Kelvinator

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Kelvinator is an American manufacturer of large household appliances that has been part of the Swedish Electrolux group since 1986 . The company takes its name from William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin , who developed the concept of absolute zero and after whom the Kelvin temperature scale was named. The name was deemed appropriate for a company that made ice cream and refrigerators .

history

Kelvinator was founded in Detroit ( Michigan ) in 1914 by engineer Nathaniel Wales , who presented his idea of ​​a practical, electric refrigerator for the household to Edmund Copeland and Arnold Goss . The company adopted the name Kelvinator in 1916 as a tribute to the British physicist Lord Kelvin.

In 1926 the company bought Leonard , a company that had been founded in 1881. In 1928, George W. Mason joined the Kelvinator management team. Under his leadership, the company reduced its production costs and increased its market share by establishing a subsidiary in London , including Kelvinator Limited England .

In 1936 the company merged with Nash Motors and was renamed Nash-Kelvinator Corporation . This was part of a deal that put Mason at the helm of the merged company. In 1952 the Altdorfer Bros. Company was bought , which manufactured household washing machines under the brand name ABC .

When Nash Motors merged with Hudson Motor Car Co. in 1952 , Kelvinator became a division of the resulting American Motors Corporation (AMC). In the early 1950s, Kelvinator introduced the first built-in self-defrosting refrigerator. In the 1960s, Kelvinator introduced the first refrigerators with decorative frames that enabled buyers to adapt the refrigerator door to the decor of their kitchen fronts.

In 1968, AMC sold Kelvinator to White Consolidated Industries .

The Filipino company Conception Industries acquired the naming rights to Kelvinator in 1977 for the marketing of air conditioning systems . The company merged with the American company Carrier in 1997 and has since operated under the name Conception-Carrier Air Condition Company (CCAC). The brand name Kelvinator will continue to be used.

The British trademark rights were sold in 1979 to the Italian company Candy , which used the brand name until 2002. In 1986 the American part of the company was bought by Electrolux and the company headquarters relocated to Pittsburgh . Under the Kelvinator brand, Electrolux today develops and sells household appliances for private use as well as commercial kitchen appliances on the American market and in the Middle East .

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