June 23, 1916
Modine Manufacturing Company, which would become an international force in heating-and-cooling technology for motor vehicles, was incorporated. This company started out as a business run by engineer Arthur B. Modine in a one-room office adjacent to a small workshop in Racine, Wisconsin.
Modine Manufacturing Company made its debut at a time when the matter of cooling gas-powered engines was still very much a new and inexact science with plenty of unanswered questions. Arthur B. Modine, in a departure from the then-conventional way of approaching the challenges involved, found himself focusing less on how to cool the water in radiators and more on how to best heat and monitor the air passing through those devices.
Modine and his company ended up pioneering numerous thermal management solutions for both on-highway and off-highway means of transportation — including automobiles, trucks, and tractors — that have since been embraced and used across the globe.
A huge breakthrough for Modine took place during the mid-1920s, when he landed a major automotive contract with the Ford Motor Company to use a new and innovative type of radiator. This automotive radiator, widely known as the Turbotube, was adopted by Henry Ford as standard equipment for the Model T. (The accompanying image from a Modine Manufacturing Company advertisement for Ford replacement radiators appeared in the December 1921 issue of Automobile Trade Journal.)
Image Credit: Public Domain
Additional information on the history of Modine Manufacturing Company is available at https://racinecountyeye.com/2019/05/20/arthur-b-modine-and-heat-transfer/ and https://www.modine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/14-MOD-005-100-Year-V10.pdf
Transportation History 
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