1921, A Costly Lesson in the Risks of Innovation

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Media


Date

ca. 1922

Location

Unknown

The "copper-cooled" engine, fathered and championed by "Boss" Kettering, was the first attempt to radically alter the internal combustion engine -- replacing the radiator with air-cooling, in turn reducing the engine’s number of parts and weight. Plagued with problems from the start -- launched two years behind schedule and failing to catch buyers’ interest -- only 300 copper-cooled cars were sold when Alfred Sloan personally intervened to kill the project in 1923.