Frederick McKinley Jones was an American inventor, entrepreneur, winner of the National Medal of Technology, and an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. His innovations in refrigeration brought great improvement to the long-haul transportation of perishable goods. He co-founded Thermo King.
Frederick McKinley Jones was an American inventor and entrepreneur, who was also a pioneer in the field of automatic refrigerated transport systems. He is also known for the series of devices he designed for movie projectors used in the cinema industry.
He dropped out of church school and was largely self-educated. He studied mechanics extensively and designed racing cars during his teenage years. After moving from place to place, he earned steady work on a Minnesota farm. Jones served in the U.S. army during World War I. He subsequently returned to farm work and continued designing devices. His soundtrack devices for movie theaters attracted the attention of a Minnesota entrepreneur, who offered him a job. Later, he designed a refrigeration unit for the transportation industry, which created history. Jones’s invention revolutionized the transport of food, blood, and other perishables. He co-founded the ‘US Thermo Control Company,’ later re-named the ‘Thermo King Company.’ He had 61 patents to his name, more than 40 of which were related to refrigeration. He was recipient of the ‘National Medal of Technology’ and was inducted into the ‘National Inventors Hall of Fame.’ He died of lung cancer at 67.