Learning Black History Year Round:
Tamara Shiloh
World War II was an era that spawned numerous important inventions.
A severely wounded soldier could die of blood loss. Which meant the necessity of blood transfusions. Which meant there was also the critical need for cooling units to store and transport not only blood, but medicine and food for army hospitals, military camps, and on open battlefields. One of the most prolific African-American inventors, Frederick McKinley Jones, designed the portable units used throughout the war.
Born in Covington, Ky. in 1893 (some sources report 1892), Frederick’s mother left the family soon after he was born. Young Frederick and his father, John Jones, struggled in poverty. Because of this hardship, Frederick was placed in a Catholic rectory because there were no orphanages that would accept African-American boys. He ran away at age 11.
Frederick’s aptitude for mechanical work became clear early on, and he was working as an auto mechanic by age 14. He continued to work throughout the Midwest and South in steamship, furnace, and farm machinery repair and maintenance, all while continuing as an auto mechanic.
In 1912, Jones moved to Hallock, Minn., where he worked as a mechanic on a 50,000-acre farm in charge of maintaining and repairing all machinery and cars. When the farm was sold two years later, Jones remained in the area, finding work repairing cars. He remained in Hallock for the next 18 years, leaving only to join the army during World War I.
Post military, Jones returned to Hallock, where he continued to learn mechanics and electronics from personal experience rather than textbooks. There he built a transmitter for the town’s new radio station and a device to combine sound with motion pictures. This attracted the attention of Joseph Numero, who hired Jones in 1930 to improve the sound equipment made by his firm, Cinema Supplies Inc., in Minneapolis, Minn.
While there, Jones, after a conversation between Numero and a friend who owned a trucking company, would conceive the idea to create a refrigeration truck. The design was completed around 1938, and the patent for it was received on July 12, 1940. Jones then entered into a partnership with Numero forming the U.S. Thermo Control Company (later named Thermo King Corporation), which by 1949, became a $3 million business.
He later developed transportable refrigeration for trains, ships, and planes.
Jones’ career produced 61 patents, 40 of which involved refrigeration systems. The condenser microphone was one invention that Jones never patented, along with a portable X-ray machine at the request of a doctor in Hallock. Both inventions were eventually patented by someone else.
He became the first African American member of the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers in 1944. During the 1950s, Jones consulted for various branches of the U.S. government, including the Department of Defense and the Bureau of Standards.
Jones succumbed to lung cancer on February 21, 1961, in Minneapolis. He was inducted posthumously into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame in 1977.
Tamara Shiloh
Tamara Shiloh has published the first two books in her historical fiction chapter book series,
Just Imagine…What If There Were No Black People in the World is about African American inventors, scientists and other notable Black people in history. The two books are
Jaxon’s Magical Adventure with Black Inventors and Scientists and
Jaxon and Kevin’s Black History Trip Downtown. Tamara Shiloh has also written a book a picture book for Scholastic,
Cameron Teaches Black History, that will be available in June, 2022.
Tamara Shiloh’s other writing experiences include: writing the Black History column for the Post Newspaper in the Bay area, Creator and Instruction of the black History Class for Educators a professional development class for teachers and her non-profit offers a free Black History literacy/STEM/Podcast class for kids 3d – 8th grade which also includes the Let’s Go Learn Reading and Essence and tutorial program. She is also the owner of the Multicultural Bookstore and Gifts, in Richmond, California,
Previously in her early life she was the /Editor-in-Chief of
Desert Diamonds Magazine, highlighting the accomplishments of minority women in Nevada; assisting with the creation, design and writing of a Los Angeles-based, herbal magazine entitled
Herbal Essence; editorial contribution to
Homes of Color; Editor-in-Chief of
Black Insight Magazine, the first digital, interactive magazine for African Americans; profile creations for sports figures on the now defunct PublicFigure.com; newsletters for various businesses and organizations; and her own Las Vegas community newsletter,
Tween Time News, a monthly publication highlighting music entertainment in the various venues of Las Vegas.
She is a member of:
- Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)
- Richmond Chamber of Commerce
- Point Richmond Business Association
- National Association of Professional Women (NAPW)
- Independent Book Publishers Association (IPBA)
- California Writers Club-Berkeley & Marin
- Richmond CA Kiwanis
- Richmond CA Rotary
- Bay Area Girls Club
Tamara Shiloh, a native of Northern California, has two adult children, one grandson and four great-grand sons. She resides in Point Richmond, CA with her husband, Ernest.
www.multiculturalbookstore.com
