auto a/c
Back in 1946 the 3 Goldberg brothers, Norman, Hyman, and Max invented
and developed the first automobile air-conditioner. On July 17th, 1946,
the temperature in Detroit was 97º. The 3 brothers walked into old man
Henry Ford's office and sweet-talked his secretary into telling him
that 3 gentlemen were there with the most exciting innovation in the
auto industry since the electric starter.
Henry was curious and invited them into his office. They refused and
instead asked that he come out to the parking lot to their car. They
persuaded him to get into the car which was about 130º - turned on the
air-conditioner and cooled the car off immediately. The old man got very excited and invited them back to the office,
where he offered them 3 million dollars for the patent. The brothers
refused saying they would settle for 2 million but they wanted the
recognition by having a label "The Goldberg Air-Conditioner" on the
dashboard of each car that it was installed in. Now old man Ford was more than just a little bit Anti-Semitic, and
there was no way he was going to put the Goldbergs name on 2 million
Ford cars. They haggled back and forth for about 2 hours and finally
agreed on 4 million dollars and that just their first names would be
shown. And so, even today, all Ford air-conditioners show on the controls,
the names "Norm, Hi, & Max".
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