Frederick McKinley Jones -- USA

Frederick McKinley Jones, an African American inventor, entrepreneur, winner of the National Medal of Technology, and inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. His innovations helped to revolutionise the cinema and refrigeration industries and is best known for inventing the first automatic refrigeration system for trucks.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on 17 May 1892, His father was white of Irish descent and his mother was Black.  He was orphaned at the age of nine, and raised by a priest in Kentucky.  Jones left the rectory and school after grade six to return to Cincinnati aged sixteen, and got a job as an apprentice automobile mechanic.  He improved on his natural ability and inventive mind with reading and study.  

Jones developed an incredible knowledge of automobiles and their inner workings, within three years he was promoted to shop foreman, by nineteen, he had built and driven several racing cars and became one of the most well known racers in the Great Lakes region. 

Jones was a sergeant during World War I, in the U.S. Army and served in France as an electrician, he rewired his camp for electricity, telephone, and telegraph service. After serving with the U.S Army, he moved to Hallock, Minnesota and began to study electronics, eventually building a transmitter for a local radio station.  For extra money, Jones would drive local doctors to house calls during the winter season.  When it became difficult to drive in the snow, he attached skis to the undercarriage of an old airplane body and attached an aeroplane propeller to a motor.  He was able to speed the doctors to house calls in his custom snow machine, when one of the doctors, complained that he wished he did not have to wait for patient to come to his office for x-ray exams, Jones created a portable x-ray machine that could be taken to the patient.  Unfortunately, like many of his early inventions, Jones never thought to apply for a patent and watched helplessly as others made fortunes off their versions of the device.

In 1927, Jones helped a friend adapt their silent movie theatre with sound, he converted scrap metal into the parts necessary to deliver a soundtrack to the video, he also devised ways to stabilise and improve the picture quality.  When Joe Numero, the head of Ultraphone Sound Systems heard about Fred's devices, he invited him for a job interview.  After taking a position with the company, Fred began improving on many of the existing devices the company sold. Many of his improvements were so significant, that representatives from A.T. & T and RCA were amazed at the depth of his knowledge on intricate details, particularly in view of his limited education.  Fred also invented the automatic ticket dispensing machine to be used at movie theatres.  Fred received a patent for this device in June of 1939, the patent rights were eventually sold to RCA.

Joe Numero was presented with the task of developing a device which would allow large trucks to transport perishable products without them spoiling.  Jones set to work and developed a cooling process that could refrigerate the interior of the tractor-trailer.  Fred and Joe Numero received a patent for the vehicle air-conditioning device that would later be called a Thermo King, the product revolutionised several industries including shipping and grocery.  Portable cooling units designed by Jones were especially important during World War II, preserving blood, medicine, and food for use at army hospitals and on battlefields.  Numero sold his movie sound equipment business to RCA and formed a new company in partnership with Jones, the U.S. Thermo Control Company (Thermo King Corporation) that became a $3 million business by 1949.

When he died on 21 February 1961, Jones had more than sixty patents, forty were for refrigeration equipment, while others were for sound equipment and petrol engines. In 1944, Jones became the first African American to be elected into the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers, and during the 1950s he was a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defence and the Bureau of Standards.

In 1991, The National Medal of Technology was posthumously awarded to Frederick M. Jones, he was the first black inventor to receive this award, and he was inducted into the Minnesota Inventors in 2011.