Remembering the man they called ‘Mr. Freeze’
By Stephan Drew
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We all love good food. Whether it’s cold or frozen in transport, we expect our food to be safe and healthy to eat.
But often we take it for granted that it has always been that way. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Up until 100 years ago, packers and shippers hadn’t been able to control the temperature or freshness of what they transported. Food was shipped and, hopefully, arrived in good shape.
Oftentimes, over half of it had to be thrown out due to spoilage. That changed when one man entered the picture. Known later as “Mr. Freeze,” he changed the way people thought of food storage and transportation.
Frederick McKinley Jones was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 17, 1893, to an Irish father and African-American mother. His mother deserted them when he was a child and his father raised him until he was 7. His father struggled to raise young Fred and decided a young son was too much to handle all alone, so he left him with a Catholic priest.
Frederick left the church at age 11 and got his first job as a cleaning boy. He had an affinity for machines with moving parts and, by age 14, he was working as an automobile mechanic, teaching himself as he went along.
He learned everything about the function of engines and had a natural mechanical ability and an inventive mind, reading and studying everything necessary for his work. He was the most inquisitive and intelligent person that his boss had ever encountered. In 1912, he moved to Hallock, Minn., where he began a 20-year career working as a mechanic on a 50,000-acre farm.
He would later tell a newspaper reporter, “On this farm, a man was judged more on his character and ability than on the color of his skin.” You see, Frederick was a black man and, a century ago, he wasn’t expected to achieve very much.
Jones served in the Army and returned to Hallock, where he taught himself electronics and even built something new called a “transmitter” for the town’s new radio station. During this time, he also invented a device to add sound to silent pictures and to synchronize it with the movement on film.
He gained the attention of Joseph A. Numero of Minneapolis, who hired Jones in 1930 to improve the sound equipment of his company, Cinema Supplies Inc. Frederick had another hobby, race car driving. And, because he spent a lot of his time improving car engines, Jones lost his job with Numero.
In 1938, Frederick designed a portable air-cooling unit for trucks carrying perishable goods from California to the East Coast. His former boss, Joseph Numero, sold his movie sound equipment business (the technology Frederick Jones had invented) to RCA and he, with Jones, formed a new partnership called the U.S. Thermo Control Company (later called ThermoKing). Within one year, this new business was worth $3 million (today, that’s approximately $500 million).
These portable cooling units were especially helpful during World War II, preserving blood, medicine and food for use in canteens, Army hospitals and on open battlefields. In his spare time, he had invented and developed a portable X-ray machine, a movie ticket dispenser, an early radio service, a snow machine and a second type of soundtrack synchronizer (which he later sold to RCA).
During his life, he was awarded 61 patents for all of his inventions. Forty were for different types of refrigeration equipment and others were for portable X-ray machines, sound equipment and new gasoline engines.
But his major contribution, and the one that we enjoy most today, was the refrigeration units that he created. Used in railroad cars, long-distance trucks, and in every grocery store we visit, these units keep our food cold, fresh and safe to eat, no matter how far it has been transported.
The man known as “Mr. Freeze” made innumerable advancements in our grocery shopping habits. His work allowed all of us to eat healthier and cut down tremendously on business losses from spoiled foods. He died of lung cancer in 1961, preceding his wife Lucille. Upon his death, the Saturday Evening Post described him this way: “Most engineers start at the bottom of a project and work up. But Fred took a flying leap to the top of the mountain and then backed down, cutting steps for himself and the rest of us as he goes.”
During his lifetime, he received patents for a ticket-dispensing machine, air conditioning units, removable cooling units, stop and start gas engines, two-cycle gas engines, long-haul trucking refrigeration units, starter generators, gas engine coolers, ventilating (air conditioning) systems, central heating/cooling systems, prefab refrigeration systems, defrosting systems, internal combustion engines, and even thermostat units.
So, the next time you turn up your air conditioning or heating unit, thank this genius. The next time you walk into a grocery store and pick up a pack of frozen vegetables, thank this gentleman of color.
The next time you enjoy a spoonful of ice cream, thank this black man who changed the world. The next time you hear your favorite song on the radio or get a portable X-ray, thank young Fred. Thank Frederick McKinley Jones, the African-American who suffered racism, hardship and struggle to bring us many of the things that we take for granted today.
He never gave up and he never backed down. He never bowed, begged or scraped, he persevered. We enjoy our produce from California, Florida and all over the world but we hardly think about where it came from or how it got here.
Frederick Jones made all of that possible. When you buy your groceries, give a small prayer of thanks for him. Thank you, “Mr. Freeze.” I’m so grateful to you and glad that you made all of our lives better simply because you never gave up. All of us are so fortunate that you lived.
