Car company always quite diverse in what they build. For example, Chrysler built the Redstone rocket for both the nuclear defense program and the American space program in the late 1940s and ’50s, and to this day Volkswagen proudly produces more currywurst sausages. even cars.
But there was a time when automakers took their knowledge of building large complex consumer goods and applied it to an entirely new market: home appliances. The Driver has a great look at this odd corner of US automotive history, and I highly recommend reading it for a dose of facts and nostalgia. The Driver takes us back to 1918, when GM founder William Durant bought the first company that ever built what we recognize as a refrigerator:
To get the full picture, we have to go back to 1918, when GM founder William Durant personally invested in Guardian Refrigerator Company, the company had produced the world’s first refrigerator a few years earlier but had not made any money from it. Durant renamed the business Frigidaire, then used his shares to engineer its sale to General Motors shortly thereafter, and Frigidaire became a full subsidiary in 1926. Frigidaire’s association with GM allowing it to borrow the same mass-production techniques that revolutionized the auto industry, with sales increasing and prices falling as a result. The company emerged as a major innovator, pioneering new features and layouts, and the name “Frigidaire” soon became a generic term to describe all refrigerators, regardless of brand. which brand. (Think Kleenex or Band-Aid.)
The Chrysler Corporation’s foray into refrigeration began on a much larger scale, during the construction of the new Chrysler Building in New York City in the late 1920s by Walter P. Chrysler. With an existing commercial air conditioner, he tasked the company’s engineers with a better solution to cool the world’s tallest skyscraper in no time. Their efforts eventually led to the Airtemp Corporation, founded in 1934 and then reabsorbed into Chrysler in 1938. Airtemp branched out into train air conditioners and appliances. Other HVAC, then moved into the residential air conditioning business as demand increased in the post-war era.
Then there was Nash Motors, which eventually became AMC and became a real force in the home kitchen through its Kelvinator line of appliances. In the late 1930s, founder Charles Nash was looking to retire and wanted someone named George W. Mason to take over for him. However, Mason refused to step down from his role as chairman of Kelvinator Corporation. Established in 1916 and named in honor of British scientist Lord Kelvin, Kelvinator began by manufacturing separate electric coolers to retrofit into existing ice bins, before manufacturing fully self-contained refrigerators industry’s first in 1926. Unable to anger George Mason, Charles Nash agreed to merge their two companies in 1936 if Mason would take charge of both. Thus, the Nash-Kelvinator was created, and the explosion of the pre-war automaton alliance took place.
The postwar dollar crash and the development of car air conditioning systems pushed many automakers into the home appliance game in the US. International Harvester and Crosley also started making home appliances, with very mixed results (IH gave up home appliances and Crosley gave up cars.)
Check out the original report at Driver for a fun and exciting trip back in time.
