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Men in hats and work outfit stand in a Ford assembly line assembling parts of a wheel. They are surrounded by machinery and tubs of parts.
A black and white photograph of a Ford assembly line (1913).

Henry Ford establishes the assembly line for the production of automobiles.

1913

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A black and white photograph of a Ford assembly line (1913).

Ford describes the assembly line as a return to Anglo-Saxon/English cultural ways, which he sees as clean, ordered, and "civilized." Ford will influence hospital design, and in later years, Adolf Hitler will draw on Ford's ideas to develop the "labor" component of concentration camps.