Frederick Mckinley Jones
Background
Background
Jones was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was orphaned at the age of nine. He was then raised by a priest in Kentucky. Jones left school after grade six and left the rectory to return to Cincinnati at age sixteen, where he got a job as an apprentice automobile mechanic. He boosted his natural mechanical ability and inventive mind with independent reading and study. In 1912, Jones moved to Hallock, Minnesota, where he worked as a mechanic on a 50,000-acre farm. After service with the U.S. Army in World War I, Jones returned to Hallock; while employed as a mechanic, Jones taught himself electronics and built a transmitter for the town's new radio station. He also invented a device to combine sound with motion pictures. This attracted the attention of Joseph A. Numero of Minneapolis, Minnesota, who hired Jones in 1930 to improve the sound equipment made by his firm, Cinema Supplies, Inc. On June 17, 1939,
Refrigeration
Around 1935, Jones designed a portable air-cooling unit for trucks carrying perishable food, and received a patent for it on July 12, 1940. Numero sold his movie sound equipment business to RCA and formed a new company in partnership with Jones, the U.S. Thermo Control Company (later the Thermo King Corporation) which became a $3 million business by 1949. Jones's air coolers for trains, ships, and aircraft made it possible for the first time to ship perishable food long distances during any time of the year. Portable cooling units designed by Jones were especially important during World War II, preserving blood, medicine, and food for use at army hospitals and on open battlefields.
Distinctions and honors
During his life, Jones was awarded sixty-one patents. Forty were for refrigeration equipment, while others went for portable X-ray machines, sound equipment, and gasoline engines. In 1944, Jones became the first African American to be elected into the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers, and during the 1950s he was a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense and the Bureau of Standards. Jones died of lung cancer in Minneapolis in 1961. He was inducted into the [[Minnesota Inventors 2011
Patents
2,163,754, 6/27/1939, Ticket dispensing machine
D 132,182, 4/28/1940 design for air conditioning unit
2,336,735, 12/14/1943, Removable cooling units for compartments
2,337,164, 12/21/1943, Means for automatically stopping and starting gas engines
2,376,968, 5/29/1945, Two-cycle gas engine
2,417,253, 3/11/1947, Two-cycle gas engine
2,475,841, 7/12/1949, Automatic refrigeration system for long-haul trucks
2,475,842, 7/12/1949, Starter generator
2,475,843, 7/12/1949, Means operated by a starter generator for cooling a gas engine
2,477,377, 7/26/1949, Means for thermostatically operating gas engines
2,504,841, 4/18/1950, Rotary compressor
2,509,099, 5/23/1950, System for controlling operation of refrigeration units
D 159,209, 7/4/1950, Design for air conditioning unit
2,523,273, 9/26/1950, Engine actuated ventilating system
2,526,874, 10/24/1950, Apparatus for heating or cooling atmosphere within an enclosure
2,535,682, 12/26/1950, Prefabricated refrigerator construction
2,581,956, 1/8/1952, Refrigeration control device
2,666,298, 1/19/1954, Methods and means of defrosting a cold diffuser
2,696,086, 12/7/1954, Method and means for air conditioning
2,780,923, 2/12/1957, Method and means for preserving perishable foodstuffs in transit
2,850,001, 9/2/1958, Control device for internal combustion engine
2,926,005, 2/23/1960, Thermostat and temperature control system
Categories: African Americans | National Medal of Technology recipients | 1893 births | 1961 deaths | National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees | Deaths from lung cancerHidden categories: Articles lacking sources from December 2009 | All articles lacking sources
Frederick Mckinley Jones
By: echo
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