5.02-17: Kelvinator 1955 Compressor

HHCC Accession No. 2003.124	HHCC Classification Code: 5.02-17

Description:

A MASSIVE, INTEGRAL HP COMPRESSOR (3 TO 5 HP), BY KELVINATOR, Model G, CIRCA 1955 ‘ This 150 lb, compressor [refrigeration by the ton], with water cooled head, would be representative of the company’s last years in the engineering and production of refrigeration compressors, as the market for refrigeration machinery was dramatically restructured both by changes in the technology and new comers to the field of refrigeration engineering and manufacture.

Group:

5.02 Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Compressors - Commercial

Make:

Kelvinator

Manufacturer:

Kelvinator, UK

Model:

Serial No.:

Block No’s: 49578, 1G147, 12D96, head 49391

Size:

12x15x19’h

Weight:

150 lbs.

Circa:

1955

Rating:

Exhibit, education, and research quality, an historic marker of the mature and last years of Kelvinator, a pioneer in the conceptualising, engineering and manufacture of refrigeration machines in the US, Canada and the UK.

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Provenance:

From York County (York Region) Ontario, once a rich agricultural hinterlands, attracting early settlement in the last years of the 18th century. Located on the north slopes of the Oak Ridges Moraine, within 20 miles of Toronto, the County would also attract early ex-urban development, to be come a wealthy market place for the emerging household and consumer technologies of the early and mid 20th century.

This artifact was discovered in the 1950’s in the used stock of T. H. Oliver, Refrigeration and Electric Sales and Service, Aurora, Ontario, an early worker in the field of agricultural, industrial and consumer technology.

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Donor:

G. Leslie Oliver, The T. H. Oliver HVACR Collection