Frigidaire memorabilia/trivia
Wright State University is my employer. (At least for another week and a half, as I am retiring from the position of Asst. Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, July 31st.)
We do have a large collection of Frigidaire materials as well as original written notations, diaries and photographs of the Wright Brothers.
My brother-in-law worked at the Frigidaire refrigerator plant in Dayton and Moraine (employed in 1966). He did cabinet assembly and then later was moved to compressor production. (He did a short stint as a substitute on the washing machine assembly line for a very short line, also.)
After Frigidaire was sold, he was moved to the automotive air conditioning compressor assembly plant. GM ultimately changed the name from Frigidaire to Harrison Radiator.
Other than Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Frigidaire/GM was the largest employer in the Dayton, Ohio area.
My particular interaction with GM, as a graduate student in the early 80's , was not good. I did my thesis study of "The Use of Specific Conductance as a Measure of Ground Water Contamination."
Frigidaire had an open dump at the Moraine plant and had placed excess paint, solvents, cleaners,lubricants, damaged appliance parts, etc into it for over 30 years and then covered it over with dirt in the very early 1970's.
The dump was across the street from the City of Moraine public water supply well field.
As you may have guessed, the pumps at Moraine were pulling in a plume of contaminants from Frigidaire. The city water was becoming laced with boron, benzene, and many VOC's, as well as other chemicals too numerous to mention here.
The City of Moraine contracted Wright State to Study the situation and make recommendation for remediation. (They did not bother GM or try to sue them as you don't want to offend your single largest employer in the city.)
Frigidaire/GM would not cooperate with us and would not allow me onto their property to drill a monitoring well. So we drilled one about two inches outside of their fence. My water samples from the aquifer were about the color of apple cider, smelled like lighter fluid and developed a head when shook up (due to detergents in the water).
Of course by the time time the plume reached the city wells, it was diluted enough that it was clear, but our lab samples indicated many contaminants well beyond EPA limits present in the public water supply.
To make a very long story short, we basically recommended to Moraine they could do nothing but shut down their wells (which they did and tied into the City for Dayton for their water supply).
My brother-in-law was working at the Moraine plant at the time I was doing the study. We found that GM was using wells on their own property for their internal water supply of the plant, including the drinking fountains for employees.
These wells were in very close proximity to the land-fill.
(Needless to say, my brother-in-law warned many of his co-workers to not drink out of the fountains.)
Compressor production has now stopped and the part of the plant converted to SUV assembly has now also been shut down.
It is very sad, and gives me an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach, as I drive by and see abandoned buildings with acres of empty parking lots with weeds growing up through cracks in the asphalt.
Most of the building in downtown Dayton have been razed. Including Frigidaire's first administrative building, which was one of the first commercial building in the world to be air conditioned.
We had an appliance dealer, Roberds, that at the time, sold exclusively Frigidaire Appliances. The store was located near the Moraine plant, in West Carrolton, and had a tremendous business selling to the Frigidaire employees, whom received a discount on all Frigidaire Appliances (and GM cars) provided by General Motors to its employees.
Roberds is now bankrupt, Frigidaire is gone, Moraine Assembly has vanished and what remains of GM's Delphi plants in Dayton are in trouble.
People like all of you who collect and restore Frigidaire appliances, keeping a part of our heritage alive, are the bright side of a dreary picture.
So keep on....!
Barry
