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Carver, Ford, Soyabeans……..

 

 


Dear Friends,

Today’s post is about lifelong friendship of two distinguished Americans, George Washington Carver and Henry Ford with different background. This friendship is an interesting example of long-term benefits for the entire society.

G W Carver, born in 1864 was raised as a slave’s kid on the farm of his mother’s former master Moses Carver. Carver developed a keen interest in plants, in the surrounding woods. Eventually he became the only African American with an advanced degree in scientific agriculture at that time.

Henry Ford, on the other hand, was born on his father’s farm in 1863. While studying, Ford used to build water wheels and steam engines. Eventually Ford became an Industrialist and founded “Ford Motor Company”.

In 1937, Carver and Ford met at a meeting of pioneers in the chemurgy movement, a branch of applied chemistry for industrial products from agricultural raw materials. This meeting was the start of a lifelong friendship. Those days no white industrialist would ever think of associating with a black man, but Ford didn’t care. 

During that period, due to lack of knowhow, color pigment could not be evenly mixed with paint. A Binder is required to bind a color pigment to the slippery paint film. Hence cars were mostly painted Black

Once Henry ford famously stated that "You can have it (Ford Model T) in any color as long as it's black".

However, this condition changed after both decided to collaborate. With a mutual interest in industrial products made from plants, Carver collaborated with Ford on soybean oil and the usages of it in Industry.  Those days Soyabean was specifically grown for animal feed only.

Using soybean oil, Carver invented a binder that allowed multi-pigmented colors to be added in the paint. By this technology, Ford could offer cars in different colors of paint. This enabled Ford to expand his offerings to people significantly.

Fearlessly advocating for radical change, in 1939, Ford built a school to serve the educational needs of the African American children of lower Bryan County and named the school in honor of Carver, naming it “George Washington Carver School”. 

FDC Credit: Philatelist K S Palani

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