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United States
April 9, 2007 12:41pm CST
Ford Air Conditioners. When were air conditioner's first put in cars? Here is something you car buff's may or may not know! The 3 Goldberg brother's, Norman, Hiram, & Maxwell invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner. On July 17, 1946, the tempature in Detroit was 97. 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 asked him to step outside to their car. They pursaded him to get into their car which was about 130- turned on the air conditioner and cooled the car off immediately. The old man got very excited were he invited the 3 men back inside and offered them 3 million dollars for the patent. The brothers refused, but said they would settle for 2 million dollars but they wanted the recognition by having a label "The Goldberg Air-Conditioner" on each dashboard of the car that the air conditioner was installed on. Now Ford was more than alittle Anti-Semetic and there was no way he was going to put the Goldberg's name on over 2 million Ford cars. They aurgued back and forth for over 2 hours and finally agreed on 4 million dollars and just their first name would be shown, and so even today, all Ford air-conditioners today show their names on the controls, Norm, Hi, & Max. Pretty good piece of history wasn't it?I love history and think we all need to remember from time to time how we all got to where we are today and the great people that helped us to get here. Isn't our world wonderful?
1 person likes this
3 responses
• United States
9 Apr 07
I saw this one a while back but it is still funny second time around.
2 people like this
• United States
10 Apr 07
There may be some responders who just jump right in first, and then read other folks responses. I have had some people do just that. I just wonder how they feel when they read the other responses? Maybe they just feel a little bit silly. Anyone else have a different response?
1 person likes this
• United States
11 Apr 07
I've found that alot. Its funny when they write a response all most exactly the same as someone else. You know they just jumped in.. Thanks .. Tammy
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• United States
10 Apr 07
Thank You whiteheather!! I thought it was fun. I got a kick out of it when I recieved it this morning. My husband really got a laugh he's old enough to really know better. I hope I get some responses from people that answer before reading what you guys said. I'm waiting for a really good laugh! Oh well I tried. I bet it made you guys smile though huh? Tammy
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@BunGirl (2638)
• United States
9 Apr 07
ROFL!!! For those who don't get the joke here, check out this site: http://www.snopes.com/humor/jokes/ford.asp
2 people like this
• United States
9 Apr 07
Right you are. It's still a good one.
1 person likes this
• United States
10 Apr 07
Very good both of you!! It was fun though wasn't it. I'm still waiting to see all the responses.. Tammy
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@finlander60 (1804)
• United States
9 Apr 07
Hahahahahahahaha. As usual, you have come up with a good one. All this time I thought those were just the amount of Air Conditioning that was being asked for. Silly me. I have thought all these years that I knew all about the history of Ford Motor Company, but I guess I was wrong. Thank you very much for this opportunity to laugh. Am I in the minority by realizing that this was just a very clever play on words?
• United States
10 Apr 07
Are you sure it was a play on words? Did you do alittle reserch of your own to dispute me? Tammy
1 person likes this