147 years ago today...26 November 1867, the patent for the first refrigerated railroad car [US patent no. 71,423] was issued to J B Sutherland of Detroit. The next year, William Davis of Detroit developed a refrigerator car cooled by a frozen ice-salt mixture. The patent was sold to a Detroit meat packer George Richard Hammond, located on the south side of Cadillac Square (formerly Michigan Grand Ave) in the rear of the old Russell House. Hammond arrived in Detroit 1854, started a mattress factory, and lost it to fire 2 years later. Subsequently, Hammond tried his hand at a butcher’s cleaver at Third and Howard St, would build a large packing plant on Twentieth St, and amassed a fortune in refrigerated shipping under the name of Hammond, Standish & Company. Business later sold to Armour & Swift, who sold to National Meat Packing, Chicago
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 15:01:13 +0000