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| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Equipment manufacturing |
| Founded | 1938; 87 years ago (1938) |
| Founder |
|
| Headquarters | Bloomington, Minnesota |
| Products | Transportrefrigeration systems |
| Parent | Trane Technologies |
| Website | thermoking |
Thermo King is an American manufacturer of transport temperature control systems forrefrigerator trucks and trailers,refrigerated containers andrefrigerated railway cars along withheating, ventilation and air conditioning systems for bus and passenger rail applications. It is headquartered in theMinneapolis suburb ofBloomington, Minnesota.[1][2] Thermo King is asubsidiary ofTrane Technologies.
Joseph "Joe" A. Numero sold his Cinema Supplies Inc. movie sound equipment business toRCA in 1938 and formed a new entity, the U.S. Thermo Control Company (later the Thermo King LLC), in partnership with his engineer, inventorFrederick McKinley Jones. Jones designed a portable air-cooling unit for trucks carrying perishable food,[3] for which they had obtained a patent on July 12, 1940.[4][5][3] The company renamed itself Thermo King in 1941.[6]
In 1942, Jones developed the first portable refrigeration units for troops stationed overseas inWorld War II. Thermo King also introduced the first gasoline-powered mechanicalrefrigerated boxcars in the 1940s, which reduced shipping costs, making fresh produce more widely available and affordable for the public.
With the introduction of diesel engines in refrigerated units in 1958, engine life would out-perform their gasoline-powered counterparts in terms of longevity. Thermo King was not limited to transport refrigeration products, however. Some of the additional products the company built and sold included milk coolers, golf carts, school desks and shopping carts.
On March 5, 1966, a group of 75 people associated with the company were among the 113 passengers and 11 crew members who died whenBOAC Flight 911 crashed near Mount Fuji, Japan. Company executives and their top dealers were on a 14-day company-sponsored tour of Japan and Southeast Asia, which was organized as a reward for sales performance.[7] Thirty years later, the company would suffer a similar tragedy when Jill Watson, daughter of company president James F. Watson, was killed in the crash ofTWA Flight 800.[8]
During the 1970s, Thermo King continued to manufacture equipment for the transportation industry. Thermo King Europe opened in Galway, Ireland, and began producing refrigeration units to be sold throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia and Asia.
In 1991, theNational Medal of Technology was awarded to Joseph A. Numero and Frederick M. Jones. PresidentGeorge Bush presented the awards posthumously to their widows at a ceremony in theWhite House Rose Garden. Jones was the first African American to receive the award (seeFrederick McKinley Jones).
In 1997,Ingersoll Rand acquired Thermo King fromWestinghouse for $2.56 billion in cash, 13 times earnings,[9] and added it to its Climate Control Technologies (later Climate Solutions) businesses, alongsideTrane and Hussmann. At the time Thermo King controlled close to half the global market for refrigeration equipment.[9]
