Frederick William Wolf Jr.

By the age of 32,he had moved to Chicago and was working for the General Electric company while simultaneously being a member of the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers.[1] In 1913, he along with co-worker Frederick Heiderman designed an electrical unit that could be used to cool on the principles of the cooling device built by John Gorrie.[1] It became known as DOMELRE.Domelre became an instant sensation and Fred and his colleagues started the Mechanical Refrigeration company in Chicago .[1].They sold more than 300 units in the opening week which made it the most commercially successful product of its time.

DOMELRE was credited as the first domestic electrical refrigerator in the history of domestic Refrigeration.[citation needed] Fred sold the rights of DOMELRE to Henry Joy of the Packard motor car company and retired peacefully.[1] He died in 1954.,[1]

DOMELRE has been described as "revolutionary",[1]in the history of domestic refrigeration.[6] It has been described as the "first domestic refrigerator",[8] the "first household refrigerator",[9] the "first electrical refrigerator",[4] the "first successful, mass marketed package automatic electric refrigeration unit",[4] "the first plug-in refrigeration unit",[3] "the first mass-produced small refrigeration system",[3] "the first electric household refrigerator to survive its infancy"[1] or just as "the domestic electric refrigerator".[5]

According to ASHRAE, DOMELRE contained a number of innovations not found in prior domestic refrigerators, such as offering automatic temperature control by thermostat, an air cooled condenser that did not require water, and not the least, it also introduced a freezing tray for ice cubes.[4][6]

A 2005 assessment of the history of the ice delivery business in the New York Times concluded that the technology that DOMELRE pioneered gradually led to the end of that business in New York by 1950.

-[2].[3] The unit replaced the block of ice in the icebox with an electrical-powered cooling device,^[1] and was completely automatic.^[2]

Nagengast, Bernard (2000-05-01). "It's a Cool Story". Mechanical Engineering. 122 (5): 56–63. doi:10.1115/1.2000-MAY-3. ISSN 0025-6501. "Air Conditioning and Refrigeration History - part 3 - Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century". www.greatachievements.org. Retrieved 2021-08-02. Lydia Bjornlund (1 August 2015). How the Refrigerator Changed History. ABDO. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-62969-771-0. Watkins, Helen (2006-04-01). "Beauty Queen, Bulletin Board and Browser: Rescripting the refrigerator". www.ashrae.org.com(fred.w.wolf jr/biography)[4]

"How terrifying food technology has changed our lives". The Daily Telegraph. London. 16 February 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
historylink.org
name=":5">Rees, Jonathan (2013-12-15). Refrigeration Nation: A History of Ice, Appliances, and Enterprise in America. JHU Press. pp. 137–138. ISBN 978-1-4214-1107-1.
(Frederick William Wolf Jr. Was born on 23 March 1879)