The temperature in Detroit was 98 degrees and rising on July 8, 1946, when the Steinberg brothers — Lowell, Norman, Hiram, and Maxwell — walked into 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.
Ford was curious and invited them into his office. They asked him to come out to the parking lot where their car was parked.
They asked him to get into the car, where the temperature was 120 degrees. Then they turned on the air conditioner and cooled the car off.
Ford was very excited and offered the Steinbergs $3,000,000 for the patent. The brothers agreed, but stipulated that they wanted a label that said “The Steinberg Air Conditioner” on the dashboard of every car in which it was installed.
But old man Ford was proud of the Ford name, and he didn’t want the Steinbergs’ name on his cars. They haggled back and forth, until the brothers finally agreed that Ford could use just their first names on the label.
That is why, to this day, the control on every Ford air conditioner says Lo, Norm, Hi, and Max.
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