Thermo King

History

Joseph "Joe" A. Numero sold his Cinema Supplies Inc. movie sound equipment business to RCA in 1938 and formed a new entity, the U.S. Thermo Control Company (later the Thermo King LLC), in partnership with his engineer, inventor Frederick McKinley Jones. Jones designed a portable air-cooling unit for trucks carrying perishable food, for which they had obtained a patent on July 12, 1940. The company renamed itself Thermo King in 1941.[[File:DAF LF 320 FA 19t mit Kühlkofferaufbau.jpg|thumb|Thermo King refrigeration unit on a DAF refrigerated truck]] In 1942, Jones developed the first portable refrigeration units for troops stationed overseas in World War II. Thermo King also introduced the first gasoline-powered mechanical refrigerated boxcars in the 1940s, which reduced shipping costs, making fresh produce more widely available and affordable for the public.

With the introduction of diesel engines in refrigerated units in 1958, engine life would out-perform their gasoline-powered counterparts in terms of longevity. Thermo King was not limited to transport refrigeration products, however. Some of the additional products the company built and sold included milk coolers, golf carts, school desks and shopping carts.

On March 5, 1966, a group of 75 people associated with the company were among the 113 passengers and 11 crew members who died when BOAC Flight 911 crashed near Mount Fuji, Japan. Company executives and their top dealers were on a 14-day company-sponsored tour of Japan and Southeast Asia, which was organized as a reward for sales performance.{{cite news

During the 1970s, Thermo King continued to manufacture equipment for the transportation industry. Thermo King Europe opened in Galway, Ireland, and began producing refrigeration units to be sold throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia and Asia.

In 1991, the National Medal of Technology was awarded to Joseph A. Numero and Frederick M. Jones. President George Bush presented the awards posthumously to their widows at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. Jones was the first African American to receive the award (see Frederick McKinley Jones).

In 1997, Ingersoll Rand acquired Thermo King from Westinghouse for $2.56 billion in cash, 13 times earnings, and added it to its Climate Control Technologies (later Climate Solutions) businesses, alongside Trane and Hussmann. At the time Thermo King controlled close to half the global market for refrigeration equipment.

References

References

1. [http://www.thermoking.com/aboutus/contactus/main.asp Thermoking "Contact Us"] {{webarchive. link. (2011-05-17 . Thermo King Corporation. Retrieved on January 18, 2011. "Thermo King Corporate Headquarters 314 West 90th Street Minneapolis, Minnesota 55420 ")
2. link. (2006-09-24 ." [[U.S. Census Bureau]]. Retrieved on January 18, 2011.)
3. Smith, Jessie Carney. (2012). "Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events". Visible Ink Press.
4. ""The First Refrigerated Trailer", Refrigeration Research; October 4, 2017.".
5. "Frederick McKinley Jones". [[Minnesota High Tech Association]] / [[Science Museum of Minnesota]].
6. "Thermo King Model C {{!}} MNopedia".
7. (20 July 1996). "The Crash of Twa Flight 800: The Victims".
8. Deutsch, Claudia H.. (September 16, 1997). "Ingersoll-Rand to Buy Westinghouse's Thermo King Unit". Business Day - The New York Times.