Ford tremendously, who immediately set out building a second prototype which was to become the Model-T.6 The two men became fast friends and would go on camping trips together along with naturalist John Burroughs, botanist Luther Burbank, creator of the Russet Burbank Potato, Harvey Firestone of Firestone tires and occasionally, President Harding.7
When Edison became confined to a wheelchair, Ford brought an extra one to his estate so they could race.8 At a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the lightbulb, Ford honored Edison.9 When Edison spoke he ended his speech directed at Ford: “As to Henry Ford, words are inadequate10 to express my feelings. I can only say that in the fullest meaning of the term, he is my friend.” Therefore it is no surprise that Ford wanted something to remember Edison by after he passed away11 in 1931.
As the legend goes, Ford asked Thomas Edison’s son Charles to sit by the dying inventor’s bedside and hold a test tube12 next to his father’s mouth to catch his final breath. Ford was a man with many eccentricities (as was Edison) including some interest in reanimation and spiritualism,13 and some say that he was attempting to capture Edison’s soul as it escaped his body in hopes of later reanimating the inventor.