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DOMELRE (an acronym of Domestic Electric Refrigerator) was one of the first domestic electrical refrigerators, invented by Frederick William Wolf Jr. (1879–1954) in 1913 and produced starting in 1914 by Wolf's Mechanical Refrigerator Company in Chicago. Several hundred units were sold, which made it the most commercially successful product out of several competing designs of its time. The unit replaced the block of ice in the
US patents for Fred W. Wolf including for his "refrigerating apparatuses"
Products introduced in 1913 Cooling technology American inventions Food preservation Home appliances
DOMELRE (an acronym of Domestic Electric Refrigerator) was one of the first domestic electrical refrigerators, invented by Frederick William Wolf Jr. (1879–1954) in 1913 and produced starting in 1914 by Wolf's Mechanical Refrigerator Company in Chicago. Several hundred units were sold, which made it the most commercially successful product out of several competing designs of its time. The unit replaced the block of ice in the icebox
An icebox (also called a cold closet) is a compact non-mechanical refrigerator which was a common early-twentieth-century kitchen appliance before the development of safely powered refrigeration devices. Before the development of electric refrige ...
with an electrical-powered cooling device, and was completely automatic.
Often labelled as ''the'' "first electrical refrigerator" or similar, It has been described as "revolutionary" in the history of domestic refrigeration.
History
DOLMERE was invented by Frederick William Wolf Jr. (American engineer also known as Fred W. Wolf Jr., 1879-1954), a charter member of the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers, in 1913. An estimated several hundred to thousands of units were produced starting in 1914 by his Mechanical Refrigerator Company inChicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. Fred Heideman was also involved in the unit's design. In 1916 Wolf sold the rights to the invention to Henry Joy, president of Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
, which released an upgraded version under the name ISKO. Having sold about a thousand more models, Joy's company nonetheless went bankrupt in 1922.
Commercially, DOMELRE was described as "a quick hit". The unit was considered relatively inexpensive for its time. The original model was sold for $900 ($24,450 in 2021 dollars); the 1916 model was priced at $385 in 1916 ($9,600 in 2021 dollars), later dropping to $275 ($6,850 in 2021 dollars). 525 were sold.
Significance
DOMELRE has been described as "revolutionary" in the history of domestic refrigeration. It has been described as the "first domestic refrigerator", the "first household refrigerator", the "first electrical refrigerator", the "first successful, mass marketed package automatic electric refrigeration unit", "the first plug-in refrigeration unit", "the first mass-produced small refrigeration system", "the first electric household refrigerator to survive its infancy" or just as "''the'' domestic electric refrigerator". According toASHRAE
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE ) is an American professional association seeking to advance heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration
The term refrigeration refers to the ...
, 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.
A 2005 assessment of the history of the ice delivery business in the ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' concluded that the technology that DOMELRE pioneered gradually led to the end of that business in New York by 1950.
References
{{reflistExternal links
US patents for Fred W. Wolf including for his "refrigerating apparatuses"
Products introduced in 1913 Cooling technology American inventions Food preservation Home appliances