CW Spook
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The Goldberg Brothers - The Inventors of the Automobile Air Conditioner
The four Goldberg brothers, Lowell, Norman, Hiram, and Max, invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner. On July 17, 1946 the temperature in Detroit was 97 degrees.
The four brothers walked into Henry Ford's office and sweet-talked his secretary into telling him that four gentlemen were there with the most exciting innovation in the auto industry since the electric starter. Henry Ford 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 had its windows closed and was about 130 degrees inside. He did and they then turned on the air conditioner which cooled the car off immediately.
Old man Ford got very excited and invited them back to his office where he immediately offered them $3 million for the exclusive patent.
The brothers refused, saying they would settle for $2 million, but they wanted the recognition by having a label on the dashboard of each car in which it was installed that said "The Goldberg Air-Conditioner"
Now it was very well known that Henry Ford was more than just a little anti-Jewish and there was no way in Hell that he was going to put the Goldberg name on two million of his Fords.
They haggled back and forth for about two hours and finally agreed on $4 million and that just their first names would be shown.
And so to this day, all Ford air conditioners show --
Lo, Norm, Hi, and Max -- on the controls.
The four Goldberg brothers, Lowell, Norman, Hiram, and Max, invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner. On July 17, 1946 the temperature in Detroit was 97 degrees.
The four brothers walked into Henry Ford's office and sweet-talked his secretary into telling him that four gentlemen were there with the most exciting innovation in the auto industry since the electric starter. Henry Ford 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 had its windows closed and was about 130 degrees inside. He did and they then turned on the air conditioner which cooled the car off immediately.
Old man Ford got very excited and invited them back to his office where he immediately offered them $3 million for the exclusive patent.
The brothers refused, saying they would settle for $2 million, but they wanted the recognition by having a label on the dashboard of each car in which it was installed that said "The Goldberg Air-Conditioner"
Now it was very well known that Henry Ford was more than just a little anti-Jewish and there was no way in Hell that he was going to put the Goldberg name on two million of his Fords.
They haggled back and forth for about two hours and finally agreed on $4 million and that just their first names would be shown.
And so to this day, all Ford air conditioners show --
Lo, Norm, Hi, and Max -- on the controls.
