He spent his winter evenings reading mechanical and scientific journals; he cared little for general literature, but machinery in any form was almost a pathological obsession.

Some boys run away from the farm to join the circus or to go to sea; Henry Ford at the age of sixteen ran away to get a job in a machine shop.

Here one anomaly immediately impressed him.

No two machines were made exactly alike; each was regarded as a separate job.

With his savings from his weekly wage of $2.50, young Ford purchased a three dollar watch, and immediately dissected it.