Mechanical Refrigeration

Frigidaire Corp., a General Motors subsidiary, announced its entry into the railway equipment field with new air conditioning systems for sleeping cars, club and observation cars, diners, and day coaches. The equipment resulted from 16 years of experience with mechanical refrigeration. A new "railway air conditioning division" was established in Dayton, headed by R. E. Robillard, with engineering led by C. F. Henney under E. B. Newill.

Company president E. G. Biechler stated that comfortable travel conditions would help railroads regain passenger traffic lost to other modes of transport. Benefits included noise reduction, stable comfort, and cleanliness even after long journeys. While diners and sleeping cars would be first, day coaches would eventually be equipped. Installations would occur in railroad shops, employing regular maintenance staff.

E. B. Newill described the mechanical unit: a four-cylinder compressor delivering 5 tons of refrigeration with a 7.5 HP motor, or 7 tons with a 10 HP motor. The refrigerant was dichlorodifluoromethane (F-12 or Freon), developed by Frigidaire and Kinetic Chemicals (DuPont subsidiary), chosen for safety. Refrigerant lines ran under the car to bulkhead coils without altering car structure. Thermostatic controls allowed operation across varying temperatures. Many major railroad executives visited Dayton to inspect the equipment, including an experimental car on display.

While the Frigidaire business was founded upon the basic idea of food preservation, it has adapted its equipment to the cooling of water and other beverages and to air conditioning in the home, shop and office. It builds perhaps the most diversified line of products to be found in the entire General Motors family.

What now is Frigidaire had its beginning in 1916 with the incorporation of Guardian Frigerator company in Detroit. Factory space was rented on the fourth floor of an obscure building. Here there were two lathes, a shaper, a hand milling machine, drill press, tool grinder and some small tools. Three quart bottles were used to distill the sulphur dioxide used as the refrigerant. Fifty machines were built and sold during the first year.

Following the declaration of war, the new business found it difficult to raise additional capital. As a result it was sold in 1918 to William C. Durant, who took it over as a personal investment.

On February 8, 1919, the name of the company was changed to the Frigidaire corporation, taking the name which had been given the product. Shortly thereafter Mr. Durant sold the company to General Motors, which manufactured equipment in Detroit until 1920 when the business was turned over to the Delco-Light company, Dayton subsidiary of General Motors.

The real growth of the present Frigidaire business dates from the time it was turned over to Delco-Light. Delco made individual electric light plants for farm homes. It had an excellent rural field organization, skilled in specialty selling. At that time we immediately set about re-engineering and redesigning the product.

In this undertaking we had the help of Mr. Charles F. Kettering, now vice president of General Motors in charge of research. Mr. Kettering had developed Delco equipment (lighting, starting and ignition system for automobiles) and Delco-Light, both of which previously had been acquired by General Motors. Mr. Kettering became interested in electric refrigeration as an appliance to be hooked up with the Delco-Light plant as an added convenience for farm homes. Since that time he has taken a leading part in Frigidaire's engineering councils and often may be seen in Frigidaire's laboratories at Taylor street.

By 1926, Frigidaire sales were many times those of Delco-Light. Therefore, the two businesses were completely separated. The present Frigidaire corporation was formed with E. G. Biechler as its first president and general manager. (Biechler had been an early employee of the Domestic Engineering company, since 1916.)

Frigidaire pioneered many improvements into household electrical appliances. After the early wooden household cabinets Frigidaire developed metal cabinets. Porcelain interiors and then porcelain exteriors were made possible on a production basis by the building of the largest porcelain enamel plant in the world at the Moraine City plant. Other improvements in household refrigeration included the famous Frigidaire cold control, the Hydrator, Quickcube trays, automatic tray releasing, automatic reset defrosting, more ice freezing capacity and lower operating costs.

At the same time Frigidaire has been the leader in the commercial field. Many new applications have been uncovered by Frigidaire engineers so that now Frigidaire equipment for any type of store handling food or other perishable products, as well as beverage coolers, ice cream cabinets, milk coolers, and water coolers.

From the small space in the old Delco-Light plant, Frigidaire, in a relatively short period, has expanded into two large plants, and now has an organization of some 30,000 employees that includes factory workers, installation and service men, clerical employees, dealers and salesmen in the United States alone.

The engineering progress made in the commercial field is now being paralleled in air conditioning. Rapid expansion of this latest phase of Frigidaire's activity is definitely indicated by the acceptance of air conditioning throughout the country in the past two years. Frigidaire's program in the air conditioning field has been marked to date by its leadership in unit air conditioning equipment for railroad cars.