Now that I know it's an aftermarket Arvin product, here's some history on Arvin that I found just now...
HISTORY OF ARVIN: Arvin traces its roots to an Indiana partnership formed in 1919 to produce tire pumps. After a frustrating experience fixing a flat tire, Quintin G. Noblitt, a mechanical engineer and inventor, told a former business colleague, Frank H. Sparks, that he could make a reliable tire pump if Sparks could sell it. Sparks said he could, and the Indianapolis Air Pump Company--the earliest predecessor of Arvin Industries--was born. Noblitt recruited a third partner, Albert G. Redmond, to oversee the company's production of tire pumps, and the three partners each agreed to contribute $1,000 in initial capital. The company then rented an empty grocery store room for $10 a month, supplying a makeshift factory with second-hand machinery. By the end of its first year, the partnership showed a profit of more than $10,000. The company's eventual name arose from its brief relationship with Richard Hood Arvin, a former arms and ammunition salesman who had invented a heating device for Ford automobiles. In 1920 Arvin, who had applied for patents for his heater but lacked the capital to manufacture it, offered his product to Indianapolis Air Pump. Arvin granted the young company exclusive marketing rights for his heater, and in return, Indianapolis Air Pump agreed to manufacture it. As a result, the Arvin Heater Company was formed in 1920 with Arvin, Noblitt, Sparks, and Redmond becoming sole stockholders.In 1950 the company changed its name to Arvin Industries, Inc., in order to take advantage of the "Arvin" name, which by that time was on numerous company products. In 1954 Q.G. Noblitt died, having watched his company grow from a one-room tire pump business into a national corporation with better than $50 million in annual sales. Thompson succeeded Noblitt as chairman while remaining president. (Courtesy of Answers.com)
