A Golf Course Bet That Changed the World

Introduction

In 1937, on a golf course in Minnesota, a conversation took place that would transform global food distribution.

Joe Numero, a Minneapolis businessman who had made his fortune in movie sound equipment, was playing a round with Harry Werner, president of Werner Transportation Company, and Al Fineberg, president of United States Air Conditioning Company. The talk turned to Werner’s business problem: transporting perishable food by truck.

At the time, refrigerated trucking barely existed. Long-haul transport of perishables relied almost entirely on rail. Trucks carried ice blocks or dry ice, methods that were unreliable, labour-intensive, and severely limited in range. Werner needed something better.

Numero mentioned that he employed an exceptionally talented engineer—a man who seemed able to solve any mechanical problem put before him. He bet his companions that this engineer could design a practical truck refrigeration system.

The engineer’s name was Frederick McKinley Jones.

Within three years, Jones would patent the first successful truck-mounted refrigeration unit, co-found the Thermo King Corporation, enable the development of the modern supermarket, and revolutionise military logistics during World War II.

He would do all this as a Black man in 1930s and 1940s America, with no formal engineering education, working from a skill set he taught himself while growing up as an orphan in Kentucky and Cincinnati.

This is his story.

The Making of an Inventor

Frederick McKinley Jones was born on 17 May 1893 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His mother, a white woman, abandoned him when he was nine years old. He knew almost nothing about her—not even her name, according to some accounts. His father, John Jones, was an African American railroad worker who did his best to raise the boy alone.

By age eleven, Frederick Jones was effectively on his own. His father had sent him to live with a priest in Kentucky, Father Edward A. Ryan. When Father Ryan moved to a new parish, Jones—around twelve years old—decided to strike out independently rather than follow.

He had, at this point, perhaps six years of formal schooling. He would receive no more.

Learning by Doing

What Jones lacked in formal education, he compensated for with voracious curiosity and an exceptional mechanical aptitude.

He found work as a janitor and handyman at an automobile garage in Cincinnati. The job brought him into constant contact with engines, electrical systems, and mechanical problems. Jones watched, asked questions, and experimented. Within a few years, he had taught himself automotive mechanics well enough to become the shop foreman.

His self-education extended beyond the garage. Jones read constantly—technical manuals, engineering texts, anything he could find that explained how things worked. He developed particular expertise in electronics, studying the emerging technologies of radio and sound equipment.

By his early twenties, Jones had become the kind of mechanic other mechanics consulted when they encountered problems they couldn’t solve.

The Hallock Years

In his late twenties, Jones moved to Hallock, Minnesota—a small town near the Canadian border that seemed an unlikely destination for a young Black man from Cincinnati. He had worked on a farm in the area during the summers and apparently liked the people and the pace of life.

In Hallock, Jones continued his pattern of learning through doing. He worked as a mechanic and began applying his self-taught electrical knowledge to practical problems. When the town needed an electric sound system for its movie theatre, Jones built one. When a local doctor needed to make medical house calls to remote farms, Jones constructed a “snow machine”—an early snowmobile—to transport him.

He built his first racing car in Hallock, then built several more. He developed a reputation throughout northern Minnesota as the man who could fix anything mechanical or electrical.

That reputation reached Joe Numero.

The Numero Connection

Joe Numero owned Cinema Supplies, Inc., a Minneapolis company that manufactured movie sound equipment. The early 1930s were a time of rapid technological change in the film industry—the transition from silent movies to “talkies” created enormous demand for sound systems.

Numero heard about the self-taught engineer in Hallock who had built his own movie theatre sound system and hired Jones to join Cinema Supplies. Jones moved to Minneapolis in the early 1930s and quickly became Numero’s chief engineer.

At Cinema Supplies, Jones’s inventive abilities flourished. He developed improved sound equipment, created new products, and demonstrated the problem-solving capabilities that would soon be directed at a very different challenge.

The Problem of Cold Roads

While Jones was building movie equipment in Minneapolis, the American trucking industry was growing rapidly—but refrigerated trucking remained a frustrating exception.

The Ice Age (Literally)

Before mechanical refrigeration, keeping truck cargo cold required ice. Lots of it.

Operators would pack ice blocks or crushed ice around perishable cargo, essentially creating mobile ice boxes. The system had severe limitations:

Limited Range: Ice melted. On a hot day, cargo might stay cold for 200 miles—or less. Long-haul transport of perishables by truck was essentially impossible.
Inconsistent Temperature: Ice cooling was inherently variable. Cargo nearest the ice might freeze while cargo further away warmed. There was no temperature control, only temperature variation.
Labour-Intensive: Trucks required frequent re-icing. This meant ice stations, loading crews, and schedule disruptions every few hundred miles.
Weight Penalty: Ice is heavy. A truck carrying enough ice to maintain temperature for any distance sacrificed significant cargo capacity to the ice itself.
Drip Problems: Melting ice meant water. Cargo got wet. Drainage systems added complexity and maintenance requirements.

Dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) offered somewhat better performance—it sublimated rather than melting, eliminating the water problem, and maintained colder temperatures. But dry ice was expensive, required careful handling, and still provided no temperature control.

Why Trucks Mattered

Rail refrigeration, pioneered by Swift and others in the 1880s, served long-haul routes effectively. But rail required fixed infrastructure—tracks, stations, loading facilities. Rail couldn’t deliver to individual stores, restaurants, or homes.

Trucks offered flexibility. A refrigerated truck could pick up cargo at a farm, deliver to multiple retail locations, and reach destinations with no rail service. The “last mile” of food distribution—from warehouse to consumer—depended on trucks.

The growing American supermarket industry desperately needed reliable refrigerated trucking. Supermarkets sold fresh and frozen foods that required temperature control from supplier to store shelf. Without dependable refrigerated transport, supermarket growth would stall.

Harry Werner understood this in 1937 when he challenged Joe Numero on that Minnesota golf course.

Solving the Problem

When Numero brought Werner’s challenge back to Jones, the engineer approached it with his characteristic methodical thoroughness.

The Technical Challenges

Designing a practical truck refrigeration system required solving multiple problems simultaneously:

Power Source: A refrigeration compressor needed power. Unlike rail cars (which could draw power from locomotives or dedicated power cars) or ships (with engine rooms), a truck needed self-contained power. The refrigeration unit required its own engine.
Shock and Vibration: Road transport subjected equipment to constant jarring. Refrigeration systems designed for stationary installation would shake themselves apart on the highway. Every component needed to withstand continuous vibration.
Space and Weight: Trucks had limited space and weight capacity. The refrigeration system had to be compact and light enough not to severely reduce cargo capacity.
Reliability: A breakdown on the highway meant spoiled cargo. The system needed to operate for hours without attention and be repairable by mechanics without specialised refrigeration training.
Temperature Range: Different cargo required different temperatures. The system needed to cool to frozen temperatures for ice cream or meat, or maintain chilled temperatures for produce—and potentially switch between loads.

The Jones Design

Jones’s solution was elegant in its integration. Rather than adapting existing industrial refrigeration equipment for mobile use, he designed a purpose-built system optimised for truck applications.

Key innovations included:

Roof-Mounted Configuration: Jones positioned the condensing unit on top of the truck cab or at the front of the trailer, where it could access fresh air for cooling without blocking cargo space. This placement also provided some protection from road debris and made the unit accessible for maintenance.
Self-Contained Power: A dedicated gasoline engine powered the refrigeration compressor, independent of the truck’s propulsion engine. The refrigeration system could operate whether the truck was moving or parked.
Shock-Resistant Construction: Every component was designed for vibration resistance. Mounting systems isolated the refrigeration equipment from road shocks. Tubing and connections were reinforced.
Automatic Temperature Control: Unlike ice cooling’s passive variation, Jones’s system actively maintained temperature. Thermostatic controls cycled the compressor to hold cargo at the desired temperature.

The Model A

In 1939, Jones filed a patent application for what would become known as the Model A refrigeration unit. The patent described a system for “conditioning the air” within a truck compartment by “tempering, humidifying and circulating.”

The Model A was designed to mount beneath a semi-truck, with refrigerant tubing extending to the trailer’s interior. It worked—but it had limitations. The underslung position exposed it to road hazards and made maintenance difficult.

The Model C

Jones continued refining his design. The Model C, introduced in the early 1940s, moved the refrigeration unit to a more accessible front-mounted position and incorporated improvements based on field experience.

The Model C proved to be a revolutionary product. It was compact, reliable, and effective. It could maintain consistent temperatures across the full range of perishable cargo requirements. It was rugged enough for commercial trucking operations.

The Thermo King Corporation—formed by Jones and Numero from the reorganised U.S. Thermo Control Company—built its business on the Model C and its successors.

War and Transformation

The Model C’s arrival coincided with America’s entry into World War II. The timing would prove transformative—for Thermo King, for refrigerated transport, and for Jones’s legacy.

Military Applications

Modern armies required reliable supply chains for perishable materials that civilians rarely considered. Blood plasma for field hospitals had to remain cold. Medicines required temperature control. Food for troops—fresh when possible, frozen when necessary—needed refrigerated transport.

Jones adapted his truck refrigeration technology for military applications. He developed portable refrigeration units that could be mounted on various vehicles, including planes and ships. His systems transported blood plasma, food, and medical supplies to troops fighting across Europe and the Pacific.

The military’s adoption of Jones’s technology validated its reliability. If the systems worked under combat conditions, they would certainly work for commercial applications.

Rationing and Allocation

During the war, Thermo King produced refrigeration units almost exclusively for military use. Civilian refrigerated trucking had to wait.

But the war years weren’t wasted from a commercial perspective. Jones continued refining his designs, addressing problems identified in military service, and developing new applications. When peace came, Thermo King was positioned to supply an eager civilian market.

Post-War Explosion

After World War II, American consumer culture exploded. Suburbs sprawled. Supermarkets proliferated. The frozen food industry—barely existent before the war—grew exponentially.

All of this required refrigerated trucking at a scale that hadn’t existed before.

Thermo King’s Model C and its successors enabled this transformation. By the late 1940s, refrigerated trucks were becoming common sights on American highways. The frozen food sections of supermarkets expanded. Produce departments offered fruits and vegetables from across the country and increasingly from around the world.

The Interstate Highway Act of 1956 accelerated the trend. New highways made long-haul trucking faster and more economical. Refrigerated trucks could now travel from California to New York in days rather than weeks, with their cargo maintained at perfect temperature throughout.

Jones’s invention had made possible what observers would later call “perpetual winter”—a continuous cold chain from producer to consumer, maintaining perishable goods in their optimal state regardless of external conditions or distance travelled.

Legacy and Recognition

Frederick McKinley Jones died on 21 February 1961, at age sixty-seven. By then, Thermo King had grown into a major corporation with products operating worldwide.

The Numbers

Jones’s impact is difficult to overstate:

He held more than sixty patents at his death, including patents for refrigeration systems, sound equipment, and various mechanical devices
In 1944, he became the first Black member of the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers
Thermo King grew to control nearly half the global market for transport refrigeration equipment
By 2015, more than 75% of food transported in the United States moved with mechanical refrigeration—technology directly descended from Jones’s work

Recognition

In 1991, thirty years after his death, Jones and Joe Numero were posthumously awarded the National Medal of Technology. President George H.W. Bush presented the awards to their widows at a White House ceremony.

Jones became the first African American to receive the National Medal of Technology.

In 2007, Jones was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 2024, he was inducted into the American Truck Historical Society’s Hall of Fame, with Thermo King donating a 1940s Model D unit to commemorate his contributions.

The Persistent Invisibility

Despite these recognitions, Jones remains relatively unknown compared to other inventors who transformed American life. His story—a Black orphan with minimal formal education who taught himself engineering and solved problems that had stumped others—deserves wider telling.

Jones’s work touches daily life in ways most people never consider. Every supermarket freezer section, every restaurant serving fresh seafood, every pharmacy dispensing temperature-sensitive medications depends on cold chain infrastructure that Jones helped create.

The South African Connection

Frederick Jones solved his refrigeration problems in Minnesota, but the physics he mastered apply everywhere—including South Africa, where road transport faces distinctive challenges.

The Thermo King and Carrier Presence

Both major transport refrigeration manufacturers—Thermo King (now owned by Trane Technologies) and Carrier Transicold—have substantial presence in South Africa. The technology descendants of Jones’s original designs keep South African refrigerated trucks operating from Cape Town to Johannesburg to Durban.

The basic architecture remains recognisable: self-contained refrigeration units mounted on trucks and trailers, powered by dedicated engines, maintaining cargo at specified temperatures across long distances.

The Altitude Challenge

South Africa presents a challenge that Jones didn’t face in Minnesota: altitude.

Johannesburg sits at approximately 1,750 metres above sea level. At this altitude, air density is significantly reduced—approximately 21% less than at sea level. This directly affects refrigeration equipment performance.

Refrigeration systems reject heat through condensers that transfer thermal energy from refrigerant to air. At altitude, there’s less air mass per unit volume. Condenser heat transfer efficiency drops. The entire system produces less cooling capacity than its sea-level specifications suggest.

A Thermo King or Carrier unit rated for a specific cooling capacity at sea level delivers substantially less capacity in Johannesburg. Equipment sized based on sea-level specifications will be undersized for Gauteng operations.

This isn’t a flaw in the technology—it’s physics. Jones’s refrigeration systems work at altitude exactly as the underlying thermodynamics predict. But operators who ignore altitude effects when selecting equipment will experience performance problems that Jones’s engineering cannot overcome.

The Load Shedding Reality

South Africa faces another challenge unknown to Jones: unreliable electrical power.

While trucks use engine-powered refrigeration during transport, cargo must often be stored at facilities between journeys. Cold stores, distribution centres, and staging areas require electrical power for refrigeration. When load shedding interrupts that power, cold chain integrity is threatened.

This has implications for the “reefer” trucks themselves. A truck refrigeration unit running its own engine can maintain temperature when the facility loses power—but the engine burns fuel, generates noise, and requires attention. Extended load shedding periods strain both equipment and economics.

Modern South African cold chain operations increasingly invest in generator backup, battery systems, and solar installations to maintain cold chain integrity during power outages. These investments address a challenge that Jones never anticipated—but they protect the cold chain integrity his technology enabled.

What Jones Would Recognise

If Frederick Jones could visit a modern South African refrigerated transport operation, much would seem familiar.

The Fundamentals Persist

Self-contained refrigeration units, mounted on trucks and trailers, operating independently of vehicle propulsion systems
Mechanical compression refrigeration cycles—compressor, condenser, expansion device, evaporator—moving heat from cargo space to outside air
Thermostatic controls maintaining temperature at specified setpoints
Robust construction designed to withstand road vibration and environmental exposure

Jones would understand these systems immediately. The underlying engineering principles haven’t changed since his patents in 1940.

The Improvements Would Impress

Microprocessor controls replacing electromechanical thermostats
Multi-temperature zones within single trailers
Real-time GPS tracking and temperature monitoring
Data logging for compliance documentation
Improved refrigerants replacing the CFCs and HCFCs of earlier eras
Diesel engines replacing gasoline in most applications
Dramatically improved energy efficiency

Jones would appreciate these advances as logical refinements of his original concepts—the same principles, executed with better tools.

The Problems Would Be Familiar

Equipment undersized for operating conditions (whether Minnesota summer heat or Johannesburg altitude)
Operators cutting maintenance to save costs, then facing failures
Customers expecting refrigerated transport without understanding its requirements
The constant tension between equipment cost and performance capability

These challenges existed in 1940, and they exist today. Jones addressed them through sound engineering and honest communication about his equipment’s capabilities and limitations. Modern operators face the same imperatives.

The Supermarket You Know

Walk through any South African supermarket—Pick n Pay, Woolworths, Checkers, Spar—and you’re walking through Frederick Jones’s legacy.

The Frozen Section

Every frozen food item arrived by refrigerated transport. The ice cream, the frozen vegetables, the ready meals, the fish fingers—all travelled from manufacturer to distribution centre to store in vehicles maintaining freezer temperatures.

Without reliable refrigerated trucking, supermarket frozen food sections would be limited to products manufactured locally, delivered immediately. The variety consumers take for granted—products from across South Africa and around the world—depends on cold chain infrastructure that Jones’s invention made possible.

The Produce Department

Fresh fruits and vegetables increasingly travel long distances. Citrus from Limpopo, apples from the Western Cape, tropical fruits from KwaZulu-Natal—all require temperature control during transport to arrive in marketable condition.

The “fresh” produce in any supermarket is often days or weeks old by the time consumers purchase it. It remains fresh because the cold chain maintained optimal conditions from harvest through retail display.

The Dairy Case

Milk, cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products are highly perishable. Without the cold chain, dairy distribution would be limited to areas immediately adjacent to production facilities. The national distribution of dairy products depends entirely on reliable refrigerated transport.

The Pharmacy

Many medications require temperature control. Vaccines must be maintained at specific temperatures from manufacture through administration. Biologics, insulin, and various other pharmaceuticals have strict temperature requirements.

The pharmacy counter represents perhaps the most critical cold chain application—not because medication is expensive (though it is), but because temperature excursions can render medications ineffective or dangerous. Patients depend on cold chain integrity for their health.

Conclusion: The Self-Taught Solution

Frederick McKinley Jones never attended engineering school. He never earned a degree. He learned by watching, reading, experimenting, and doing.

Yet he solved problems that challenged formally trained engineers. He created technology that transformed global food distribution. He enabled the supermarket, the frozen food industry, and modern pharmaceutical distribution.

His story matters not just as history but as a reminder of what practical problem-solving can achieve. Jones didn’t approach refrigerated trucking with theoretical frameworks or academic credentials. He approached it as a mechanic: here is a problem, here is what’s been tried, here is what went wrong, here is what might work better.

That practical orientation—understanding real-world conditions, designing for actual use cases, testing and refining based on field performance—remains the foundation of effective cold chain engineering.

A truck refrigeration unit that performs beautifully in laboratory conditions but fails on Gauteng’s summer highways is useless. Equipment that meets specifications at sea level but underperforms at altitude serves no one. Cold chain engineering must address actual operating conditions, not theoretical ideals.

Frederick Jones understood this. His Model C worked because he designed it for real trucks, real roads, real cargo, and real temperature requirements. His legacy persists because his engineering philosophy—solve actual problems under actual conditions—never becomes obsolete.

Every refrigerated truck on South African roads carries that legacy forward.

Sources & References

Related Resources:

Equipment Directory: Refrigeration unit suppliers (Thermo King, Carrier)
Transport Directory: Refrigerated logistics providers
Technical Guides: Altitude considerations for refrigeration equipment
Compliance Guide: R638 temperature monitoring requirements

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The Self-Taught Genius Who Created Perpetual Winter: Frederick Jones and the Refrigerated Truck