The 3 Goldberg brothers, Norman, Hiram, 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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