Henry M. Leland

Henry Martyn Leland was an American machinist, inventor and automotive entrepreneur who founded two of the premier American luxury automobile marques, Cadillac and Lincoln. Trained in precision manufacturing at firearms and machine tool companies including Brown and Sharpe, he brought a standard of interchangeable parts and exacting tolerances to automobile production that was unusual for the early industry. He organized the Cadillac Automobile Company in 1902 from the remnants of an earlier Henry Ford venture, then later founded the Lincoln Motor Company in 1917. Leland's insistence on precision manufacturing earned him recognition from industry leaders such as Alfred P. Sloan, who credited him as chiefly responsible for bringing interchangeable parts into automobile manufacturing. He was born in Vermont in 1843 and died in Detroit in 1932.