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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsHow the automobile air conditioner got invented (humor)
Here's a little fact for automotive buffs, or just to dazzle your friends.
The four Goldberg brothers, Lowell, Norman, Hiram, and Maxwell, invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner. On July 17, 1946, the temperature in Detroit was 97 F 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 F degrees inside, turned on the air conditioner, and cooled the car off almost immediately.
Ford 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.
There was no way that Old man Ford 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.
benld74
(9,909 posts)Cirque du So-What
(25,973 posts)The inventor of the slush-pump transmission that moves most cars nowadays...German chap...Otto von Matic.
panader0
(25,816 posts)better poet, Emerson or Longfellow. Just then Emerson and Longfellow walked
up. A contest was arranged with words put into a cup. Each poet had to create
a poem from the word drawn. Longfellow reached into the cup and withdrew the
word 'Timbuktu'. He thought for a moment then said:
"As the evening sun set o'er the land
cast silver shadows on the sand,
I set sail on the ocean blue.
My course was set for Timbuktu."
The poetry lovers smiled and nodded. Then it was Emerson's turn:
"As Tim and a-hiking went,
we spied three maidens in a tent.
As they were three
and we were two,
I buck one and Tim buck two."