Frederick William Wolf Jr.
Frederick William Wolf Jr. (1879–1954) was an American engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur. He is best known for inventing the modern electric refrigerator in 1913, an innovation that significantly contributed to the development of household refrigeration technology in the early 20th century.
| Frederick William Wolf Jr. | |
|---|---|
| File:Frederick William Wolf jr.jpgFrederick_William_Wolf_jr.jpg | |
| Born | 1879 |
| 19541954 | |
| 💼 Occupation | Engineer |
In the year 1916, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Woodrow Wilson.
Early Life and Education
Frederick, or Fred as he was known by his family and friends, was born to an Irish-American family on 23 March 1879 in the small town of Fort Wayne, Indiana. His father, Frederick Sr., was a refrigeration engineer while his mother, Helen, was a teacher. From childhood, he showed an incline towards refrigeration engineering. He was known to be an avid fan of automobiles. At age 19, he decided to work for his father as he was interested in the possibilities of applying mechanical refrigeration systems at merchant outlets and homes.
Creation of DOMELRE and Later Life
By the age of 32, he had moved to Chicago and was working for the General Electric company while simultaneously being a member of the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers.[citation needed] In 1913, he, along with co-worker Frederick Heiderman, designed an electrical unit that could be used to cool on the principles of the cooling device built by John Gorrie.[1] It became known as DOMELRE. Domelre became an instant sensation and Fred and his colleagues started the Mechanical Refrigeration company in Chicago.[citation needed] They sold more than 300 units in the opening week, which made it the most commercially successful product of its time.[citation needed]
DOMELRE was credited as the first domestic electrical refrigerator in the history of domestic refrigeration.[citation needed] Fred sold the rights of DOMELRE to Henry Joy of the Packard Motor Car Company and retired peacefully.[citation needed] He died in 1954.[citation needed]
Significance of DOMELRE
DOMELRE has been described as "revolutionary" in the history of domestic refrigeration.[6] It has been described as the "first domestic refrigerator",[8] the "first household refrigerator",[9] the "first electrical refrigerator",[4] the "first successful, mass marketed package automatic electric refrigeration unit",[4] "the first plug-in refrigeration unit",[3] "the first mass-produced small refrigeration system",[3] "the first electric household refrigerator to survive its infancy"[1] or just as "the domestic electric refrigerator".[5]
According to ASHRAE, DOMELRE contained a number of innovations not found in prior domestic refrigerators, such as offering automatic temperature control by thermostat, an air cooled condenser that did not require water, and not the least, it also introduced a freezing tray for ice cubes.[4][6]
A 2005 assessment of the history of the ice delivery business in the New York Times concluded that the technology that DOMELRE pioneered gradually led to the end of that business in New York by 1950.
References
-[2].[3] The unit replaced the block of ice in the icebox with an electrical-powered cooling device,</ref> name=":1">Nagengast, Bernard (2004). "Electric refrigerators vital contribution to households". ASHRAE Journal. 46 (11): 11–16. ProQuest 220452699.</ref> and was completely automatic.</ref>name=":2">Nagengast, Bernard (2007). "Re-Inventing the Wheel in HVAC&R Technology: History Does Repeat!". ASHRAE Transactions. 113 (1): 186–191. ProQuest 192497208.
Nagengast, Bernard (2000-05-01). "It's a Cool Story". Mechanical Engineering. 122 (5): 56–63. doi:10.1115/1.2000-MAY-3. ISSN 0025-6501. "Air Conditioning and Refrigeration History - part 3 - Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century". www.greatachievements.org. Retrieved 2021-08-02. Lydia Bjornlund (1 August 2015). How the Refrigerator Changed History. ABDO. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-62969-771-0. Watkins, Helen (2006-04-01). "Beauty Queen, Bulletin Board and Browser: Rescripting the refrigerator".
www.ashrae.org.com(fred.w.wolf jr/biography)[4]
- ↑ "How terrifying food technology has changed our lives". The Daily Telegraph. London. 16 February 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
- ↑ historylink.org
- ↑ name=":5">Rees, Jonathan (2013-12-15). Refrigeration Nation: A History of Ice, Appliances, and Enterprise in America. JHU Press. pp. 137–138. ISBN 978-1-4214-1107-1. Search this book on
- ↑ (Frederick WilliamWolf Jr. Was born on 23 March 1879
This article "Frederick William Wolf Jr." is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Frederick William Wolf Jr.. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
