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Here's a little known fact for automotive buffs or something just to dazzle your friends.
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 old man 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 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 130 degrees, 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 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 in which it was installed. Now old man Ford was more than just a little anti-Semitic, and there was no way he was going to put the Goldberg's name on two million 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. It's true, I swear
I've seen it on Bing and other places. This oft-told tale has circulated for many years. One would hope that the majority of recipients quickly realize the story is all just a joke once they have read to the end.
Packard had the first a/c in 1940, Cadillac in 1941.
For my part, I actually worked in the building where Henry's office was. I was on 2nd floor, right above "Mahogany row" where the Executives' offices had been. (before they moved temporarily to Schaeffer Road around the time Edsel and Henry II took over, and then into the new WHQ Building built on Michigan Avenue, years after Henry I had passed on)
There is a building structural pillar I passed by daily inside where Henry and some other executives marked their heights on the plaster one day and signed their names. It has been preserved behind a glass frame. Henry wasn't a particularly tall person!
The "Goldbergs" would have had to sweet talk a cigar smoking security guard at the gate entrance into the grounds, a building receptionist inside the lobby to the building, and then the secretary outside Henry's office before they could ever see him. Ha!
I've seen it on Bing and other places. This oft-told tale has circulated for many years. One would hope that the majority of recipients quickly realize the story is all just a joke once they have read to the end.
Packard had the first a/c in 1940, Cadillac in 1941.
For my part, I actually worked in the building where Henry's office was. I was on 2nd floor, right above "Mahogany row" where the Executives' offices had been. (before they moved temporarily to Schaeffer Road around the time Edsel and Henry II took over, and then into the new WHQ Building built on Michigan Avenue, years after Henry I had passed on)
There is a building structural pillar I passed by daily inside where Henry and some other executives marked their heights on the plaster one day and signed their names. It has been preserved behind a glass frame. Henry wasn't a particularly tall person!
The "Goldbergs" would have had to sweet talk a cigar smoking security guard at the gate entrance into the grounds, a building receptionist inside the lobby to the building, and then the secretary outside Henry's office before they could ever see him. Ha!