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Engineer · First self-contained electric refrigerator, Fort Wayne, 1915
On the record
Alfred Wytheman Mellowes was born 7 April 1879 at Dayton, Ohio. An electrical engineer at General Electric's Fort Wayne plant — the works that manufactured the Audiffren-Singrün refrigerating machines — he built in Fort Wayne in 1915 the first self-contained electric refrigerator. In 1916 he and Reuben Bechtold, another Fort Wayne GE man, founded the Guardian Frigerator Company (with J. W. Murray) to manufacture it. William C. Durant inspected the production line and bought the business in 1918, renaming it Frigidaire; General Motors acquired it in 1919 and the operation moved to Mellowes's native Dayton. He died in 1960. The household refrigerator industry thus has a Fort Wayne chapter at its origin: the Audiffren machines built here, and the first self-contained unit designed here.
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- § 06 — people of the record
- § 05 — business
Sources: Wikipedia, "Alfred Mellowes"; Refrigeration Research, "Children of the Audiffren" (refresearch.com).