Frederick McKinley Jones

Frederick McKinley Jones invented the first successful system for mobile refrigeration. His invention eliminated the far less effective use of ice and salt to preserve foods for transport, greatly extending the distance over which food could be effectively delivered.

Born in 1893 in Cincinnati, Jones faced many challenges from a young age. When he was 9 years old, his mother passed away unexpectedly. He then was sent to live at St. Ann Catholic Church in Covington, Kentucky, where he was raised by a priest and was tasked with cleaning, cooking, grounds work and general maintenance tasks.

Growing bored of his daily tasks, at age 11 Jones ran away from the church and found work at an auto garage in Cincinnati. He had developed an early interest in mechanics, and in this garage, his interest transformed into a passion. He was working as a full-time mechanic by age 14, and at 15 he began supervising the garage as mechanic foreman.

Jones’ knack for exploration and discovery continued to grow, and at 19, he was let go from the auto garage for sneaking off to the racetrack while he was on the clock. He spent the next 20 years picking up odd jobs around the Midwest and Southern United States. While working as a mechanic at a farm in Minnesota, he acquired an engineering license. He also found work repairing steamships, furnaces, farm machinery and automobiles.

Jones enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War I and was in great demand due to his lengthy resume in mechanics. It wasn’t long before he proved himself as an asset to the military, performing work from maintaining communications systems at the front lines to fixing military vehicles, X-ray machines and electrical wiring. In just a few months, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant. He also taught classes for his fellow soldiers throughout the war, sharing his knowledge of electrical circuitry.

After the war, Jones took a job in Hallock, Minnesota, where he worked as the town’s movie projectionist. He developed new movie sound technology and built a radio transmitter for the town. Jones’ ingenuity eventually caught the attention of a local entrepreneur named Joseph Numero, who later hired him to further develop the sound equipment manufactured by Numero’s company, Cinema Supplies. It was this connection that eventually led to the creation of Jones’ most revolutionary invention.

One day in 1938, Numero’s colleague, Harry Werner, complained that he was unable to transport food without it spoiling. When Numero joked that Werner should have a refrigerator inside his truck, Werner purchased an aluminum truck and asked if Numero and Jones could make that possible. While Numero had doubts, Jones began working on this mobile refrigerator.

After some experimentation, Jones successfully created a compact, durable and shock-resistant unit with a compressor mounted under the trailer. It was powered by a four-cylinder engine. Jones earned a patent for his invention in July 1940, and he and Numero started their own company. Called Thermo King Corp., their company provided refrigerated trucks for transporting food to soldiers during World War II.

It wasn’t until after the war, however, that Jones’ invention began to revolutionize the transportation of food and other perishables. Following the establishment of the U.S. interstate system, Jones’ technology made possible the transportation of meat and dairy products across hundreds of miles. Used in trucks, railroad cars, ships and planes, the technology revolutionized the distribution of food and other perishables. Making fresh produce available anywhere in the country year-round, it improved Americans' eating habits. Thermo King grew to be an international corporation, making over $1 billion in annual sales when it was bought out by Ingersoll-Rand Co. in 1997.

Over the course of his career, Jones earned over 60 patents for his many inventions. In 1944, he became the first Black member of the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers. In 1991, he was posthumously awarded the National Medal of Technology, becoming the first Black American to receive this honor.