inessential musings

Here’s a bit of automotive history you car buffs may or may not know, compliments of Mike…

The three Goldberg brothers - Norman, Hiram, and Maxwell - invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner. On July 17th, 1946, the temperature in Detroit was 97. The brothers walked into Henry Ford’s office and sweet-talked his secretary into telling him three 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 inside was easily 130 degrees, turned on their air-conditioner and cooled the car off immediately.

Ford was duly impressed and invited the brothers back to his office where he offered them $3 million for the patent to their invention. Amazingly, the brothers refused saying they would settle instead for $2 million and having a label, “The Goldberg Air-Conditioner” affixed to the dashboard of every automobile in which it was installed.

Not wanting the Goldberg name appearing prominently on his automobiles, Ford refused.He and the Goldbergs haggled for nearly two hours and finally agreed upon the purchase price of $4 million with only the Goldberg’s first names appearing on the label. And so, to this day, all Ford air-conditioners show on the controls the names “Norm, Hi, & Max”…