Henry Ford was born in a farm and spent his childhood working on his fathers farm.
Ford had a long-standing interest in plastics developed from agricultural products, particularly soybeans.
But Ford had bigger dreams; he wanted to build a car almost entirely out of plastic.
The result is the so-called soybean car which Ford debuted in 1941.
The windows were made of acrylic sheets.
This led to an overall weight reduction of 25 percent, making the car more fuel efficient.
Furthermore, the car was designed to run on hemp fuel making it even more ecofriendly.
Ford invested millions of dollars into developing the plastic for the car.
He proclaimed he would grow automobiles from the soil.
The only model ever made was destroyed, and plans to produce a second unit were put on hold.
Very little is known about the soybean car today, such as what was it made of.
Cellulose fiber represented 70 percent of the plastic while the rest 30 percent was resin binder.
However, the man charged with creating the car, Lowell E. Overly, gave a very different version.
He said that plastic was made of soybean fiber in a phenolic resin with formaldehyde used in the impregnation.
Some skeptics claim that the plastic did not contain any significant soy material at all.
The body panels were more likely a conventional phenolic plastic similar to Bakelite.
It was unveiled in the New York Worlds Fair of 1939-1940.
