Frederick Jones (1893-1961) was the son of an Irish-American railroad worker and an African-American mother.
It's not known whether his mother died or abandoned the family, but at age 7, Jones' father sent his son to live with a Catholic priest in Kentucky who educated him and encouraged his interest in mechanics.
At age 12, he ran away to work in a garage--fascinated by the ways cars worked. He soon became a foreman of the garage.
He left to become the the chief mechanic on a Minnesota farm, and then enlisted in the military serving as an electrician and mechanic in WWI.
Around 1935, Jones patented a refrigeration system for trucks that was compact and shock-proof that some say revolutionized the food industry because it eliminated food spoilage on long hauls. It is the invention for which he is best known. The invention also was incredibly timely and important because it allowed for blood transport during WWI.
Jones received 60 patents in all in his lifetime for everything from a box-office device that automatically issued tickets and change to customers as well as a self-starting gas motor.
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Mixed Experience History Month is an annual blog post series celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established on Heidi Durrow's blog Light-skinned-ed Girl in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to illuminate achievements of multiracial and multicultural individuals (not tragic mulattoes) and people and events central to the Mixed experience. Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog, or Mixed Chicks Chat blog! Thanks for reading. You can also read past year's series: 2007, 2008, 2009.
