Enjoy.
Richard's $.02
The Goldbaum brothers--Lowell, Norman, Hiram, and Maxwell--had invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner...but marketing it proved tougher than they had thought it would be.
On July 17, 1946, the temperature in Detroit was 97 degrees when 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 Goldbaum 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 Goldbaum's 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, you will find that all Ford air conditioners show
Lo,
Norm,
Hi, and
Max on the controls.
And now you know the rest of the story.
)
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