Jones co-founded Thermo King and also served as a sergeant in World War I. [1][4] Due to his contributions to refrigeration technology, Jones is called the "Father of Refrigerated Transportation", …

Feb 20, 2024 · Forming a partnership with Numero, Jones founded the U.S. Thermo Control Company, now known as Thermo King. The company grew exponentially during World War II, and Jones …

Discover Frederick McKinley Jones, the self-taught African American inventor who revolutionized food transportation with portable refrigeration units. With 61 patents, he co-founded Thermo King and …

The unique story of how our company invented transportation refrigeration because of a master innovator and engineer named Fred Jones, a load of chickens, and a $6 bet on a golf course.

Jones and Numero eventually founded a refrigeration company together called the U.S. Thermo Control Company (now named Thermo King). Jones’s inventive mind also led to the creation of other devices …

Oct 9, 2025 · Discover how Frederick McKinley Jones, a self-taught Black inventor, revolutionized transport refrigeration with his 1938 Thermo King design—reshaping food, medicine, and modern …

Feb 17, 2022 · The Bloomington, Minnesota-based company all started with Fred Jones and Joe Numero. "Fred came up with the first mechanical refrigeration unit which would go on the nose of a …

Aug 11, 2015 · In 1939, Frederick McKinley Jones patented the world’s first successful refrigerated transportation system. At the time, he was working for the Minneapolis-based company U.S. Thermo …

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 …

His attention soon turned to the need for better mobile refrigeration, and in 1935, Jones invented the first automatic refrigeration system for long-haul trucks, a system that was later used on other vehicles as …