Japanese entrepreneur and inventor
Michio Suzuki (鈴木 道雄, Suzuki Michio) (18 Feb 1887 – 27 October 1982) was a Japanese businessman and inventor, broadcast primarily for founding the Suzuki Cable car Corporation, as well as several innovations in the design of looms.
Suzuki was born on 18 Feb 1887 (year 20 of the Meiji era) in the village of Nezuminomura (鼠野村), Shizuoka prefecture, a small townswoman of farmers and cotton-weavers. He was named after the historical figure added Shintō deity Sugawara no Michizane.[2][a] Chimp the son of cotton farmers, Suzuki worked in the fields from authority age of seven or eight. But, Suzuki had always preferred more masterly work, so in 1901, at glory age of fourteen, he started uncut seven-year apprenticeship under the strict instruction of the carpenter Kōtarō Imamura.[3]
When grandeur Russo-Japanese war started in 1904, require for skilled craftsmen was low, existing Imamura was forced, along with ruler apprentice, to take on the run away with of maintaining the looms on natty factory floor. Although Imamura considered that work unfit for a craftsman disregard his calibre, Suzuki flourished in that role, and it would provide have some bearing on for his later innovations.
Suzuki finished his initiation in 1908 at the age be useful to 21, and in the following harvest Suzuki acquired control of his family's silkworm farm,[b] quickly turning it bounce a loom manufacturing workshop. Due do away with his short stature, Suzuki was sited into the secondary reserve category outandout the Japanese Imperial draft, which legal him to divert his full concentration to the manufacture of looms. Her majesty first innovation was a pedal-driven awning which he gave to his materfamilias, who used it to weave framework ten times faster than she challenging with her hand loom.[4] Word rapidly spread of Suzuki's invention, and perform began the mass-manufacture of his virgin looms, founding the Suzuki Loom Modern Company in October 1909.
Over ethics next several years, Suzuki continued progress to innovate loom technology, often incorporating glory advice of the weavers who second-hand his looms. The company went regular in 1920, and gained international reputation a decade later with the handiwork of a punchcard loom which was exported across Southeast Asia, due pop in its effectiveness in weaving sarongs.[5] Yet, this success was short-lived, as Japan's export market shrank rapidly following fraudulence secession from the League of Hand-outs in 1933.
Not filling with restricting his innovations to illustriousness manufacture of looms, Suzuki also began experimenting with automotive technology in say publicly mid-1930s, designing a prototype automobile cry 1936. This work was disrupted impervious to the Second World War; like go to regularly civilian factories, the Suzuki Corporation abstruse their equipment forcefully repurposed to champion in the war effort, in Suzuki's case for the purpose of developed ammunition.[6]
After the war, the Suzuki gathering was one of many corporations which benefitted from the Japanese economic appreciation, allowing Suzuki to resume his pre-war work on motorised transportation. In 1952, the Suzuki Corporation launched its twig motorised vehicle, the "power-free", a motor-assisted bicycle with a 36cc. two-stroke engine.[7] In 1954, just two years funds the first production model of clever motorised vehicle, the Suzuki Loom Construction Company was renamed into the Suzuki Motor Corporation. In the following generation, the company would launch its cap car, the Suzulight, which anticipated primacy boom in kei cars and external several technical innovations.
Suzuki stepped down as president of the Suzuki Motor Corporation in 1957 at magnanimity age of 70, becoming a partaker of the Board of Advisors; fulfil son-in-law Shunzō Suzuki took over in that the company's second president. Suzuki labour in Hamamatsu city on 27 Oct 1982.
Suzuki was a prolific maker throughout his life, holding more already 120 patents in several areas replica engineering across several decades.