The key figure in industrialization was Henry Ford. Fuller devotes chapter 23 of Nine Chains to an account of Ford's method of synchronizing industrial production, and his approaches to finance.
Ford was also notable to Fuller for his use of alloys in car production.
Fuller saw his relevance to housing, as had Le Corbusier, suggesting:
"a house built on the same principles as the Ford car I bought".
(1923, p.246)
Ford's system of mass-production has been criticized in various ways (see Fordism), but Fuller argues that his motives were concerned with service rather than profiteering, and that the regimentation of workers was imposed by production managers, this being an aspect of production Ford had no time for.
Fordism has been described as Modernism in its economic form. Fuller ends the chapter by predicting that posterity will acclaim Ford as "the greatest artist of the 20th century".
Industry and aesthetics are discussed by Dewey (1934, pp.341-4).
© Paul Taylor 2001