Joseph A. "Joe" Numero sold his Cinema Supplies Inc. movie sound equipment business to RCA in 1938 and formed a new entity, the U.S. Thermo Control Company, in partnership with his engineer, inventor Frederick McKinley Jones. Jones designed a portable air-cooling unit for trucks carrying perishable food, for which they had obtained a patent on July 12, 1940, subsequent to a challenge to invent a refrigerated truck over a golf game by associates of Numero's, Werner Transportation Co. president Harry Werner, and United States Air Conditioning Co. president Al Fineberg, resulting in the "Model A" and the founding of Thermo King. The landmark invention ushered in the era of frozen foods, large supermarkets, and the modern restaurant industry. Refrigerated transport made the delivery of fresh produce anywhere in the country a possibility, regardless of the season. The concept of continuous cooling of perishables is often referred to as the "Farm to Fork" cold chain. With mobile refrigeration compressors driven by fuel-powered engines and stationary refrigeration compressors driven by grid-sourced electricity, the food is kept cold from the point of production through to the point of distribution to consumers. In 1942, Jones developed the first portable refrigeration units for troops stationed overseas in World War II. Thermo King also introduced the first refrigerated boxcars in the 1940s, which reduced shipping costs, making fresh produce more widely available and affordable for the public. By 1949, annual revenues reached $3 million. The introduction of diesel engines in refrigerated units, in 1958, by Thermo King was a big step for many reasons, with the main benefit being extended engine life as compared to gasoline-powered units. 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 when BOAC 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, organized as a reward for sales performance. A company spokesman, quoted in the press in reaction to the tragedy, said that "this has got to be one of the worst things that a company can experience." During the 1970s, Thermo King continued to manufacture equipment for the transportation industry. Thermo King's early efforts have evolved into a widely recognized line of products. At the same time, Thermo King was becoming a worldwide business. Thermo King Europe opened in Galway, Ireland, and began producing refrigeration units sold throughout Europe, Africa, Middle East, Australia and Asia. The global expansion continues to this day. In 1991, the National Medal of Technology was awarded to Joseph A. Numero and Frederick M. Jones. President George Bush presented the awards posthumously to their widows at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. Jones was the first African American to receive the award. In 1997, Ingersoll Rand acquired Thermo King from Westinghouse for $2.56 billion in cash, 13 times earnings and added it to its Climate Control Technologies businesses, alongside Trane and Hussmann. At the time Thermo King controlled close to half the global market for refrigeration equipment. Most recently, in addition to continued technology improvements in transport temperature control, Thermo King has launched the TriPac hybrid auxiliary idle reduction and temperature management system, which eliminates the need for a truck engine to idle to provide heating and air conditioning to the truck cab.
