This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

CHAPTER XII

LEARNING ABOUT ELECTRICITY

Forty-five dollars a month and a twelve-hour-a-day job—for these Henry Ford had traded his big, pleasant home, with its assured comfort and plenty, and his place as one of the most prosperous and respected men in Greenfield. The change would have been a calamity to most men.

Henry Ford was happy. The new job gave him a chance to work with machinery, an opportunity to learn all about electricity. His contentment, as he went whistling about his work after Gilbert left, would have seemed pure insanity to the average person. Forty-five dollars a month!

"You see, I never did bother much about money," he says. "My wages were enough for food and shelter, and that was all I wanted. Money matters always seemed to sort of take care of themselves, some way. It's always that way. If a man is working at something he likes, he's bound to work hard at it, and then the money comes. Worrying about money is about the worst thing a man can do—it takes his mind off his work."

His philosophy apparently justified itself.

In the months that followed sub-station A had